In review
My year in review 2022: The courage to do what makes me feel good!
2022 was like a tornado in my world.
© thewritingflow 2023
2022 was like a tornado in my world.
Do you write? I have always loved to read, but my passion for writing came later in life. Here are 80 and more reasons why you might consider taking up a pen and write!
Why didn’t I see it before? Why didn’t I notice?! This greyish stain on the large kitchen window – more like a glass front from kitchen to dining room. The stain is a little higher than eye level, I see it when I’m doing the dishes. Now I wonder how many days it has been there. I have seen it but not really noticed it. I can’t even tell how many days it has been there.
From my own experience as a working mom, I know that we often don’t take enough time for ourselves. We are there for everyone, listen, give advice, think five steps ahead and two steps back, meet colleagues and clients, are technically skilled and (usually) well dressed. How does she do it? we ask ourselves. Well, how do YOU do it?!!!
Eventually there comes a point in every mother’s life when mother-daughter history repeats itself: My aha-moment came last year around the time my daughter was turning 6-years old. She would spill a glass of milk on the table and run away in tears, hiding under a blanket, sobbing as if the neighbor’s red-haired cat had died. She would accidentally hit her brother in play – same reaction.
One morning I listened to the podcast of my friend Amel, an amazing entrepreneur and coach. She was talking about “how to break the glass ceiling without being broken”, a talk she was invited to give at the New York Local UN Spouse Association. She makes the point that women take on too much mental load, which crowds out their energy to spend on themselves.
The clock is running, I only have 30 days left on my 6-months sabbatical. I had wanted to finish the first draft of my book by the time I return to the office. I am not quite there yet (kidding, I am not there yet. Fullstop). But… I have a plan. And that plan is called that I challenge myself to write just 25 minutes a day, every day. And then I have 5 minutes of pause before switching to the next task (which hopefully is some more writing, but let’s start small).
It is September 8 and today I am starting my 30/30 book writing challenge!
30 days, 30 minutes a day. That sounds doable, doesn’t it? I have announced this challenge in my previous blog, the “If I had time off, I would write a book” lie and a couple of awesome ladies responded by announcing their own writing project they will tackle alongside me in those 30 days.
And this is basically already my first tip for creating and sticking to a creative writing routine.
I love the word eavesdropping. This morning I eavesdropped. Is eavesdropping even a verb? Anyway, this morning I overheard, while walking up the stairs towards the breakfast room of Haus Hirt, that the guests from rooms 32 and 33 will be arriving at noon. Pardon me? We are the guests in room 32 and 33. I know that for sure; I just left my sleeping kids and my husband in rooms 32 and 33 to go upstairs and write my weekly blog about my creative writing adventures. My month in review – August 2022. Suddenly it feels like I only have a few hours left of this wonderful month of mindful walking, creative writing, and eating splendidly. Then the family that is moving into rooms 32 and 33 will be here and take over.
I have a confession to make: I am not writing every day. I am writing a lot (hello, have you seen all the blog articles I have written since I started out less than 3 months ago?!) But I am not writing every day and I am certainly not writing my book every day. The non-fiction kind of memoir book that I wanted to write and complete (!) during my sabbatical. I have fallen deep into the “if I had time off I would write a book” lie.
© thewritingflow 2023
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