Fancy Pants Wine – A Celebratory Libation for a Newbie Blogger

I can’t believe this is my 6 month blogiversary. Whoa. I’m still such a newbie and have so much to learn but am simultaneously grateful for the itsy bitsy success stories I’ve actually accumulated in this short period of time.

Blogging is not as easy as it seems. And I still pretty much suck at it. I’ve done tons of research and have a decent idea of what to do and what not to do but it’s haaard.

Whether you work full time and blog part time, blog full time or do a zillion things like me (stay at home mom of 2, running my husband’s business, grasping at freelance work to help pay bills and blogging for fun with the hopes I will eventually make it my job), it’s hard. Especially when you are OCD, or a control freak, or indecisive, or doubt yourself, or get tired, or get rejected, or forget to take pictures. Good grief.

Most of us aren’t making money, or at least not enough to call it money, so we are pretty much doing this for free. But we love it, at one point or another, so we keep pushing forward.

It’s a wonderful thing to do something like this. To put yourself out there. To be yourself. To make your own deadlines. To give yourself projects with your own guidelines, criteria and approvals. (And to talk ad nauseum while allowing your friends to take a break before coming back for more…)

And so you stress yourself out but can quit at anytime. Any project. But you don’t. Because you want to be proud of yourself.

You work for you and because you aren’t getting paid, you have nothing to lose. I’ve worked for big companies and small companies. Family run companies. My own family run company. But this is different. This is all me.

I was actually contemplating throwing in the towel just before my father passed away. I knew I shouldn’t expect overwhelming success in the first year, yet I was already feeling a bit beaten down. I had too much on my plate in other aspects of our lives and felt like the non-instant success was creating Debbie Downer syndrome. My closest friends couldn’t find the time to read my stuff. How would strangers ever care to make the time?

In fact, I wrote a post the very day my father passed away, prior to being notified. It received almost ZERO traffic. Maybe the lowest since I had started. I was so focused on my father that not only did I not care about the blog, I quickly assumed I was done. I’d be too sad and too preoccupied to continue.

But that same week, I received a giant influx of new traffic after unexpectedly being featured on another amazing and very successful blog, iheartorganizing. And I was reminded of something my father always said…

“Life is for the living.”

I hated it when he said those words when I was sad over the loss of someone.

But now, it was ringing in my ears…

And I was reminded of how successful he was after hitting rock bottom, pulling up his britches, and working countless hours to build his own business. And boy, did he. He was never a quitter. And he always wanted me to be more successful than he. And so I got right back to work. And now, with a new found strength coming from his belief in me.

And in this month, I’ve had more traffic, more mini successes and more wow moments than I could have dreamed of for my entire first year. Mediocre by some standards but successful enough compared to my initial expectations that if I quit tomorrow, I’d have still surpassed my goals.

And you got the part about this being for me, right?

Some crossfit. Some run. Some work…alot. Some bake. Some read. Some rescue and some volunteer.

This is what I do. Right now.

And if you’re wondering why the photo of the wine? Duh.

Look at the name!  The colors! And it’s Pinot Grigio…Trifecta, people. I was in Target over the weekend and BOOM! Fancy Pants Wine…on sale… I clearly had to buy it. It will be opened and enjoyed tonight. In celebration of 6 months of doing something for me. And to toast my future success in honor of the man who taught me so much. Because I can do this.