Last week for the Free Printable Series I shared a quote. “Every achievement starts with the decision to try.” In the past, I’ve never been one to try new things. I was risk adverse, a little shy, and a perfectionist. That meant that if there was a risk of making a mistake or not doing something perfectly the first time, I wasn’t going to even try. The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realized how limiting those characteristics are. And I’m working hard to change. The perfectionistic tendencies have been the hardest for me to overcome, but I’m pushing myself and trying new things regardless of the outcome.
Trying New Things
Time is often an excuse people give for not trying new things. I know I have. But while I was thinking about the list of things I’ve learned to do over the last year, I realized that for me time wasn’t really the problem. It was lack of persistence. Maybe it’s the perfectionism I mentioned earlier, but I have definitely let myself quit in the name of not enough time, when really I was quitting because it was hard.
Don’t Give Up
I’ve tried a lot of new things over the last year, and most of them have been really hard. I thought about quitting so many times. I almost gave up on this blog before I ever even published my first post because the technical side was such a challenge for me to learn. I’m really glad I didn’t quit.
Growth Not Perfection
A lot of the skills that I’ve learned over the last year still aren’t where I’d like them to be. A lot of them are still hard, and there are plenty of days that I still think about quitting. Usually I save my self reflection for the new year, but I decided to make a list of all the things I didn’t know how to do just 12 months ago, and it’s pretty crazy to see how much I’ve grown this year. This is a broad overview of a few of the things I didn’t know how to do a year ago:
- how to use a DSLR camera and shoot in manual
- how to edit photos
- how to set up a blog
- how to code (I still barely do this)
- how to use Adobe Illustrator
- how to use social media to share my blog
- what SEO meant
The Power of Showing Up
I’m not here to say “look at what I’ve accomplished”, because I am a master of none of these things. I wanted to share with you the power of showing up. The power of 15 minutes. The power of once a week. When I think about consistency, I think of day in and day out, giving something my all. There were so many things that I wanted to do this year, but I knew I couldn’t give each of them my all. I know this goes against every bit of advice you’ve ever heard about productivity, but maybe sometimes we just need to spread ourselves a little too thin to discover what we are really passionate about. To discover what we are really capable of.
Instead of taking a few things off of my “to try” list, I decided to be ok with the progress I could make by giving just a little bit of my time to each thing. And I don’t regret it. I absolutely know that I could be much better than I am if I had chosen one thing, but I also know that I could have frozen myself into never taking action until that one thing was perfect.
I don’t know if it’s wise to live the rest of my life this way, but for this year it was good. We all have full, busy lives, but if there is something nagging at you, that you just can’t get out of your head, TRY IT.
Another New Thing
I’m really excited about the skills I’m learning, I’m having so much fun using them, and it’s exciting to see how they are spring boarding into other things. Because I’m not done with trying new things.
I wanted to share with you all first that I am officially a business owner! I few months ago I decided that I wanted to open an Etsy shop. It all started with my seemingly unending interest in learning new skills of all kinds. In the last 3 months I’ve been learning to:
- create hand lettered art
- create digital art prints
- create my own linocut blocks
- use those blocks to create art and textiles
Again, I am not a master of any of these skills either, but they bring me so much joy. I have more ideas than wall space, so I took the plunge and started an Etsy shop to share my designs. I am still in the process of getting the shop ready to launch, and I’m waiting for the last of the 3 business licenses I need to come in, but I hope to launch on November 1.
Thank you for following along with me on this journey. This blog is about so much more than journaling my home decor and fashion journey, it’s about discovering and diving deeper into my passions. I really appreciate my readers, the interaction that you offer makes the journey so much more fun.
If you’d like to follow along with my Etsy shop progress, you can get notifications by signing up below. I’ll also be offering a special discount code to my readers on launch day! You can also see behind the scenes by following my shop on Instagram, @happymhomeshop
*****UPDATE*****
The shop is open! Visit the HappyMeetsHome shop by clicking here, and use code BLOGREADER to save 15%! You can also still sign up to receive shop updates, like when a new product get added.
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