Blog Attempt #2
We moved to Madison, WI from Seattle, WA the last week in August 2010. After a few months of getting settled, I had a great idea. “I should write a Blog about this life transition.” In the past, I thought the idea of writing a Blog was a cool idea, but I have never thought I had an idea that would generate weekly or monthly posts. With this transition, I thought, “Hey, I finally have an idea worthy of blogging about.”
The Reality: It is now March 2012, only 17 months later, I am writing my second post. (Don’t fall off your chair laughing too hard.) Okay, so much for the idea to blog about transition. Even though I wasn’t successful in my blog attempt, I have gained in personal understanding. First, I realize that I don’t want to post, for public consumption, my process of wrestling with transition. Going through the changes of a transition is hard enough. Second, I am gaining confidence in seeing myself as a writer, so I would rather write about thought-out subject matter, somehow that feels safer to me. Three, I still would love to write a successful blog. (Definition: posts on a monthly basis, practice writing for a public audience and provoke new thinking or ideas for the people who read it.)
Blog Attempt #2: My Writing Life—I think most would agree that I did not meet my original intention to write a blog. Based on this observation, I have many choices about what perception I want to form about myself and my writing. We each have the power to choose our perceptions even though we like to conveniently forget this fact. In this situation, here are my options as I see them:
Observation of Reality: Wrote one Blog post in 17 months about moving to Madison, WI.
Options:
- Perception: “I am a failure and I can’t write a Blog.”
Action: Take no action and give up trying to write a Blog.
- Perception: “I am a failure at writing a Blog, but I still want to write.”
Action: Give up writing a Blog, but choose a different writing goal.
- Belief: “My attempt to write a Blog didn’t work this time, but I could try again.”
Action: Determine what you learned and try writing Blog again.
I choose option #3. I see this as a sign of growth. In the past and on other occasions, I would have picked what I consider the easy way out, option #1. Owning that I have choice about my perceptions, helps me choose the perception to be most successful at what I would love to do which is write and the Blog forum intrigues me.
To be clear, I am not saying that Option#3 is always the best choice. For example, I wouldn’t say Option #3 would continue to be the best option if the reality is that I have attempted to start 4 Blogs and have been equally unsuccessful, and then option#2 would probably be better. And upon further failed attempts to write a Blog, I would have to admit that Option#1 would make the most sense. Again, I can choose the perception that allows me to be the most successful and bring the most meaning to my life?
What I realize in the process is that I like noticing how we all create meaning in our life based on our everyday activities. Perception is a powerful concept that impacts our everyday behaviors and the quality of our life. However, we often deny the power we have over our perceptions and fall victim to them instead. As we see from the simple example above, perceptions are the conclusions we have drawn from our life and self observations. Often we elaborate on these perceptions and turn them into stories about ourselves. As a result of these perceptions, conclusions and stories, we then choose how we react, interaction, behave, and see ourselves.
A Blog Theme: My Writing Life; how we all create meaning in our life in our everyday activities.
Let’s try this one out!
Side Note: For anyone interested in the transition, moving from Seattle, WA to Madison, WI, I will (attempt to) write the next Blog about that. Don’t want to leave anyone hanging.