{"id":3923,"date":"2016-08-26T04:18:43","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T09:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/?p=3923"},"modified":"2016-08-19T09:32:08","modified_gmt":"2016-08-19T14:32:08","slug":"three-years-blogging-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/three-years-blogging-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Years of Blogging…DONE!"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the beginning\u00a0of another school year, there\u2019s another start that is important in my life. Three years ago I started blogging<\/a> as Hectic-Dad. Back then nobody knew who I was. My family thought I was totally crazy. My IRL (I<\/strong>n R<\/strong>eal L<\/strong>ife) friends had no idea what a blog<\/i> was. In short, I started on a journey that not only didn\u2019t have a planned destination, but a journey that I believed I was going on alone.<\/p>\n

Boy was I wrong!<\/p>\n

Over the past three years I\u2019ve come into contact with a vibrant, welcoming community of folks from all over the globe. I\u2019ve met people who’ve had a huge impact on my life. I\u2019ve learned about subjects that I didn\u2019t even know existed. And more importantly, I\u2019ve found a place to take the thoughts that rattle about in my head and put them into a form that other people can not only read, but respond to.<\/p>\n

\"gift-444519_640\"That first post<\/a> I put out onto the internet wasn\u2019t much. A sparse 280 words. If you\u2019ve read any of my other posts, that\u2019s pretty much what I could fit on a Post-It note. I\u2019m verbose\u2026I get that. But that first post opened up a floodgate of ideas that had been stuck in my head for years. Twelve short months later I wrote a post<\/a> recounting my story of why and how I got started. I patted myself on the back for 106 blog posts. I was pretty proud of myself.<\/p>\n

Another twelve months in and I celebrated my second anniversary<\/a> as a blogger. Again, I nearly broke my arm patting myself on the back. By then it wasn\u2019t so much about the number of posts, it was already about the entire thing<\/i> that Hectic-Dad had become. I had a presence on Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, and Pinterest<\/a>. You\u2019d read about my kids and the various places they went to school, the sports they competed in, and the time that I\u2019ve spent on the road and at sporting events. You\u2019d also read about how we\u2019re always on the cusp of unraveling at Hectic Manor. And you\u2019d read about how we\u2019d pull back from the precipice just in time.<\/p>\n

So here I am, writing at the kitchen table with another year of blogging under my belt. As of today I\u2019ve published 325 posts on this blog, with a couple more already in the pipeline. I\u2019ve learned that I dare not post anything without spending two sessions editing. One for content and the other for grammar. I\u2019ve learned that the hard way by going back and re-reading some of my earlier posts. I\u2019ve even gone on a couple spells of editing the old posts because the pain of poor grammar is more than I could bear! I toyed with doing a word count on all my posts, but to be quite honest I know that you don\u2019t care. As you can see, I\u2019ve learned a little bit about the folks who read my blog! So I\u2019ll spare you those gory details, but I make no promises that it won\u2019t come up at a later time.<\/p>\n

\"cupcakes-690040_640\"I\u2019ve also discovered that blogging is hard. But more importantly, I\u2019ve discovered that doing anything consistently<\/i> is hard. You\u2019d think I\u2019d have learned that before this\u2026but somehow I dodged that bit of knowledge. Or I ignored it. Probably the latter! I\u2019ve learned that I can\u2019t just rely on my muse<\/i> to get me going. I know, from an intellectual standpoint, that I need to be consistent in creating content. That means writing on a regular basis. In fact, it really means writing every day. Of course, just because I know something in my head doesn\u2019t mean that I take that knowledge and apply it. Heck, I\u2019m lucky to write on two days of the week. But I\u2019ve gotten better about that. And it\u2019s something I\u2019m putting into my plan for this upcoming 2016-2017 season<\/i> of Hectic-Dad. I\u2019m going to work on being even more consistent with my writing. I\u2019m going to do a lot more dumping of my ideas from my head to my screen. Some you\u2019ll see in posts\u2026some will just get out of my head and not become anything more\u2026just words on a page. The idea is that I want to build a habit of consistency.<\/p>\n

You see, here\u2019s the dirty little secret that I keep trying to ignore:<\/p>\n

\n

Whether it\u2019s blogging or life in general,
\nyou need to show up, day-in and day-out.<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Some days it\u2019s easy, there\u2019s a spark and you\u2019re just really into it. Other days it\u2019s a chore to just get out of bed. Those are the days where you need to push through. While you might not be as engaged as you\u2019d like to be, or even as engaged as you should be\u2026you\u2019ve got to be there<\/i> to get anything out of the day.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s what this upcoming year is going to be about for me: Consistency<\/b>. I\u2019m going to strive to be consistent in everything I do\u2026blogging, parenting, even cleaning the house. I\u2019m going to show up, whether I feel like it or not! I\u2019m going to accomplish something<\/i> every day. While I would love to say that I\u2019m going to be engaged and alert<\/i> all the time, let\u2019s face it\u2026that\u2019s not life. At least it\u2019s not in the cards for my hectic life<\/em>. But it\u2019s a combination of the up times and the down times that make us who we are. Regardless of how I\u2019m feeling<\/i> every day, I\u2019m going to work on getting something<\/i> done. Consistently.<\/p>\n

While my end-results may not be any better, I might not write more blog posts, and dinner might not be on the table earlier\u2026I’m going to attack all of those things and everything else in my life each and every day<\/i>. I\u2019m going to show up and give it the best that I\u2019ve got on that day<\/i>. I\u2019m taking back some control, throwing away the excuses, and looking to be better than I\u2019ve been in the past. I\u2019m going to embrace the good days along with the not-so-good ones and apply one of my favorite sayings on a daily basis<\/i>\u2026<\/p>\n

\n

Make it a great day!<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"happy-birthday-1121665_640\"<\/p>\n

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With the beginning\u00a0of another school year, there\u2019s another start that is important in my life. Three years ago I started blogging as Hectic-Dad. Back then nobody knew who I was. My family thought I was totally crazy. My IRL (In Real Life) friends had no idea what a blog was. In short, I started on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musings"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThree Years of Blogging...DONE! -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hectic-dad.com\/hectic-dad\/three-years-blogging-done\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Years of Blogging...DONE! -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the beginning\u00a0of another school year, there\u2019s another start that is important in my life. 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