Z- It’s zee end of the my blogging streak & it is zee most wonderful time of the year

Oh my, until about middle of the day yesterday, I thought that today, Friday, was the last day of the month. I thought it neat it was that I would end up on the last letter of the alphabet on the last day of the month. All right, so I was wrong. Why not have the last letter of the alphabet on the day after my writing challenge ended and while I was on a roll, why not not use an actual word?

I set a goal for myself to blog thirty days- every day in the month of November. Welp, I failed, in the broadest sense for I did not end up blogging every day but I still succeeded in posting more than I ever have in a month. So sort of failure, sort of success? We seem to have a glass half empty or half full type of situation with regard to assessing the challenge. 

So many posts (for me anyway!)

Here are some lessons learned/ observations about writing more than I ever have:

    *Practices of discipline are good- whether it’s being disciplined about eating healthy, exercising regularly or engaging in a thought provoking pursuit like reading or writing more than usual, it’s good to stretch yourself physically and mentally. Obviously the extremes are unhealthy like over exercising, counting macros to a T and not enjoying any junk food, reading/ writing to the exclusion of spending time with loved ones or volunteering. But excluding the extremes, I think being intentionally disciplined in many areas is good. 

I might add, for me, I think strict discipline is good for at least a certain period of time. I have been a regular exerciser my entire adult life but only periodically go through times of being disciplined with eating healthy. 

    *I learned that I can write quickly when I need to in order to post something timely. I have some ADD-esque tendencies. I start something and then can tire of it quickly and move onto something else. When I start to write a post, it is not uncommon for me to abandon it for a day or two and then come back to it. When I committed to trying to write a post every day this month, I realized that I could not abandon it for a post for a day or two. I realized that I could write a post in a fairly short amount of time. Granted, most posts that I wrote in November were not long but it still took thought to come up with an idea about which to write and then to write it. 

    *I learned that I would not want to take the time to write a post every day or even five days a week. There are just other things that I find to be worthwhile pursuits that take time. I enjoy writing but I’m committed to a number of other things and don’t like the pressure of having to post (even though of course I did not have to post). I think my normal average is posting about three times a week. I will plan to go back to that. 

    *Related to the above... changing the way I spent some of my free time (by writing) in November reminded me of something that I read years ago. Someone wrote something to the effect of, “Saying that you don’t have time for (such and such activity...) is not correct. It is that you don’t make the time for it.” Saying that we don’t have the time for something is really just saying that it is not enough of a priority for us. I am guilty of saying it. For instance, I would love to crochet. When I discuss it with a friend, I express my desire to do it but almost always add on that I don’t have the time to learn it. Of course I have the time- it would require reallocation of how I currently spend some of my free time but I have the time. Short of the person who works insanely long hours and/ or has a huge commute or someone who has an unusually demanding caretaking responsibility, people have time for a decent range of recreation activities. But obviously not all of them ;). 

I have the time to continue to write every day, but I do not plan to use my time that way at this point.

    *It was unplanned but I read the book Atomic Habits in November (I was on a waitlist for it at the library and it became available to me early in the month). It was interesting to read about habits when I was (temporarily) engaging in a new habit! I can’t say that I implemented any of the suggestions (or even remember them a few weeks later...) but so much of what the book said resonated with me regarding the habits that I have.

Now that it is ZEE most wonderful time of the year, I have a number of time constraints but they are all good- spending more time with family, baking more than usual, shopping more than usual, more get togethers than normal, etc. I love this time of year and hope to make the most of my time with family and friends. 

I do plan write a Friday Photos post tomorrow. I have missed documenting the every day ordinary. (Writing a post entitled Friday Photos on Saturday sounds on brand for me lately ;)).