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Winter ABC Day 27: 5 Qualities this Challenge Carved in Me

It's day 27 of the winter blogging challenge. I am just counting down the days. This challenge has truly been a challenge.

When I took up this challenge there were certain undesirable habits I wanted to break. My self esteem had been low when it came to my writing abilities. I needed something to prove myself.

It's been a long month but there's no trial without a lesson

1. Don't procrastinate

Life throws things at you that can pressure you to delay your passions. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak so you tell yourself, tomorrow. But what if tomorrow never comes and your greatest work was today? Through this challenge, I learnt to plan ahead. I told myself that it had to be done, right now, right here.

2. It gets harder before it gets better

The first days of the challenge were quite a breeze. The topics were ice breakers, light hearted and fun. Then mid way it became gruelling. The topics needed insight, facts, objectivity etc. I understand that it's my responsibility as a writer to disseminate the correct information to readers. Some days my phone battery would die on me whilst I was blogging. Other days I didn't have the data bundle to post the blog. And there were others where I was just not even in the mood. But it was a challenge. It was like that assignment that you have to hand in to your professor. Now we are towards the end and we'll,  the challenge is almost over. I learnt resilience from this experience.

3. Practice makes perfect

I have spent months in self doubt of my skills as a writer. This came due to my former employer who was constantly criticising my writing. Often I felt the criticism had condescension, "You can't write deep, intellectual content. You write fluff pieces often entertainment articles," is what I would decipher. Offended greatly was I, but it was my ego and esteem that received the most brutal blows from these comments. I asked myself, "how do I write the so called 'good English', 'business English', 'formal English'?" How do I write deep, intellectual topics that aren't fluff? To be honest, I flipped a middle finger. This challenge taught me that the more that I write, my content will improve. My writing is deep because it connects with my readers. It's intelligent because there's a lot of critical thinking occurring in putting together the blog article. Intelligence and depth aren't always determined by the use of big words. Politicians use big words in their speeches, but alas, the dumb decisions made on a daily basis! Fluff piece my @*#!

4. Share, share, share!

Sharing is caring and with this challenge all the bloggers are part of a community. It's one thing to write a blog post but distribution is crucial. Sharing the links to your blog post requires a lot of work. You are sharing on every platform found on the face of this earth. It's even more important to share fellow bloggers posts. By sharing you show support which in turn forms bonds and loyalty. After publishing a blog post, share like your money depends on it.

5. It's never too late to start

It took me three whole days to decide if I would take part in the winter blogging challenge. I was afraid and skeptical. It was the women within the group that I joined that subtly pushed me. I loved how they supported and encouraged each other. I loved the dedication. I looked up the topics and joined them on day 5. My blogs were all up to date. I learnt that it's not about when you start, it's just starting that matters. Everything else will fall into place. And it did.

I need more challenges that test my stamina. Let's research and see what else can we partake in for self improvement.

Challenge accepted!

P.S. Always write your own love story!

Ciao!

Lady E

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