Onwards and Upwards
Today marks the last day of the “10 Days To A Better Blog” workshop by Desk.pm. The workshop has forced me to look deep, answer hard question and I am much better off for it.
Coming into this workshop, this blog had a handful of posts published and has been around since 2007. With a little motivation, this site has sprung back to life and is back in action. Continue reading “10 Days and I have a Better Blog”
At one time, my wife and I both worked. A few years ago she lost her job and has not returned to the rat race since. We agreed that she would stay home with the kids and wish we could have done this sooner. It is truly a blessing indeed. The home we have been living on was purchased with two incomes with the realistic possibility that I could still do it myself but things would be tight.
When we owned our first house we were up to our eyeballs in debt. Using Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover plan, I was able to break free of all debt except for the mortgage. Continue reading “Rightsizing”
When I declared my 2015 goals, I said I would write more. I did not specify how much I would be blogging this year, I just said I would blog more. Meaning, that just posting this today would mean that I fulfilled that goal by blogging one more time.
I know better, I need to create SMART goals. Continue reading “Blogging Objective for 2015”
If I had 2014 goals, I cannot say that I remember them nor any from the prior years. By publicly writing out my goals, I will have a record to look back on next year and I will have sense of accountability to maintain them. Documenting these goals forms the basis of a plan that will be a road map for decision making in the new year. Personal goals are like setting a mission and our resulting actions should be to support that mission.
Not writing goals down makes it much harder to follow them. The truth of the matter is, life happens, distractions occur and this is why resolutions made at the beginning of a new year are laughable by many. Continue reading “My 2015 Goals”
There is a big elephant in the room that I have been avoiding, which is updating my about page. It is important to write a good About page, as it is by far the most visited page of any blog. This will give my audience a chance to connect with me as a person to let everyone know that I am also a human being as well.
Over the years, I have changed my about page to tell a deeper story, then sometimes I scale it back to being less personal. I go through phases where I want to open myself to others, then I draw back a bit. As I have gotten more involved in the blogger and WordPress community, I have come back out of my shell a bit more. Continue reading “Rebuilding my About Page”
Over the past few days, I have been challenged to take an introspective look at myself as to exploring my strong desire for writing and how to do it best. I have blown off the dust of this old blog that has been around for a few years and began adding more content to it. I’ve concluded that I suffered from a sheer lack of focus.
What kind of blog did I want? I did not really know, I just threw whatever against the wall and was curious what would stick. This blog is in my own name, and I feel like I am such a diverse person with so many interests, Sup-a-Dillie-O summed it best:
…but I want to write about EVERYTHINGZZZZ!!!!!
When writing, coding or working through issues, a proper environment to engage your brain in such an activity is important. Optimizing such an environment conducive to maximum productivity at home is no easy task. Continue reading “The Creative Environment”
I love to create, much like photography, writing allows me to do that. From a young age I never used to like reading or writing. I spent a lot of time watching television and rotting my brain. Thankfully, one day I woke up and realized that there is more to life then being a slave to a device that aggressively robs the mind of an imagination. Now, I read both technical and fiction, thinking to myself, I can do this. I have the desire to author my own book someday.
For the time being, my focus is my family and cautiously growing and maintaining a career without putting the wife and kids in the back seat. As men, we have tendency to get carried away with building our legacy. When I’m lying on my death bed I doubt I’ll be wishing I would have worked more. Continue reading “Why I Write”
My blog has been neglected for awhile due to the lack of motivation resulting from doubt, frustration and hopelessness. I really struggled to find a reason for this site to exist, and when I first put it together I must have had a direction I wanted to go in the beginning. Continue reading “The 10 Day Writing Challenge”