Making Goals

My life was in a rut. I had been a stay-at-home mom for a few years. I lost my passion for what I used to do for work. I hadn’t figured out a new passion. I felt like I was getting rolled by technology. (Picture me standing in front of a large snowball going downhill gathering size and speed.)

I decided to take the bull by the horns. I made a goal to get myself together. I decided starting a blog would be a brilliant way to help me learn new technology (writing a blog, using a blog reader, improving photography skills, using photo editing software) while narrowing down what my true passions are. I challenged myself to one year/100 posts.

Guess what? It worked. Don’t get me wrong. I went through a dark phase where I felt totally lost. I felt scared, stupid, amateurish, unimportant and bored with it all. But I also learned the following:

* It’s ok to be a pretty good seamstress/knitter and not an expert/indie patternmaker/tutorial writer/book author

* It’s ok to have a wide variety of hobbies

* It’s ok to not do any hobby at all for weeks at a time

* As much as I love my hobbies and all the wonderful friends I’ve made through them, my hobbies are not my life’s passion. I will always enjoy knocking out a sweater, sewing up a quilt, and scrapbooking about my boy’s childhood. But I don’t want to have a job doing my hobbies.

* Writing is for me. When I stopped trying to impress, my blog was fun and helped me sort myself out.

* Just because I don’t have anything big and new to share with the world doesn’t mean I have nothing worthwhile to contribute

* I’m pretty clever to have figured out how to choose a blog host, use blogging software, add sidebars, upload photos, and so on. Yep. Pretty clever.

My big news is, I got a job. It’s part time. I still have a million issues to iron out with my child’s transition to adulthood, so 12 hours a week of work seems perfect. I don’t know if I will still blog, or still blog here about hobbies, or if I will stop by here from time to time and add posts. I am very proud of myself for trying it at all, despite how stupid my mother thinks blogging is.