Happy 200th anniversary to me!
I’m not that old.
But my blog is.
This is the 200th blog post I’ve published since starting my writing on this site (formerly Commander-in-She) back in 2017.
I celebrated How to Write 100 Blog Posts in March of 2019.
I Had Short Hair (And A Cheesecake!) When I Celebrated Post #100
The next 100 took me a bit longer.
Along the way, I refined my business goals, published a book, picked up some teaching gigs, and wrote a series of comedic sketches I hope to bring to the stage.
And I procrastinated. A lot. Because writing is hard. And often boring.
Despite writing 100 articles, I never really felt I could call myself a “writer.”
My blogging history is as follows:
42 published in 2017 (a strong start, excitement out of the gate!)
48 published in 2018 (in a groove!)
36 published in 2019 (not out of topics, yet)
27 published in 2020 (like everything else this year, I blame Covid for the decline!)
16 published in 2021 (umm… not sure what happened here, let’s blame Covid)
5 published in 2022 (fatigue? futility? farting around?)
That left me with 26 to complete before 2024 to get to the goal of 200. I had thought it was only 25 but along the way, I had somehow accounted twice for one of my least favorite posts – Fall is Like a New Box of Crayons (August 2020).
That realization almost threw me into despair. Yet another to write to reach the goal!
Could I do it? Did I want to do it?
What had led me from my strong start to full-blown writing aversion?
Perhaps it was the fear that no one really blogs anymore, do they? And who’s reading this stuff anyway? What’s the point of putting it out?
I referred to my own work (!) to discover The Positivity of Pointless Pursuits (April 2021).
Writing, for me, is a process that just happens to finish in a publishable product. I had become so focused on the product that I neglected to think about the benefits of the process.
Just like when I left my 20-year media career, in search of The (Unbearable) Freedom of Free Time (June 2017) I felt I was so full of ideas and thoughts and words that if I tripped on the sidewalk and fell, all those nouns and adjectives and non-sequiturs would come tumbling out of me and into the street.
Writing is how I access and make sense of those words. So, in May of this year, I recommitted to my writing and Living Life in Technicolor (May 2023). I was in the range of completing 200 posts by the end of 2023 if I kept up a steady habit.
I did for two weeks and then I didn’t.
Because, you know, that’s what happens when your Get Up and Go is Gone (June 2023).
I jump-started again in October when I decided to Look for the Helpers (October 2023). I regularly join a co-working call with creative colleagues on Mondays on Zoom. In a mere 20-25 minute “sprint session” x 3, I can conceive of, craft, and edit an entire article.
(Sarah, Jeff, and Andy – THANK YOU).
And yet, despite writing Grow at Your Own Pace (July 2023), I missed my goal!
My 199th and 200th posts will be published in 2024.
And that’s OK. Because it wasn’t really about the goal.
It was always about the words.
Along the way, I wrote about My Biggest Mistakes (March 2023) and The Importance of Boundaries (February 2022) and Confronting Conflict (February 2023).
I also wrote about being The Office Cauliflower (May 2023), Discovering Your Secret Sauce (December 2023), identifying The Icing on the Cake (also December 2023), Owning Your Chops (February 2021), and being The Kidney Bean in a Can Full of Chick Peas (November 2021).
An Errant Bean Inspired The Blog
It’s clear food motivates a lot of what I do!
The one food I won’t eat is venison. Writing Oh Deer (December 2023) helped me process the highly traumatic incident of hitting and killing one on a local highway.
It was never about the number of posts. It was about the benefit of the process of writing, of releasing emotions and providing thoughts into the world.
Words might not have brought me millions of readers or literary awards, but they have helped me express myself, connecting with like-minded others on the way.
If you’ve read any of the 200, I thank you. I hope at least one of these stories resonated with you.
Will I aim for 250? or 300? 500? More?
I’m setting no such goals. I simply want to write. It’s what I do.
After all, I’m a writer.
Valerie Gordon, the founder of career and communications firm The Storytelling Strategist, believes in the power of words and stories to advance leadership and team-building skills. Learn about her services or read any of the 200 articles archived in the blog.