5/05/2013

Reflections on Commitment

Another year of the A-Z April Blog Challenge has come and gone. In 2012, I signed up mere days before the Challenge began. In 2013, well, I knew it was coming and signed up quite quickly when the list opened up.

After 2012's scramble for topics, I figured I would try to be on top of it in 2013, have a great theme developed and all my posts written and scheduled in advance. After all, I had 11 months to get ready.

You already see where this is going don't you?

I certainly thought about themes and noodled various ideas in my brain, but couldn't seem to settle on just the right idea. In the end, since I mostly write about transitions, I thought I should just stick with my blog's focus and go from there.

So May, June, July, August, and all of autumn and winter fly by. In those months from May 2012 to March 31, 2013, I finished 17 years of homeschooling,  helped two sons with the college application process, did all that it takes to help them go away to college for the first time, started a business, our daughter got married, family visited, worked a temporary job the first half of April, continued home remodeling (okay, my husband mostly did that part), and on and on. Not one post was written in all those months.

But, I made a commitment. I made a commitment to myself and the hosts of the Challenge that I would publish 26 posts in April, no matter what. Who would have thought so much would happen during the past year?

And procrastination. Who would have imagined I could manage to procrastinate over writing those 26 blog posts for a year?  (No laughing allowed.) I almost skipped a few days, I almost gave it up entirely a couple of times, but I made a commitment. I wasn't happy about the quality of some of the posts, but I published them with a mental apology to anyone who read them.

I love the A-Z Challenge. I enjoy reading other bloggers and seeing what they come up with for those 26 days. A large number of you were winging it, just like me. Thanks for that, it was a huge encouragement to know I wasn't the only one. I felt like we were ship wreck survivors hanging onto the life raft together.

2014 will see me making the commitment to write 26 April posts again, a challenge for a blogger who generally posts two or three times a week. Congratulations to all of us who take up a challenge and stick to it, no matter how painful.

19 comments:

  1. Yeah! You did it!

    Are you ready for The Nester's 31 Days in October?

    http://creeksideministries.blogspot.com/2012/09/31-days-of-awesome-relationships.html

    Way too fun!!!

    Linda

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    1. I'll have to check that out Nester's challenge. I am wrung out after 26 posts. Can I handle 31?

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  2. Great reflections Elizabeth. I always seem to promise myself that I'll write all my letters in advance. Then when April comes I do the all the day before.

    I find that I tell myself it's procrastination but in the end I find that that's the fun of the challenge. Well, that's only half of the fun the other half of course is reading all the great blogs including yours.

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    1. I am wildly impressed with everyone who had their posts written in advance. I feel if I did that, I'd have time to read more blogs by the other A-Z ers.

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  3. Congratulations, you did it! I'm so looking forward to the next year challenge.

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  4. Congratulations on finishing A to Z! Visiting, Following & Inviting you to my blog. http://whenkateblogs.blogspot.com/ Looking forward to 2014

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  5. The nice thing about the reflections post is that I find more blogs that I wasn't yet following. Now I'm following yours. Your post made me smile since it sounded so much like me in my approach to this year's A to Z. I thought for sure that I'd have it all done ahead of time and then things just happened. It's still fun though.

    Glad you made it through.

    Lee
    An A to Z Co-Host
    Tossing It Out

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    1. Thanks for making it all possible. Glad to hear you weren't one of the super-prepared bloggers, makes me feel there's hope for me yet.

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  6. Enjoyed reading your reflections! I can relate with the procrastination, although I did better this year than last, I think. All the best in the Challenge for 2014! Thanks for visiting my blog!

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  7. Congratulations on the completion of the Challenge also a good reflection post,

    Yvonne.
    A TO Z AMBASSADOR,

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    1. Thank you Ms Ambassador. Congratulations right back to you.

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  8. I enjoyed reading your articles.

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    1. You should join in next year. You can blog on characters or books titles from A-Z.

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  9. I enjoyed your take on the A to Z challenge. Good luck on the not-procrastinating thing! If you figure it out, you'll have to share the secret.

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    1. Thanks D. I write about procrastination from time to time because it is one of those things about me that drive me crazy!

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  10. I think everybody, no matter how well they plan, gets tired and frazzled by the end. What I did, over the course of the year, was write posts about letters when they came up. For example, I'm a caretaker for my folks, so i knew right off, C is for caretaker. I wrote that post (and kept it in draft) last summer, shortly after LAST year's a-z. I wrote about two posts a month and stashed them, just keeping an eye out for interesting letter topics all year long. As April 2013 approached, I had only 2 posts I'd not written. If you think about the a-z all year, it's easier.
    from The Dugout

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