What Blogging Has Given Me

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Today is day 15 of NaBloPoMo! This is the longest blogging streak I have ever had before. It has been fun blogging everyday and I love chatting with you all more frequently.  I started this blog right after graduating from college (the first time) and my friend and I thought it would be fun to make blogs. We were excited to get started in the blogging world and I was so excited to have a website to share my thoughts with others. It is interesting looking back at old posts of mine and seeing how my blogging style has changed over the years. It is nice to read my old posts and also connect to my younger self and remember what I was going through at twenty years old when I started the blog and what my goals were.  I started this blog back in September 2009 and can still remember writing that first blog post here. I made it clear in my first post that I knitted and I wanted to meet more people, discover more blogs, and learn new things. I have done all of these things since starting my blog and so much more.

My Blog:

Encourages me to knit new patterns: I have learned how to knit more things than I would have if I did not blog. I have been introduced to so many wonderful knitting projects by looking at other people's blogs and also by pushing myself to look up new patterns and fun things to knit and share on my blog. I want to keep progressing in my skills as a knitter and also to provide more new content on the blog so it inspires me to learn new patterns and types of projects.

Keeps me knitting more: I really believe that I knit more because I have a blog. I am pushing myself so much more to work on projects and complete them in order to share the final product with all of you. I am also excited to work on the knitting projects but I think that I would probably take longer had I not had the support that I get from sharing on my blog and the wonderful feedback I get on here.

Allows me to meet talented knitters and crocheters: I have been able to converse with such amazing and talented people through the blogging world that I might not get the chance to talk to normally. I have never met another knitter or crocheter who is as talented as those of you who I follow. I learn so much from you and aspire to improve my skills and be able to knit as many lovely things as you. Although I have never met any of you in person, I feel like I have because of how blogging makes it so easy to communicate with others.

Gives me a platform: I enjoy having a platform to talk about all of the things I am interested in and am passionate about. Recently I have had such an interest in everything vegan and love to share that journey with all of you. I am currently vegetarian and doing a vegan challenge and have enjoyed chatting with you about it. Having my blog gives me a platform to be able to express my thoughts on  important topics and I have seen other knitting bloggers use their blog to talk about other things that are important to them and their readers support them and offer their feedback. I love the idea that as time goes on, other things will inspire me and be important to me and I can share those things here on my blog.

A way to channel my creativity: I love having the blog to be able create and design my own website. I love to plan out the posts, take photos, add the written content, and design the layout of the posts. So much goes into one post for a blogger and I have learned that it takes a lot of vision, time, and creativity to put it all together. I am so glad I have this space that is my own to create blog entries to share my knitted work and my thoughts with you.

Helps me to learn about myself: I have learned a lot about myself by having a blog. I learned that I love to share what I create with others, I love to write, and that I persevere. I learned this year how much I persevere when I posted on my blog every week for the entire year and now I have been posting everyday in November.

Let me know in the comments below if you have a blog, what your blog has taught you about yourself and also what it has given you.

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today! Please follow me on Bloglovin', Google Followers , or you can subscribe through email at the top right corner of the blog.

Have a great day!

Pros and Cons of Joining Online Challenges

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This month is a busy month and not so much because I have a lot of plans, but because I have set two challenges for myself to accomplish in the month of November. They are both new challenges to me and test me in different ways.

Spray painted inspiration at Brick Works in Toronto

The National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) challenge to post a new blog entry everyday in November has been fun but also has been challenging at times to think of content. I am thinking more outside the box and about posts that I have not written and are not always knitting related.
The second challenge I joined this month is the vegan Challenge 22+  which challenges me to eat a purely vegan diet for 22 days. I think they made it 22 days so it is a length of time people can commit to.
Both of these challenges have similarities: they are around a month long, they are all or nothing challenges, if you mess up a day then you feel like you failed the challenge, and there is a community developed out of both of these challenges and people encourage one another. The community aspect is important because if I have moments of feeling like eating cheese, and I think...about all the people in the challenge... and my mentor who hopes we succeed. If I want to skip a post during NaBloPoMo, I think I will let myself down and maybe even the community of bloggers who do post everyday and maybe read my posts. These things keep me on track and most challenges are created to better our lives and then have added bonuses of meeting amazing people doing the same challenge, feeling proud of accomplishing the challenge, and seeing how far you can do and seeing improvement in the long run.


I want to discuss some pros and cons of taking on challenges so we can discuss this in depth and acknowledge that they are not always easy.

Pros:

Challenges keep us working towards our goals: I like joining these challenges because it keeps me focused on meeting goals and thinking about what I want to accomplish. It also helps me hold myself accountable. If we make a goal and join online and also let people know on a blog or on the group page of a challenge that we are committed to making it happen, then we can hold ourselves more accountable and so can others.

Photo source

Community: having a community to turn to who are working on the same challenge as you is very powerful. It also gives us positive emotions and feelings towards the challenge because it builds such a community and you can meet new people and chat with like-minded people. Having support from people who also are participating in the same challenge as you offers a lot of support and more so sometimes than we receive from our loved ones if they do not understand our journey the same way.

Photo source

Creativity: This one definitely relates more to the blog challenge I am doing and need to write a blog post every day for 30 days. It forces me to be more creative in thinking of blog post ideas and thinking outside of the box in order to come up with so much blog post content. Other challenges cause you to have to be creative as well, come up with more recipes ideas and be creative to develop the new meal plan, coming up with a new exercise routine, or if you are creating art, to create new pieces each day.

Cons:

Challenges can add pressure: They hold you accountable to produce a result daily or weekly and sometimes we feel like we do not have anything to give. This can cause us some stress if we feel like we cannot produce the result or make time to do it and can make us feel like we are failing.

Want to give up: sometimes we might have thoughts about giving up on a challenge if it is too rigid. I had a thought last Saturday about not posting on my blog because it got busy but glad I did anyways. Also the vegan challenge can feel rigid at times and I notice I have cravings for cheese more than anything, but I can reward myself at the end with some pizza.

Photo source

Life gets busy: sometimes these challenges take extra time out of our already busy days. Planning posts, planning meals, or whatever challenge you have set requires more time and effort. This can be a big problem if you have responsibilities and cannot make extra time for your goals during the evenings or in the morning.

I think that even after reviewing the pros and cons of doing challenges, the pros still outweigh the cons for me and I still prefer to do them. They give me a feeling of accomplishment when I finish them and knowing I will feel accomplished helps me to persevere. I also love working towards a goal that I can accomplish in 22-30 days and feel proud of what I have done.

What challenges have you done in the past? Did you like the outcome and was it worth the effort? Let me know in the comments below! If you would like to find a fun new challenge to join visit Pinterest here to see all the things you can challenge yourself to doing this Winter.

Thank you for visiting my blog and if you would like to follow my blog to keep updated on when I post, please follow me through Bloglovin', Google Followers, or you can subscribe by email at the top right of my blog. Tomorrow I will be sharing some of my current knitting projects and what I am reading!

Have a great day!