What have you learned about yourself through blogging?
I have learned more about what it takes to get a habit to stick for me, whether it be blogging itself, cooking healthy food, lesson planning, spinning, or barre.
1) Going for the Small Wins: I have had the tendency to set way too many unrealistic goals. I thought that to blog, I needed ten beautiful pictures per 1000-word post. I didn’t realize that I needed to scaffold my blogging to develop a regular habit of writing. Similarly, I needed to set smaller goals for getting to barre (the time-based packages make me want to minimize the cost per class, which can come at the expense of recovery). With cooking, I needed to become confident with simple recipes and make the habit of wanting to cook become automatic. When we moved to our condo, we ate takeout from Rudy’s, Kee Kar Lau, and Masala for the first couple of months so reverting to takeout became the default.
2) Refining Using Reflection: The very act of writing has allowed me to talk through ideas to myself (and to whoever reads here). I like to share ideas and am hoping to get more feedback on them in the future (similar to folks offering suggestions for improving recipes). I get a better sense of the big picture for my lesson plans and can better anticipate how they will be received after reviewing how past lessons went. I have thought more carefully about why certain recipes became favorites and others will not get made again.
3) Getting By With a Little Help From My Friends: I have learned a ton from friends’ blogs, running blogs, productivity blogs, cooking blogs, and lifestyle blogs. I also found that Facebook comments on my blog posts created helpful discussions and feedback.
