How to challenge yourself to be a perfect writer

Ah, the relaxing life of the easy-to-come-by world of a learning-as-you-go blogger and photographer is so easy to achieve.  Let me tell you, as one of those L-A-Y-G-B-A-P, it is!

That is if you’re looking for that perfect good enough life.

It’s a life full of opportunities, with endless photos saved on your server, and thoughts that run through your head…you could ramble on, and on, and on, and write blog posts forever.

You literally float along in a happy blissful state every day.

Perfection right?

Nope.  I can’t lie to you.  That would be click bait…

Easy-to-come-by perfection isn’t the achievable goal.

A learning-as-you-go life is filled with challenges along the way that are only overcome by the person (me) doing the learning, i.e., by taking action to make it happen.  Take it from me, that easy-to-come-by world isn’t so easy some days.

Each morning, I show up here, ready, willing, and mostly able to complete the simple task at hand.

Write a blog post and include photos I’ve taken.

Sounds simple, and easy, right?

Not so fast!  The easy stuff doesn’t come right away!  At least not at first.

When I started out I found blog writing every day was a huge task for me.

I thought to my little ol’ self, “How in the world would anyone ever be able to write a post every day?”  That blinking line is daunting…and the action shot photo that turned out blurry only adds to the feelings of inadequacy.

Well, that sucks…  Each moment that happens the confrontational me, steps in and says, “Maybe I should just give up?”

The lifelong learner in me fights right back, “But…I don’t wanna give up…!”

So I’ve learned to change my approach by saying, “I don’t know if I know enough to do this, but I can learn how to write a post every day…I just need to provoke myself, maybe by practicing every day it will make a difference, and blogging will make me a perfect better good enough writer?”

So I set out to write every day for 30 days, then 60, and then writing became an addiction, aka, a habit.  Each sunrise of perfection is my opportunity to learn what works and doesn’t work.

I’m hooked on daily writing.  I’m not necessarily perfect better, nor am I a pro at blogging, or photography for that matter.  I’m still learning as I go.  And, a strange thing happened to me during the practice of writing daily.

 

I discovered that my life feels empty if I don’t write a post.  I crave ways to fuel the fire inside of me that burns as I continue to learn.  I want to keep filling that emptiness.

It was a different kind of empty feeling, not emptiness for inability to find words to write, but empty of feeling worthy of the ability to write.  I was holding myself back.  When I couldn’t find the words to write, I felt disgusted at myself.  Flashbacks of my tenth-grade teacher telling me I was destined to never be able to write flared up and kept the wounds from those words fresh, tender, and open to more hurt.  It was a horrible feeling.  When I realized that I could write every day, I felt stronger and proud of myself and my efforts.  And the fire inside me rekindled to burn differently.

I gave myself permission to feel pride in being able to improve myself while having fun with the task at hand.

I overcame what I believed to be my inability to write.  By changing it into a challenge to overcome, I succeeded at being perfect good enough to write every day.   I do the same with my photography.  I keep walking out this door with my camera in hand and I play, practice, and have fun.  And I try to catch nature’s perfection.  I know I’ll never be able to do sunrises justice.  But by capturing a photo of the moment, I’m taken back to the awe-inspiring moment witnessed while I was learning it’s okay not to be perfect to be good enough.

Now blogging and photography challenges are something I embrace with gusto.  Fueled by a cup or two of coffee in the wee hours of the morning, I’m fired up to write each blog post.  Each daily session where I grab my camera or I step up to the computer to write challenges tests my faith in myself and my ability to be perfectly good enough.  I’m happy to be a learning-as-I-go kinda gal!

Post inspiration – #MyBlogMyWritingStyle 30 Day Blogging Challenge (rules here) word prompt – challenges, and the question of the day “What challenges you about blogging?”

PS – What challenges have you overcome in life?  Whoa…that’s a huge question, um…how about what small habit have you created to overcome a daily challenge?  For those photographers out there…I took these sunrise shots with ISO of 400 – maybe 800 would’ve been better?  I guess I was just too into the golden glow of the moment…show me your favorite sunrise photo, share your link in comments!