How do you prioritize between outside needs and internal inspiration?
Well, to start with, you need to get back to the basics of the word need.
For instance for the past three years, on top of my monetary and motherly contributions to my family, I felt I needed to blog 2-3 times a week, all for a possible audience of future books.
The one problem with that?
I was so busy trying to reach and (hopefully) please my possible audience, that I was making the books (the main purpose of the blog) less of a possibility.
For three years I did it. Through grief. Through motherhood. Through keeping my own business afloat. Through pregnancy and, yes, even morning sickness.
Then, despite every Capricorn nerve in my body, six months ago, I took a break. It was a month before I would give birth to my second child. To Sue’s grandson. To the grandchild she would never meet.
Von is, well, awesome. With great restraint, I will leave it at that… for now… because I have other matters more relevant to this blog to discuss. Like, for instance, this blog.
Maternity leave has made it crystal clear that I’ve been blogger-logged. I got so caught up in what to post, for whom, and when, that I ended up overwhelmed and way off track of my original purpose for this site: the books in honor of Sue and my children, her grandkids.
As my friend Christa would tell you, it’s likely just my fearful subconscious writer preventing me from releasing my books. I would not argue with that. It’s not well advised to argue with Christa afterall. Plus, she’s right.
I have a lot to do to make these books a reality. The writing was the easy part. Now there’s editing, proofing, illustrating, marketing, and assembling a team to help me do all that, not to mention budgeting and gathering finances.
In the meantime, I have a wild and wonderful daughter and a sweet and curious son to devote myself to as well.
So the bottom line is, my heart is plenty enough divided already–by my real babies and my book babies–which puts the blog pretty low on Angela’s precious-time-o-meter. You will continue to hear from me (usually on Mondays), but more sporadically and more specific to my journey as a writer, mom, grief survivor, and legacy champion. It’s not that I’m going away or no longer care about this project. Quite the opposite actually.
As my friend Geraldine recently advised at an inspiring Moz community event: Create an authentic friendship with your blog readers, one they can kick back with whenever they show up. I’ll continue to show up for you, in the most meaningful and inspiring ways I can, and if you could continue to show up for me (when YOU have time and it works with YOUR precious-time-o-meter), I’d be overjoyed and humbled.
Your fellow priority juggler, inspiration chaser, and life adventurer,
Angela
My Castle Heart Publications 