Five years ago I started my blog, Coconuts and Canines. I was sitting in my room in a suburb of Nashville wanting to pursue a travel writing career. Earlier that year I had taken a travel writing course along with other writing classes from The Porch.
I named my blog, Coconuts and Canines, to indicate ‘travel’ and because both my dog and I love coconut. Canines because I wanted to travel with my dog and write about our adventures. Unfortunately, work got in the way, a lot.
Looking back I’m not sure what I could have done differently. Sadly, I have this heaviness of guilt whenever I do something I enjoy. I will put off something I enjoy telling myself I don’t deserve it or I should get to it later because something ‘less fun’ needs to be done first. This was the mentality that I grew up with on the farm. Work first, play second and make sure ALL work was done before you even thought about ‘playing’.
What an awful way to live life.
I interviewed a rock climber this summer and she carried with her a hackie sack. I asked her about it and she said, it was her way to make sure she always included ‘play’ in her day. I think that is incredibly important and a beautiful way to live life.
Now, as December is quickly passing before us, I struggle with putting what I want to do first. I am caring for my Mom who has Alzheimer’s, her needs constantly come first. If you do not know what it is like to be a caregiver for someone with stage five Alzheimer’s, it is very similar to taking care of a three year old. Thankfully she is usually in bed around 8:00 pm, but often by then I am drained and exhausted.
But, I am also drained and exhausted from not growing my blog the way I had expected when I started this journey five years ago.
This past summer I attended three writing conferences. I realized quickly I was sitting in rooms of people who were making a very comfortable living for themselves with their writing. Some had less experience than I had and yet I was working a job I hated. Then in June I needed to take over the care of my Mom and did not have easy access to the internet until the week of Thanksgiving. It make trying to build a writing business extremely challenging and I became incredibly discouraged.
One of the goals with my photography and writing was for it to allow me to live anywhere I wanted. As I sit in the northwestern region of Wisconsin and there have been a series of negative degree days outside, I am reminded why I enjoy cold winters in photographs. Living in Tennessee helped me discover I am not a fan of the harsh cold weather that exists in the Midwest.
This past week a friend called me out as I was expressing to him my frustration. He refused to let me call myself a failure or a ‘F-up’. He kindly suggested maybe I lacked focus and with a routine or regimen, I could get on track and start seeing success.
I meditated on his advice and the next day woke up with a plan. I’m not sure what it will look like a year from now. However, I do know, my blog will have more entries, more pieces will be published on Medium and I will pursue more copywriting and photography clients.
To get started I bought a desk calendar and turned it into a wall calendar and filled out the month of January. I dug out my planner and filled out the upcoming days and weeks. In this process I also added this information to my phone. Then I got out a large index card and wrote out what I want to work on over the course of the next 30 days.
Once that was completed, I began to take action. I was able to get two articles posted on Medium this week, I was more active on TikTok and posted items to Instagram. The next step is to begin working out for a minimum of 20 minutes three times a week. I realize I should be doing an hour workout, but I need to start somewhere. I would rather set myself up for success with a 20-minute session than doing nothing at all.
Now, my question for you is, ‘what is it you want to be doing in your life?’ Whatever may be your heart’s desire, please learn from my mistake and start taking action today. Don’t realize five years from now you have done next to nothing to make your dream a reality.
Start with small manageable steps and create a routine. Write it out so you see what needs to be done and make sure you see that every day. Then take either a post-it note or an index card and write down three things you need to get done that week. If that seems to progress well and if you have the time, do three things a day.
Make your goals small so they become attainable. You will see the progress that you are making in just 30 days. In 90 and 120 days, there will be a significant difference. One year from the day you started will be a change.
I really believe anyone can make their dream come true. It takes hard work and sacrifice. No one’s journey is the same. We can all get to the top of how we define success. We just need to get up and start working on the plan.
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