There’s a lot to be said for recycling beyond the environmental and decluttering benefits. You can learn a lot about yourself too in what you’ve collected over the years.

Last week started out great and I had big plans to get a ton of writing done, and a handful of websites updated. And then things started happening that I needed to pay attention to. Looking back now, it seems that all of it was headed toward one goal … to teach me a lesson about myself.

The first thing that got me taking notice was that my son’s computer finally quit on him. It wasn’t unexpected, but the timing couldn’t have been worse for him since he couldn’t afford to replace it right away. So rather than leave him without, I decided to clean off my laptop and give that to him. Going through all my files, seeing what I’d written over the past few years, and especially what I’d bought in terms of ebooks and courses was a real eye-opener.

Self-realization #1 – I am officially a digital packrat … There’s stuff here that I forgot I’d bought, never read, and a lot that I bought with the intention of using it and never took action. My mind has been going a mile a minute lately with ideas for articles and blog posts, ebooks and videos and all kinds of other good stuff I can create.

While I was burning all the files off the laptop onto DVDs for storage, I decided to start going through some stored boxes of paper files and see what could be taken to the recycling centre. And this is where self-realization #2 really got my attention.

It’s no secret that I have self-confidence issues. But every once in awhile I get the tar kicked out of me by the Universe, and I’m reminded that this wasn’t always the case and that I do have talents and abilities that are worth sharing.

In the bottom of one box I came across some tear out copies of book reviews that I’d had published when I was an undergrad. I started reading and was struck by the realization that I’m a pretty decent writer when I want to be.

In another box, I found an envelope full of old check stubs and bank statements from when I first started this internet marketing gig way back in 1998. They were a good reminder that I was a pretty decent affiliate marketer and newsletter publisher at one time as well. I’d totally forgotten about those days in the wake of the lean years. I’d let my lack of self confidence convince me that I didn’t have anything to offer that could compete with the “gurus”.

Seeing the evidence that yes, I did know what I was doing at least once in my life gave me the motivation I needed to pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again. (I think there’s a song about that somewhere!) I’ve been agonizing over how I was going to make my writing habit pay for itself, and it seems that I’ve been worried for nothing. I did it once before, and I can certainly do it again… only better this time. :)

And to do that, I’ve decided to set myself a goal of writing 5000 words a day. Between journalling, blogging, and all the article and report-writing that I do on a daily basis I figure I must be pretty close to that now. I just haven’t had the confidence to post a lot of what I write because I’ve always worried about whether people will like it or not. I still haven’t figured out where and how much I’ll post every day, but I’ll definitely post the word count here at the end of the day.

There’s one more bonus that came out of giving my laptop away…. I now have an electronics-free writing space where I can scribble to my heart’s content.

All in all, despite the stress of the situation, it’s been a good week. :)

Photo Credit: Septober

The theme for Thursday’s Photo Challenge is “writing” — something I have done entirely too little of lately. :) But that’s about to change. I started writing out my plan for 2010 last night, and to be able to achieve all the goals I’ve set, I’m pretty much gonna have to write my little fingers off for the next year or win the lottery. And since I don’t play the lottery, I’ll give ya one guess what it’s gonna be. :)

So this is my writing area… It’s pretty bland looking right now, but I’m hoping to convince my son to put a fresh coat of paint on it over his Christmas break.

But as far as the writing goes today, you can see by the blank page just how much I’ve got done so far this morning. :)

I guess that’s a pretty good hint that I should probably go and get some work done!

Have an awesome day!

So, the idea behind the Monday outlook post was to set myself up for a more productive week. Now that the week is over, I can report my results to you…

I failed.
Miserably.
Brutal would be an understatement.

Out of the eight challenges I set for myself, I met two and a half:

1. There is new content on the Thoughts of Christmas blog. (challenge #3)
2. I went wandering down one of the river paths and took some new photos. (challenge #8)
3. There is new content on The Acorn Stash blog, and on this blog. (challenge #6 – considered only half done because there are still more blogs that need new content.)

It’s an improvement over last week since I only completed two challenges last week. But it’s still brutal.

Am I embarrassed? You betcha. But more than that, I’m seriously ticked off at myself. Mostly because I have no excuse other than that I was totally, utterly, and completely unmotivated to write. And so I didn’t.

It’s not even like I can say I had a ton of other stuff to do because I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even step foot outside the house all week until I went out Friday morning to take pictures and get groceries.

If I’m really honest with myself, I think I have to say that I’ve lost my passion for internet marketing, at least the way I’ve been doing it for the past several years. The whole keyword and market research thing has left me thinking that there has to be something more. I think for awhile I’d much rather write on the topics that interest me and make me happy, and hope that they interest you and make you happy too. I realize that I won’t be able to please everyone, and quite frankly, I’m okay with that.

And now on a more positive note…

I had no problems being motivated to train this week. With some great results, I might add! After just one week of weight training and cleaner eating, I managed a 4 percent reduction in body fat. So the week wasn’t a complete loss. :)

And I do plan to do better on both the challenge and content creation fronts this week. I’ll post my plans for the week as soon as I have them figured out, so stay tuned.

And have a wonderful week!

Here’s a summary of this week’s content:

Some Thoughts of Christmas Traditions
Christmas Shopping Survival Tips

New Wallpapers For You

Monday Morning Outlook
Order and Chaos Side by Side