Surprise! I’m back. (Truly a surprise to myself.)

I’ve been longing so much to create in some way but, with our new arrival, had also resigned myself to not creating for the next, oh, I don’t know, two years. My reluctance to create is not that I don’t have time. Indeed, even with a newborn, I’ve had time to complete my latest contract and plan out R’s fall semester, and July isn’t even over. This is thanks to my husband (whom I must always refrain from bragging about because that would be bad manners) and my wonderful parents, who are all able to pitch in and give me some time.

So why aren’t I using this time for myself? I’ve been scared of being interrupted. I’m fine with work being interrupted. I’m not fine with my creative processes being interrupted. Too jarring and quite upsetting. On top of that, I’ve gotten myself into a rut thinking that I’m a failure if I don’t devote 10000 hours to a hobby and master whatever it is I do.

Somewhere along the past few years (or maybe past few nights, because that’s what waking with a baby feels like sometimes), I’ve forgotten that every attempt does matter. Practice does add up, especially as I grow more cognizant of my past attempts. I’m old enough to start seeing evidence of that in my own life now. Furthermore, I’ve realized the importance of setting small and achievable goals: I’m less intimidated by the goal (since it seems doable) and more focused on the progress bar (the doing!), so to speak.

So here I am! Halfway through the year is a good place to start. I’m going to try to work on each of my hobbies / projects 5 times before the end of the year. With regards to blogging, I’m going to set a goal of blogging 5 times before the end of the year. This is post 1 out of 5.