This is supposed to be the year of the dragon in the Chinese zodiac system. As a dragon, this year is supposed to bring me luck and good fortune along with a few other things…
Luck? I just found out I’m deploying for a second time in a year! How lucky is that?!
One of the worst parts of being military is the deployments—for me anyway. Others could argue that there is just too much political, butt-kissing BS involved in the whole system. Hell, you can say that about any job. To be honest, if you spent your time doing what you are supposed to do, you wouldn’t see that side of things. I believe the phrase is “staying in your own lane”.
At any rate, I’m staring down yet another deployment. We thought the last one was it for a while, but I guess that just isn’t the case. So, once again, I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. See, every deployment is different. We never know from one to the next if our internet is going to work worth a crap, if the phones work, where we are actually going to be, what we are going to do… and I’ll tell you, this one appears to be the 2nd worst yet. I have no clue what to expect. I hate the fact that I have to get there to find out how crappy (or positive) it is going to be, but I don’t have a choice.
What the hell am I supposed to do now?!
I got stressed after the news of leaving again. My family, obviously, is going to suffer yet again, but we’ve been through this before and we know how to work through it, even though it sucks. Business-wise though, I was having a mini-meltdown.
Do I continue to: blog, maintain Story Dam, work with Brandi on our business stuff, write my book(s), and a million other things?
Or, do I admit that I am indeed trying to do way too much and scale back and refocus?
Looking to the stars…
After much wrestling, I decided that I need to scale back and refocus, even though I really thought I needed to push forward this year. After all, as the year of the dragon, I assumed I was supposed to do grand, dynamic things in 2012. Well, I suppose I can still be dynamic, just as the guy behind the scenes and in a slightly new direction.
All that learning in the last year (plus) and I’m still ignorant…
Brandi is concerned because she doesn’t want me to stop blogging—to “quit”. Here’s the funny thing about it, I needed to do this last year and didn’t! I continued to read all sorts of advice about blogging better and marketing the way it should be done. I tried to learn from “the best”. I signed up for newsletters that were going to tell me how to do things better…
Well, I looked back at my original goals for this and last year and realized that the reasons I got online in the first place were writing and design. I have interests and talents that I set aside or threw away simply to try to gain Twitter followers, Facebook likes, boost my page views, and get sponsorships. I was doing what most of us do—searching for that illusive “keystone” that unlocks everything I wanted from blogging, when in fact, those things are sitting on the shelf collecting dust.
Here’s what I learned: as the description above says, I don’t think these blogging “rules” hold all that much weight for me. I think they make us follow “cookie-cutter” patterns. I like cookies, but let’s face it, you can’t live off of ‘em.
So what does all this mean?
It means that I am tired of following all the rules. I’m tired of trying to do something I am frankly not that good at, and I want to focus on giving you things you actually want. Yeah, that part of the description is also true. I’m generous to a fault. And I’m going to embrace it.
I’m still going to blog, of course . I still enjoy making fun of my kids (and yours), but it will only be on occasion from now on—maybe a few times a month. I have bigger and better things to accomplish. I have awesome books to write for you and your kids. I have great websites to design for you and your businesses. I have awesome ideas for bells, whistles, and baubles that you need to stand out and stop being cookie cutter. Not to mention, there is a kick-ass Etsy shop opening soon that needs a little TLC.
Year of the dragon? Luck? Fortune? Big, badass things for 2012?
You’re damn right. Only now I’m doing them my way.
AWESOME dragon image retrieved from: ht tp://www.google. com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1286&bih=598&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=b_jg_jH9Hg2h9M:&imgrefurl=https://www.updowner.com/225/decorative-frame-vector.htm&docid=KKCgWqBkVHp95M&imgurl=htt ps://lh3.googleusercontent. com/-Wxgf5q-Le9s/TutmXI-jP-I/AAAAAAAACBE/DddmPgMjzmQ/2012.Year.Of.The.Dragon.Vector.1-aiovector.c om.jpg&w=512&h=410&ei=jmw4T7i0OsWe2AXLk4WHAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=441&vpy=265&dur=315&hovh=201&hovw=251&tx=177&ty=125&sig=113452592809080402414&page=2&tbnh=127&tbnw=159&start=21&ndsp=25&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:21 – Dragon sign description retrieved from ht tp://www.usbridalguide. com/special/chinesehoroscopes/Dragon. htm
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