the 20-minutes-a-day experiment

I'm in week seven now of "It's Business Time." ("It's Business Time" is the group coaching program I crowdfunded in order to take, a month and a half ago. My thoughts on week one of the program are here.)

Week seven! That's crazy. Where does the time go?!

Anyway, today is Friday and every Friday the group of us meet on Uber Conference and talk for an hour. In our call today, my question for the coaches was, "I want to help people with their social media, as part of my business, but I don't want to be a social media expert who has no life outside of social media. I want balance. Can that exist?"

One of the coaches, the rad Tiffany Han, replied by challenging me to find out for myself. She said, "Try only going on social media for twenty minutes a day, for the next two weeks, and see if you're as effective on it as before."

"Does that include writing blog posts, or checking email?" I said.

"No, just the platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest."

I tried to bargain, saying, "Well, how about an hour a day?"

"Nope." Tiffany was firm. "Twenty minutes."

"Fine, fine!" I said, laughing. "I accept!"

And to be honest, as much as it scares me, the idea also excites me. I've gone off social media other times, for various lengths of time. And I've tried to just be conscious of my use of it, and limit that use. But I've never done it exactly like this before.

The idea is scary, because although I hope for balance, I definitely fear that in order to use social media for business, you need to be on it all the time, that you need to be available to people all the time.

But what if that's not true?

And what if I can learn methods for balance, and help other people with this 'pain point'?

We'll see. Twenty minutes a day, here goes!

when I started

This pin.

And this blogger. Aaaand this one too.

What do these three links have in common?

They light up my fingers and my brain, at the same time, and they make me go, "OK, write, now."

Yes, in bold.

I've been thinking a lot lately about ... other ways to say, "I've been thinking a lot lately about..." Any tips?

Haha, but seriously, what I was going to say there was, I've been thinking a lot lately about blogging, and about getting back to what brought me joy with the medium, wayyyy back in 2002 when I first started putting my thoughts out into the interwebs.

In the meantime, so much has happened.

I mean, I wrote my way somewhere, through thirteen years of living. For three of those years I wrote my way through a question, "What if more people thought positively about Cape Breton?" I shared parts of my life and shared parts of others' lives. There's a real bulk to all of that, that I can look back and really see.

And then, in December of 2014, when I decided to stop writing Dream Big Cape Breton, I turned a corner in the writing, in the voice I used to put myself out there in world. And I stopped, for a bit. I felt like I had reached a wall, and couldn't go forward yet, because I knew I wanted to change things up, but I didn't know what that would look like. So I just kinda... stopped. And started, and stopped. I had just moved into a new home but hadn't put anything up on the walls yet, or moved in furniture, or done much besides sit and stare out the window. Because I was scared. I felt like "people" were watching and waiting, to judge.

Now I see. After just one week of posting daily, about whatever I want.

I see that I want to keep writing my way along. It's a slightly different voice, than it was before. But it's still my voice. In fact, it's more my voice, now, than it was before. If that's a thing. Being more or less a voice.

So my question for myself is, what brought me joy back in 2002? 

Words? Truth? Telling stories?

Truth be told, I'm not overly SURE what it is exactly about blogging that brings me joy, I just know that there is this feeling I get when I am writing. When my fingers are tapping away at the keys. It's a mix of "I'm in the driver's seat here!" and "Wheeeeeee!!! I'm just along for the ride" and "Hmmm, what's around this corner?" and "What time is it anyway? I'm not even paying attention." It's a good feeling. It's exhilarating.

And I know that when I let the voices in my head start to go on about "Well, who is really reading this blog? What do they want to hear about? What should you write about?" and worry about all of it, that's when the writing dries up. That's when the joy dries up.

Erin Loechner writes in her amazing post, "why I blog":

It’s selfish, perhaps. But this year, something shifted. I began blogging for me again. To connect with myself, my own voice, my own story. To document this time of growth and learning and perspective. To think deeply about the legacy I want to leave my daughter and to allow myself the grace to grow into that new version of myself – one that isn’t measured by pageviews and valued by comments. One that is littered with intention and thought and gentleness with words. One that is slowly realizing she was made fearfully and wonderfully, created for a purpose.

One that is finally understanding the importance of telling your truest story.

"One that is littered with intention and thought and gentleness with words."

I love that.

And I love blogging.

And that is all I need to know, right now, and always.

Picture at the top of the post is from this post by me, on my old blog, from February 2010.

My biggest fan

   This. This is what made my day today. A dusty, non-oscillating, basic fan. A fan that normally lives in our bedroom, but which I brought out, plugged in and set on my kitchen counter, pointing it straight at me while I finally got to the pile of dishes that had been crustily and greasily accumulating. On the first real hot day of the season. This fan made my day. 

True story...

... I like walking in the woods.  Even in my fancy-ish office shoes, on my lunch break. Especially with abstract face-painted garbage cans.

    

Most especially with selfies.

So new, so fresh!

So old, so mossy.

Remember when I said last Thursday that I was going to get random for a week? Well, that's what I'm doing. Also known as, doing the work. Right now, at this point in my life, with a full-time job, and a side hustle doing design (and a bunch of my time already sold to people who supported my crowdfunding), there isn't time for me to I'm not making it a priority to craft my posts here in this space.

It's kind of the blogging equivalent of just going for a stroll, as opposed to training and wearing gear specifically for a run.

The secret is that every stroll adds up anyway.

Supposed to sweat

   I was in yoga this evening and I came up into Warrior 2, sweaty and disheveled. My first thought was, "oh no! I'm all sweaty!"

My second thought was, "This is a yoga class, you're supposed to sweat."

The point is to sweat. The point is to work the body. 

Similarly, in blogging, the point is to write. The point is to share little snippets of life. Not to hoard the good ideas or the short, one-thought posts, but to put them out there.

That's why it's called a practice.

You gotta do the work

   I've been collecting this pile of sticks for as long as we've been in the house -- three years. I've also been staring at this pile of sticks, from my kitchen window, for as long as we've been in the house.  It's brush we've cut from shrubs around the yard, and piled up, always saying, "We'll put it in the truck and drive it to the dump... someday."

Well, the lesson I'm re-learning these days is, someday IS now. Today is the someday from a few years ago. And the "someday" of right now? It's probably a lot closer than I think. A year, two years, they go by so fast.

I had a lazy day today, but in the evening I felt antsy and needed to burn off some steam. I put on my rubber boots, went into the backyard and down to the pile of sticks. I brought the green bin. I cracked and broke the sticks and put them in the green bin, until it was full. Then I kept on breaking and cracking, and made another pile, one that could go in the green bin when it's empty again next Friday.

Lately I'm excited because Elise Cripe's Get To Work Book is in the mail on it's way to me. One of the phrases she's using in her promo is "You gotta do the work." And that's what I thought as I was breaking and cracking all these sticks. The backyard I want, with a pretty little patio and a fire pit and nice plants, well, it's not just going to appear. The brush pile isn't going to pick itself up and walk to the dump.

And, it's therapeutic! Aside from a few scratches from rose bush branches, I feel much better now.

sunshine + a baby

    Today I walked from my house on the outskirts of town, to downtown North Sydney. I met up with my friend June, and we walked from her place to the Canton Restaurant, which her family owns, for Dim Sum with our group of girlfriends. This picture above is June's brand-new 2-month-old baby girl, Emily, along with June's mom. The walk was so lovely. I'd been tempted to drive, so I could have a few more minutes snuggling with miss Mittens, the new kitten, but I'm glad I walked. So much resistance to exercise is in my head; once I get moving, it dissipates.

How was your Saturday?