A Reintroduction, A Break, and A Lesson Learned
A small reflection over the last couple of months without posting.
Hello again Medium!
It has been almost two months since my last entry here. Yes, I have been away for a while. In internet time two months is almost like an eternity. Two months is long enough for a casual follower to get a notification about a new post and think, “Who is this person and why did I ever follow them in the first place?
Hopefully, you give me the chance to jog your memory.
Life has been a whirlwind these last few months. We’ve had confrontation and issues rise up within the extended family. It’s been trying but the burden is lessened with a wonderful partner by my side.
My time in pest control also came to an end. I was working frantically as I closed that particular chapter of my life. I wanted to make sure I took care of my routes and customers the best I could to make the transition period as smooth as possible.
In other news, I’m also trying to grow a beard.
My wife and I even went on a cruise! I would highly recommend one. It was exactly the vacation we needed. My parents watched our four kids and we took off for a week. It was the first kid and responsibility free weekend we have taken in 9 1/2 years and it was wonderful.
After the cruise I started getting back into the regular rhythm of life. Except our rhythm is a bit new now. One reason I got out of pest control was because of the regular, unplanned 60 hour work weeks. I was tired all of the time.
This new job is giving me regular hours (which I know for some sounds like a prison but for me it has been freeing). I’ve been home at the same time everyday and I’m beginning to feel out how that will translate into family time, working out, writing, and community activities.
I’ve got to be honest though, not all was rainbows and butterflies during this time of transition.
During my time away from Medium I could have been taking time to hone my craft. I could have been writing daily, even if I wasn’t posting it. I could have been taking time to read the stories of others and encouraging them along the way.
I didn’t do that either.
I neglected to take the time to learn about SEO or to work on an email list or even to really work on my fiction book (although I did actually do some of that).
So if I wasn’t doing any of that what did I learn during my time away?
We go through seasons of life. It is okay to take a full step away from something, even when it is something you love to do. There are times we need to put the time and energy and focus it in other areas of our lives, and that is alright.
I also learned no work gets done if I’m not doing any work.
Revolutionary right?
I shouldn’t be surprised if after a period of time away I have lost followers, or if the words don’t flow as well. I shouldn’t be surprised that there’s no money coming in from this source when I’m not posting. No work forward will lead to no return.
It is good to be posting again. I can already feel the thoughts in my head calming down as they are finding a small outlet. I hope to be seeing more of you all regularly.
I’m excited for this new period of my life and I’m itching to test out the waters. It’s time to take a dive.
What have you been learning during this last quarter of the year? What are you excited about right now?
