As I mentioned in my blog post yesterday, back in May I had planned to kick-off a 30-day Blogging Challenge – it’s now August 21st…
All summer the “failure” of my not starting the challenge when I was “supposed to” back in May hung over me like a professional cloud. But I just couldn’t bring myself to sit down in front of the computer and start writing – I was so far behind the thought of starting was a daunting one.
But then it hit me – no one ELSE knew I had “failed” (well, my dad and brother did because I had asked them for topic ideas in May, but they still love me, they have to). But the bottom line was, even though I had put this task on my calendar to begin on May 1st, the fact that I missed the deadline didn’t mean that I was a failure and that I had to keep the starting clock at May 1st – I could just move the starting date.
So I did.
And you know what? At the end of the summer, when vacations were over and the kids were back at school, I looked at the calendar and said “Today (well, yesterday) is the day.” and I just started writing. I looked at my Blogging Calendar from May, changed the dates and gave myself a fresh start.
But here’s another tidbit that I learned – no matter what you do, you need someone external to you to hold you accountable if you want to be successful. Whether it’s a personal goal (weight loss, quitting smoking) or a professional one (finding a new job, launching your own business), make sure you have shared your goals with someone else that you trust that will make sure you stay on track. That’s not to say you need to pay a “life coach” or a personal trainer – but you need to pick someone that will be honest with you and keep you focused and moving forward.
I’ve found that meeting up with local networking groups is a great way to find people that will hold me accountable to my goals – and I can do the same for them. Because no matter what you’re trying to accomplish, there’s someone out there, not that far from you, that gets it, has been there, and they can help you too.
