2022.

Dear blog friends,

(define term: blog friends – anyone who reads this blog)

The following was written the morning of December 31, 2022.

There is so much to say about this past year. What I have to say only resonates with me because I am the one who lived it. I wonder if I write and share, you (reader) may feel inspired to recount your own past year from a place of personal fulfillment and positive expectation for what is to come. 

That said, yesterday afternoon I experienced my own thinking to be quite limiting. 

Here’s why:

For starters, the past two calendar years (2020 and 2021) I posted weekly blogs that followed monthly themes and resulted in year-end digital books. In 2020 I compiled two digital books: storyitell and somethingmore. In 2021, I compiled abetterway which not only included the year’s collection of blog posts, it also included the year’s collection of weekly Instagram quotes that followed each post. Not only did I compile the blogs and quotes to create a digital book, I uploaded the year’s Instagram quotes (that include videos) into a montage using my neighbor’s jam band for background. (see video at end of post)

To be quite clear, I have a small audience. There is no observable evidence to suggest that what I create is worth its time and effort. I measure the value of time and effort to be the overall feeling state the content flows from, and the feeling state I receive when I publish.

I have moments of doubt, but they don’t last long. 

Yesterday afternoon I entertained some doubt. I knew what was happening. Still, I followed the doubt path a bit longer than usual. The knowing that it would never be worth it to stay in the negative space is now too big for me to get stuck in. I also know Quiet Time exists. I have come to believe in Quiet Time the way some children believe in Santa. In Quiet Time, things make sense. 

Speaking of Quiet Time, it ironically was the source of my negative thinking. 

Quiet Time is the title of my next book. I have known this for months. Maybe even half the year. The plan was to retrieve the Sally & Sifer Facebook page posts of the past year related to checkIN. As well as retrieve the somewhat random riffs posted about the experience of Quiet Time and what it ultimately means to me. It seemed a simple process: the riffs would be the prologue to the book, and the posts about the 8 steps (checkIN) would be highlights of the 8 chapters (four skills for each step).

I was going to start the process in August. It didn’t happen. Maybe it will, maybe it won’t.

Here’s what I did accomplish this past year:

• For the first time since I created the checkIN (2014?) I shared the steps/skills in three consecutive eight-week series shared on @sallysifer FB page. The three series began on January 24, 2022; April 4, 2022; and June 4, 2022. The series included the 8 steps/32 skills in checkIN, as well as the ‘8’ strategies in part three of storyitell.
• I completed the entirety of a summer road trip of which I planned concurrently during the sharing of the first eight week series. Planning desired outcomes is included in part three of storyitell.
• As a result of the summer road trip, the following college towns (at one time at least) included sallyseifferco.blog stickers: Lincoln NE, Omaha NE, Grinnell IA, Oxford OH, Berea KY, Asheville NC, Savannah GA, Tallahassee FL, Tuscaloosa AL, Oxford MS, Fayetteville AR, Lawrence KS, Ft Collins CO, Laramie WY, Ogden UT, Eugene OR, Corvallis OR, Humboldt CA, extra credit: Truckee, CA. I was in Portland Oregon and failed to put up a sticker. There are stickers on the Oregon Coast as well. I went through Reno and Salt Lake on the way home from Truckee – no stickers. I think I was so disappointed in Lake Tahoe that I was ready to get back!
• Published storyitell available in paperback on Amazon.com

The biggest personal accomplishment for the year is simply: ‘I did it’.

As much as I am ready to see observable results in sales and engagement, for now I can find satisfaction with ‘I did it’. It’s all I got.

I’d be lying if I said I’m not ready for somethingmore.

May the fresh start of a new year bring you the somethingmore that resonates with you and the desires of your heart.