Thank You…
It all started with a blog…
Seven years ago I combined two desires together – my new drive to have ambitions, with one of these goals – my aspiration to setup a regular writing habit. I never quite knew where it would take me.
Now we are in the present, the first month of 2021 gifted me with more pages views on Perfect Manifesto, than the whole of 2014 combined. My gratitude to reach such a milestone is an understatement.
After getting over the desire to get over quick ‘viral’ pages views, I decided I was content with slow, steady, and sustainable growth each year, and I’m glad to say on the first day of September, I beat my yearly views, just narrowly missing out on reaching the target by the end of August.
I don’t normally write posts like this, but I just wanted to take the time to say thank you!
Thank you, not just for the page views, but also for the likes and comments, which I’m pleased to say are more than they’ve ever been.
Thank you to my loyal readers, from those who’ve joined recently, to those reading pretty much since the start.
Mostly, thank you for using your precious time to stop by my place on the Internet – I appreciate there is a lot of content to choose from, and am always grateful when people spend time looking at my work!
In regards to page views, I wonder when they will peak and drop, but am content knowing that people get something from the words I put out every week…
When Life Gets In The Way…
While I never like writing these types of posts, I have to say the last four months have been really challenging – I had a few ambitions this year to take my writing to the next level – a regular newsletter, writing for external publications, greater social media presence, and a few small guides.
Unfortunately these fizzled out by April – work and life pressures increased, and took priority over the recreational activities like this.
I’ve always had a saying for this – “Life gets in the way”
Life gets in the way when you have a plan to achieve a goal, but then something unexpected happens that means you have to adjust your course, or end up changing your goal all together.
Life gets in the way when you have a promising athletic career, but an injury puts your career to a stop.
Life gets in the way when you’re a highly successful person, but the pressure gets to much and end up having a breakdown and giving it all up.
Life gets in the way when you want to pursue drama at university, but your parents think you should go the safe route, doing a qualification that will give you a steady job, so you study business.
Life gets in the way when you plan to marry your high school sweetheart, but she ends up running off with your best friend and your left with wondering “why did I waste the last ten years of my life.”
I love the life that I’ve built, but have had to learn to accept, I get a lot of ‘Life gets in the way’ moments. To sustain it, I’ll have to make sacrifices spending less time doing things I enjoy.
There is no intent with this post to seek sympathy or being self-indulgent, in the challenges life brings me, and as always I try to take away what I’m learning from the situation:
Be compassionate to yourself
I can be pretty harsh and unforgiving to myself if I’m not pushing towards my goals. I’ve often spent time hating myself for wasting precious time, but I’m getting better practicing self-compassion.
Spend more time recognising the good things you’re doing, in hard times appreciate what you are learning, and what you would do differently in future.
My final approach to self-compassion is appreciating what I can do…
Appreciate what I can do
I’m blessed with the roles this life has given me, these can come into conflict and often, I have the difficult choice of choosing one.
It’s frustrating when I plan to get some writing done, but on the other hand I sacrifice this to be present as a father and husband, or sometimes I’m just recalibrating my mind so I’m more passionate and enthusiastic about my work.
Recognise it’s not forever
With age comes a wisdom about the scarcity of time, it’s a lot easier to appreciate how quickly two decades goes by when you’ve witness them go by as an adult.
With my challenges, they are not forever, they probably won’t even last the year. I can reflect on the end of the day stressed at the latest workplace bullshit, I can feel frustrated that a planned night writing was consumed by a toddler refusing to sleep.
But these are not forever, and when they pass these moments are gone – some will be times you never want to see again, others you’ll wish you could relieve them again.
That is life.
Until next time.
James @Perfect Manifesto
Perfect Manifesto 
Congratulations with what you’ve achieved so far.
Life definitely gets in the way but we just adapt the best way we can.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! There’s definitely that bedding in period to adapting!
LikeLike
Those ‘life gets in the way’ moments always seem to come at the wrong time for me, but I often look back and think they were sent for a very good reason, James. It’s great to read that you love the life you have built. I feel the same about my life. I’ve had many incredible moments from it and am thankful I’m still here enjoying every moment.
Congratulations on building up your readership too. It’s evidence that what you’re writing and publishing is content that people do want to read. Keep up the great work.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a very good way to think of it, I have those moments where I think if they hadn’t happened where would I be.
The growth in readers has been a motivation to ensure I keep schedule, I’ve put in a lot of work so don’t want to lose the kind folks who keep reading because I didn’t spare time to write new content and reply to comments.
Thanks Hugh for your continued support- I really appreciate it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Totally understand those “Life gets in the way” moments! All I can say is: keep going! Sometimes we get diverted into other things which may not feel better, but they turn out to be necessary – for our lives, our development, for our families… keep going! Don’t fight the river, flow with it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your kind words. I love the saying ‘Don’t fight the river, flow with it’ because I probably have been wasting a lot of my energy swimming against things that can’t be changed. This yearly is certainly help me change my perspectives!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right?! I think it’s been a huge mind reset for a lot of us! Me too! I’ve changed my thoughts on a few things!
LikeLiked by 1 person