One of the
goals of this blog was to get better. Not just in my writing but in other
aspects of my life. So far that hasn't really happened. Oh, I've met a few of
my goals, but only really the small ones. In light of that I've decided to
break from the more researched post this week to analyze the progress I've made
as well as what I'm doing wrong. Hopefully I can come up with some solutions.
I'll focus
on the writing aspect first, because it's the easiest to talk about. When I
started I had planned on doing one good article each week but it quickly became
apparent that I couldn't keep up that level of writing for very long on that
time schedule. So I took to every other week, alternating between the more
editorial posts and self-updates every other week. That's been working for me
so far. It presents a challenge, but along a timeline that I can meet. Two
weeks to write a post I can manage.
There are
two big hurdles to my writing that are presenting an issue: Finding something
to write about and my own insecurities. I'm one of those types that don’t like
repeating what's already been said, except where necessary. Generally when I'm
cruising around the internet I'm finding and reading news articles, press
releases, and tweets there are a plethora of good topics, but in my mind
everything I want to say has been said already. Often better than I could have
said it. You see how my own insecurities feed into my writing.
So how do I
overcome this? I have a feeling that this is one of those things where I just
have to buckle down and keep writing, no matter how I few what I write. They
say writers are their own worst critics and in my case it's definitely true.
And that solves both of those problems. Since I don't have trouble finding
topics to write about, only feeling that I don't have anything to contribute,
saying what I think about whatever topic despite that feeling seems like the
only thing I can do. Even at the risk of sounding (to myself anyways) repetitive.
Surprisingly,
I haven't had much trouble actually sitting down and writing. Some days I'll
write these posts, some days I'll just do a stream of consciousness and
sometimes I'll write a short story for a friends blog, but I am writing almost every
day which is meeting one of the biggest goals of the blog.
I haven't
had a chance at failing any of the camping goals I've set, but I am well on my
way to meeting them anyways so that shouldn't be much of an issue. I have most
of the budget put aside; I'm just currently waiting for my housing situation to
be resolved before I start gathering all my gear. I imagine once that's done
actually getting out to go camping shouldn't be terribly difficult, or at least
it will be easier.
Well, there
it is. As always the biggest problem I face is overcoming me. It's what I
consider to be my biggest character flaw. I tend to get in my own way as often as
I help myself along. I don't actually self-sabotage, but I do refrain from
making big decisions due to my own irrational fears.
