#NoGuilt 30 Day Blogging Challenge update

I’m a couple weeks into my #30daybloggingchallenge. I haven’t blogged every day.

What happened?

I finished the first 7 days. Returning to regular blogging was FUN! Just getting back into it opened up my creativity and my energy SO MUCH.

I tried to notice my old patterns that would stop me from hitting the publish button — eg writing something so long and complex that I couldn’t finish it. Feeling like my ideas were annoying or revealed something too vulnerable. Imposter syndrome. All kinds of inner critic stuff. Getting too strategic or in my head about it. Going into fantasy about how freaking amazing each post would, could, or should be. Lots of that came up and I pushed through.

But here’s another familiar pattern that I wasn’t watching out for:

If you don’t schedule time to write, writing doesn’t happen.

My first week was successful in part because my calendar happened to be fairly spacious, which is unusual for me. As an executive coach, many of my working hours are committed to clients months in advance. When I had the space and the intention, and was close enough to the starting line that I was remember how much of #challenge this actually would be, I stayed on it.

But the next week was busier. I started blogging at night after my kids went to bed, which meant less time with Roy. And more time in front of a glowing screen which meant more difficulty falling asleep and staying a…