Recognizing Accomplishments

 

After a long hiatus on this blog, I’ve been working hard to pick up the pieces and get back to blogging, I’ve some how managed to keep the followers who I am incredibly grateful for sticking with me all this time, and even gain a few new ones. But as I struggle through month eight of edits, I’ve begun to feel as though I haven’t really accomplished much of anything this year. Seven months now into the new year and my promise to get back to being a daily blog or at least a weekly blog has failed on numerous occasions and the fact that I’m still only on my second draft of my novel which was finished back in November does little to make me feel as though I’ve accomplished very much in these past eight months.

But then… I stop. I actually think about it, and I realize that while it doesn’t seem like it, I’ve managed to accomplish a bit more than I give myself credit for. I wrote the better part of my first draft in two months, then I spent the next 22 weeks preparing for graduation. In the quarter before my final quarter I had an internship which was both exciting and terrifying in equal measure (at least at first). I created a portfolio and a thirty-two page magazine from start to finish in which I did all of the design work, typography, and writing work, and even the vast majority of the photography in the magazine. And somewhere throughout all of that I also managed to graduate. I got to talk to a lot of amazing people at portfolio show and I really actually enjoyed myself more than I ever could have imagined. Now I’m off to new adventures. I’ve been applying for jobs all over the country, and in the meantime I’ve been trying to work on finishing the rest of this draft and hopefully being able to have a finished manuscript by September. By which I mean ready for beta readers.

Sometimes when you’re in the thick of it, it’s hard to recognize just how much you’ve actually accomplished. The small, seemingly innocuous accomplishments get pushed aside and all you can think about is everything you haven’t done.

So this one’s for you. This article is for all my fellow writers, bloggers, readers, designers, or what ever you do, who don’t feel you’ve accomplished anything.

Really think about it.

I bet you’ve done more than you realize.

PS: I can’t really promise that I’m going to be able to do daily again. I miss it believe me, I miss the structure and the sense of accomplishment that I felt when I did it, but it may take me a while. I’m still trying to get back into the swing of things, particularly not having school anymore.