Embracing the freight train of blogging frustration

Mar 1, 2008

Embracing the freight train of blogging frustration

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Freight Train Blogging Frustration You know, I’ve heard of the phrase "hitting rock bottom" - it’s supposed to be that defining moment in your life when your eyes flash open and your very being is suffused with a desire to change your current agonizing misery (or at least run away to the sea in Nebraska where nobody knows your name).

‘course, that’s just too simple for me! No indeed, hitting rock bottom still assumes you have the ability to vault yourself skywards (or at least, climb whimperingly) from of the pit of doom into which you dug yourself. Sounds tough enough as it is, but what if you add being completely flattened by the Freight Train of Blogging Frustration into the mix - not only do you have to reinvent yourself, but you first have to piece together the variously-strewn parts of your formerly-sturdy blogging confidence and personal character as well.

This lesson was gently applied with the force of a falling piano to my forehead yesterday. I had just spent, hmmm, gee, lemme think….6 hours totally revamping my blog. A student of photoshop, I made certain all the colors were subtle and suave, all the plugins were operating as expected, all the contact forms were shiny bright….and then I asked for an evaluation.

And, well, I was gently reminded that functionality-wise, it worked fine..but for 2008 and beyond, the design was a weeee bit dated (kinda like the skill for balancing a tonearm is a weee bit dated).

Now, this was all very well and good and actually quite valuable advice. But! Put that on top of the 18 hour days I’ve been pulling this past week, squabbling children, ferocious parakeets of doom (more on that in another post) and a house that holds onto the mess created by said squabbling children with the determination of a Tyrannosaurus Rex…and you have one fool-proof recipe for utter abject angst, misery and feelings of hopelessness.

I’d love to say, I reacted with hearty HaHA! and joyfully dove back into site redesign. Alas, that wasn’t true - I retreated to the bedroom, sat by the mirrors and sobbed my heart out. All that time, all that work, all that effort - useless. Why even continue?

Why even continue.

Now, I need to interject here - one of my core beliefs in life is that everything happens for a reason. Whenever you’re smashed in the face by reality, I believe it’s your guardian angel saying:

"Okay Barbara (probably not "Barbara", mind you, if that’s not your first name), you’re supposed to learn something important - what can you extrapolate out of this infernal mess?"

And as the time passed, and I gave myself permission to grieve, the utter frustration slowly burned away, leaving me drained yet open for inspiration. What WAS I supposed to learn? What WAS I supposed to change?

Well now, DUH! I was supposed to learn how to roll with the punches, of course, and change my blog layout to something today’s generation would find contemporary!

REMEMBER - The best content on the face of this planet is worthless unless people stick around to read it.

So I went back to the basics. I came across an article regarding 10 remarkable Wordpress themes from Darren and found GridFocus (used by Skellie!). It looked very appealing….so I downloaded the theme and went to work. I noticed a couple of things immediately - GridFocus isn’t widget ready, so I had to teach myself how to add that feature. It was remarkably easy to do (drop me a line if you’d like the code).

By that time, the kids came home and I had to take them to Beginners Karate. Wow oh wow, what happened there! But that’s the topic for another character-building blog post over here.

Thus, how did I combat the freight train of blogging frustration?

Glad you asked! The following are some lessons I took away - perhaps they’ll be helpful for you too.

1.) Accept you can be wrong. Instead of angsting over how the freight train of blogging frustration messed up your life, take advantage of it. If something doesn’t work, don’t try to fit the world to your ideals; research what the experts are doing and apply them to your own situation.

2.) Scan your past work and see if anything can be salvagable. The blue/orange images that were in my last design had a color gradient I was able to apply to my current masthead. Alas, the 28 other images are languishing in my Storage of Infinite Size.

3.) Give yourself permission to feel lousy. It’s only human nature to want to grieve for poor choices. It gives your body an outlet to expell the soul-searing frustration…eventually giving YOU the ability to let go. And once you let go, you’re refreshed to start again.

4.) Share your feelings with your family. Most people have failed mind-reading 101! So if all of a sudden your personality becomes as charming as a rabid warthog with an infected wisdom tooth, you probably want to give your family a headsup that you’re in the throes of major frustration.

And if you have a bemused understanding spouse, you can do what I did - go up to him and start crying incoherently and sobbing, it’s just not fair! Your spouse will probably be somewhat confused but that innate desire to comfort should kick in.

Make sure you bring a napkin so you don’t utterly soak his shirt. I, alas, forgot this crucial point. :)

5.) Dress in your comfort gear. Whenever I feel miserable and want to retreat from the world, I put on my LL Bean housecoat. I’ve had it now, gosh, for 18 years? and it’s been with me thru every possible work-at-home crisis. I’ve made 200K while wearing this house robe; it evokes many good memories for me and has a very calming effect (even with the patched hole or two).

6.) Make yourself a cup of hot coffee, tea, or soup. The very action of concocting your favorite beverage and slowly sipping it as it cools compels you to take it easy. And if you add Sweetleaf zero calorie flavorings, it can produce beverages that would make the angels sing….

* * * * * * *

Yesterday my emotions took me on the Roller Coaster from Hell! BUT! I’m extremely pleased it happened - the lessons I learned and took away will enable me to achieve even more success as time goes on.

Embrace the freight train of blogging frustration when it comes to steamroller over your valuable person - you just might find the character it builds in you will help transform what you can produce today.

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

(By the way, if you have any questions about the topics in this posting "Embracing the freight train of blogging frustration", do comment below - I'll try to clarify any issues).

Barbara Ling and Owlbert

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