This week was sort of successful. I missed my bimonthly professional LinkedIn blog, but I did manage to publish my flash fiction. And only 1 day late this week! (Just like this blog) This latest flash fiction was the first one I've done based on an event in my life. It's such a brief moment that it was perfect for a flash fiction piece, yet it was something that has stuck with me for years.

A few times this past week I've felt like my to-do lists were growing out of control. Which lead me to slightly panic, feeling like I was dropping the ball on everything. Or that all the projects were never going to get done. With the refreshing of this blog and a new client, I've added myself and my site hustle to my Trello board. It feels good to make these things a higher priority... however, now I just have more total to-do items to slowly chip at.

Today I started a new audiobook, The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. While it does come across in that cheesy self-help cliché style, it does bring up an important point.

Small changes build up.

I've related writing to running two weeks in a row now, so bear with me but it's a big focus in my life right now. (T-minus 22 days till I need to run that half-marathon)

By now, I've been back into running for 5 months. It's been easy to track quantitative changes like run distance or the weight on the scale but a little harder to see the qualitative changes. Lately, I've been pointing things out to my partner, like my weird cheekbones showing again, my hip bones having actual definition, or a general shrinking.

It wasn't a sudden change, it was so gradual that we hardly noticed. It wasn't a dramatic shift in my lifestyle either. But bit by bit I made the habit to run 3-5 days a week, starting off with barely 2 miles at a time. I also found shopping habits that work for me, mainly not entering a physical grocery store. I'm very weak when tempted with treats and if I don't even give myself that option, I can move past them.

For example, every time I've had to stop at our local specialty stores, I grab junk food. Partly because I never go there and "when will I get this chance again"... and to reward myself for leaving my house. To fight it digitally, I load up my Amazon grocery cart with chocolates on weak days and delete them that Monday when I do my orders. And have more self-control.

So bit by bit tiny little changes have added up. And they might with my writing. After all, I have seen it in the past. Several years ago I did a weekly release on FanFiction. I had a general chapter outline but no real care for its total length. When I was finished, it ended up being 88,491 words. That's a novel. I actually wrote a novel, chipping at it week by week and not focusing on the looming total.

The future plan: after I finish this current piece, I'll start on a novel and just keep chipping week by week. Which novel is up for debate, I have like 9 in mind. Bit by bit the to-do list will be chipped at and projects will wrap up. I can and should breathe about it.

Ps. Also, happy 3 years of marriage to me and my partner. I wrote a 3 part blog series on our choice to get married and why we eloped.