Well, hello there! If you keep an eye on my blog, then you may have noticed that I’ve been posting less recently. For this, I apologise, but I wanted to give an explanation. You see, the last year has been pretty busy. I know, I know, everyone is busy all of the time. But sometimes, when you’re so busy that you struggle to see how you can to get through the next day let alone the next week, and you’re constantly falling behind on your ever-extending to-do list, it’s hard to prioritise what’s really important in life.
In the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a number of clients writing on some fascinating topics. I’ve also been working hard at growing the author side of my business: I’ve published one full-length novel (with a second coming soon in June), two novelettes and two novellas. I’ve also organised a wedding and started co-hosting a podcast.
When I look back on it, I’ve achieved a lot. But it has come at a price, and that has been my outdoor time. It’s ironic that, by writing about outdoor activities and adventure, I’ve actually ended up spending less time doing them myself. I suspect I’m not the only writer and entrepreneur to have fallen into this trap…
So, I decided on some changes. I will be continuing with my client work – no change there. (If you need a hand with copywriting or content marketing, get in touch!) And I’ll still be blogging, but not every week. I’ll post something as and when I have something I really want to write about and share with you. This will still probably be once or twice a month – I’m not disappearing completely!
I’m also going to be consolidating my social media channels in an effort to rationalise my social media addiction. I currently have two Twitter accounts, one for the author side of my business, and one for the outdoor copywriting side. Moving forward, I’m only going to be using this one, but I’ll be chatting about everything. The outdoors and writing about the outdoors is as much a part of me as writing novels or podcasting, so why should I try and tear myself in two?
Update on my goals for 2018
At the beginning of the year, I posted my outdoor goals for 2018. Whenever you’re setting goals, I always think it’s worth reviewing them every couple of months. Life changes, what we are able to do changes and, perhaps most importantly, what we want to do sometimes changes.
Ironically, given everything I’ve talked about above, my main aim for 2018 was to spend more time outdoors. I’m pretty sure I’ve achieved this, though based on the end of last year, I was working from a pretty low benchmark!
The main thing that’s forced me to spend more time outside is the Isle of Wight Challenge. In a week and a half, I’ll be walking 104 km around the Isle of Wight (over two days). I’m pretty sure this is the toughest challenge I’ve set myself, and I’ve been training hard for it. Many of my weekends over the past few months have been spent walking, come rain or shine. And until recently, there has been very little shine and rather a lot of rain, hail and snow.
I’m feeling reasonably well prepared for the walk. Or at least, as prepared as I can feel. (I don’t think you ever really feel ready for challenges like this.) I’m raising money for Mind, a mental health charity here in the UK, which is been a huge motivator to get out and train even when the weather has been, quite frankly, miserable. If you’d like to sponsor me, you can do so here.
My second goal of the year was to hike the John Muir Trail. My husband and I had planned to do this for our honeymoon. We may have underestimated the logistical challenge this presented… I also discovered while doing all these long walks, that while I LOVE walking, I don’t really love having to go out walking for 8 hours in the rain. We’ve also both found that we’ve missed climbing. Really missed it. With work commitments and busy lives, there’s just not the time to do everything and because I’ve been spending every weekend training for the Isle of Wight Challenge, this has meant we’ve done next to no climbing.
So, we changed our plan! We’re still planning on going out to the States, but we’re hoping to do a month long climbing trip later in the year. We haven’t been on a climbing holiday for ages so I’m really looking forward to this. 😀 I’m also looking forward to getting some strength back and exploring more of the crags around where we live.
This will also finally force me to face head-on my incapacitating fear of falling. I haven’t quite figured out how best to do this yet, but I’m working on it. More on that another time…
I would love to be a superwoman who is able to do it all, but I’m gradually coming to realise that I’m not. We all have different pressures on our lives and time and have to prioritise what’s most important to us. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s that being outdoors is important to me.