How To Be a Thankful Blogger

Hint…don’t get in your own way! Through a series of unfortunate events (aka Life) I took a blogging hiatus. I’m still embarrassingly green at all this, and as usual, life got in the way. Or, more to the point, I let life get in the way, but I’m not going to let that stop me from being a thankful blogger!

It’s painfully obvious I’ve missed my Thanksgiving Post entry for 2017 (insert sad face here). All the research I’ve done on “proper blogging” stipulate not to blog about this at all. That it’ll be a catastrophic mistake and simply move on to the next topic. But…I just can’t!

I blog, promote and live Authenticity. Not blogging about my faux pas seems dishonest and that just won’t do! Quite frankly, its been a piercing thorn in my side and I’ve been beating myself up about it for weeks. This, in turn, has led to an extension of the hiatus. As they say in the business:

BLOGGIN’ AIN’T EASY

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Particularly when one is “embarrassingly green”. Thankfully, I’ve stopped beating myself up. I’ve rolled up my sleeves! I’ve gotten back on the horse! I’m marching forward, once again! I’d like to envision myself as Joan of Arc here, but I don’t quite fancy the culmination of her endeavors, so I’ll refrain.

With dutiful adherence to “proper blogging stipulations”, I contemplated skipping this post. I pictured myself missing deadline (a huge no-no) with an ethereal specter in the form of Miranda Priestley (The Devil Wears Prada) looming over me, her pinched eyes bearing the look of someone who is about to give another someone, namely me, the SACK!

385 Life Reject, Thankful Blogger Failure, Not Meeting Expectations, Blogging Ain't Easy

I considered myself a failure at that moment, and as we women tend to do, I succumbed to the sadness of it all with ever such flair and drama. Then I realized something, my own freaking advice! #2 in the 385 Guide to a Happy Life: Perfection is Pointless, peppered with a sprinkling of #8: Don’t Get Caught in Analysis Paralysis.

It finally hit me square upside the head that I’m at the helm of this Good Ship Lollipop and it’s only going to sink if I let it. Plus, if I make a mistake, which I will, then so be it! Learn from it I must and forward I must keep going. Besides, no one can actually fire me from this “position”.

Instead, I took a big-bad-wolf deep breath and blew away the specter of Miranda Priestley. I might have been lost at sea for a while, but my sails seem to have found the wind again, along with some insight. I asked myself a very important question:

WHY WAS I SO UPSET ABOUT THE “MISSED” DEADLINE?

I came up with the following:

I was terribly disappointed with letting myself down for not meeting deadline, and…
Everyone knows you can’t post about a holiday after the holiday.

To address the first issue, I had to acknowledge my disappointment and its own Nugget of Knowledge: I defined my publishing blunder as equal to my ineptitude for this business altogether. Basically, I couldn’t hack it and who did I think I was to think I could.

Despite my own 385 Guide to Happiness, I fall prey to self-deprecation as easily as everyone else. Apparently I’m only human.

Falling prey to it is one thing, allowing it to ensnare me for all eternity is quite another.

“Yes, I’m a novice. Yes, I’m new to this game and, Yes, I have a lot to learn, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hack it.”

My Perpetual Student Life Philosophy was going to have to get back to basics. I was gonna have to go old school and crack open some books.

With regard to the second issue, I asked myself, “Why can’t I post about Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving?”

After giving it much thought, I concluded I was looking at it all wrong – purely from an Editor’s standpoint, and with a sneer to match, I realized…

I WAS MIRANDA PRIESTLEY

And I’d forgotten that I’m Flawsome!

In all fairness, if this were Oprah magazine I’d be put on probation for missing deadline, but the 385 Life isn’t Oprah magazine. 385 Life is a humble, little blog about living life as you want to live it, to Seize YOUR Day!

385 Life is about Sisterhood and Community, and I’m just starting off. I have to cut myself some slack and remember that Its OK.

I’m aware I can’t allow this to happen on a regular basis, but for now, I’m bucking the system, besides, Thanksgiving is different.

Are you only supposed to practice gratitude on the fourth Thursday of November? Obviously not.

Thanksgiving is meant to give us pause. It’s a capitalized, bold, highlighted example of the gratitude we should express regularly, of the blessings we should focus on right here and now, and of paying it forward when we can.

Therefore, in the spirit of being grateful, my first Thanksgiving post will be dated after Thanksgiving and I don’t care one bit!

Those that like it, great! Hats off to Kindred Spirit(s)! Those that don’t, oh well, here I’ll refer you to #3 in The 385 Guide to a Happy Life, “you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.“

Might as well continue bucking the system and establish a resolution 5 weeks in advance: