Trying hard to fly like an eagle in the face of adversity.

Though I’m trying hard to keep from allowing it to happen, I find myself getting discouraged by the marked drop in readership since I changed blog platforms. Not that I don’t appreciate those who are reading! I appreciate you more than words can say! I’m really getting discouraged with myself because I can’t seem to find the magic bean which brings people here. It’s getting so bad that I find myself procrastinating. I put off writing my nightly blog post until I nearly talk myself out of writing it at all.

Fortunately, the need to write usually overrules the discouragement, but some nights, the race is uncomfortably close. I realize, on some level or other, that this is just another of those lessons which will give me the tools I need to promote my book even when I lack feedback, but that knowledge doesn’t make me any less discouraged right now.

When is a fault not a fault?

The one thing which works in my favor is something people might call a fault. I am an incredibly stubborn person; a fact my mother pointed out to me regularly, almost to her dying day. But this stubbornness has been a good thing for me too. It’s allowed me to stick with a problem until I figure it out on many occasions. It is, even now, encouraging me to persevere; to keep writing, no matter what kind of response I do or do not get. Even when I start feeling like I’m the tree falling in the forest while nobody is around to hear it, I continue to write; continue to blog. Why? Because there’s just enough of that stubbornness to see me through until I figure this problem out. There’s just enough stubbornness in me to insist that this is only a passing phase, and that only by continuing to update the site (that is, write posts) will I ever see anything change.

In some ways, it’s a lot like being an inventor. Take Thomas Edison for example: the first how many thousands of light bulbs didn’t work but his stubbornness allowed him to hold onto his belief that he could make it work; and eventually he did.

Look at how many businesses began in someone’s garage, and went on to become billion dollar operations. It never would have happened if someone hadn’t been too stubborn to give up after years of failures. Why? Because they learned from each and every one of those failures, and because they learned, each attempt brought them closer and closer to the success they knew they could achieve.

So for the Steve Jobs’, Thomas Edisons, and everyone else who continued to work on their projects until they found a way to make them work, thank you for teaching me that stubbornness will eventually drive us to find the answer. Thank you for showing me that giving up is not an option. Thank you, not only for the successful blog, but for the successful website and writing career which I know will be mine…as long as I persevere and never, ever give up!

My gratitudes tonight are:
1. I am grateful for so many wonderful examples of “failures” who never gave up and eventually succeeded.
2. I am grateful for another wonderful, sweaty night of dancing with my friends and kids.
3. I am grateful for the examples I can look to when my spirits are sagging.
4. I am grateful for the pain in my back from a long, full day which will be gone by morning.
5. I am grateful for my furry family, both new and old, who give me a million reasons to smile every day.
6. (yes, a bonus one tonight) I am grateful for the abundance which is available to everyone, simply for the asking: Love, health, harmony, peace, joy, and prosperity.

Love and Light.