I'm 50!

No I’m not fifty (turning 32 in a couple weeks though), but today marks my 50th blog post!  A goal I set out for myself in January, to blog daily.  As Sally O’Malley declared, “I like to kick, stretch and KICK!!”  I took on this project to challenge myself, test the waters in blogging and secretly hoped something transformational would ‘kick’ in.
As I became more comfortable putting out my writing, I wanted to invest more into the look of my site.  I began my blog on February 2nd with a simple design and blog titled “josieville.”  It was a title I carried over from my Tumblr blog that was playful enough.  A few weeks in, I had to bite the bullet and purchased the domain name josieahlquist.com and upgraded my layout design.  As I looked through the types of posts I was creating, I began to feel like my blog title josieville didn’t fit.  I had wrote a post called, turning being busy into the art of doing and saying the resinated in me.  I want my actions (doing) to match with my passions (art).
The Art of Doing is the way you live your life, so varies from one person to another.  Through this leap blog challenge, I opened up my life to show how I am living mine.  If there are lessons others can learn from me, great!  I am paying a good deal to go through my doctoral program.  So, if I can share that knowledge freely (at no charge), even better for my educators out there!
I also happen to be married to a guy with an extreme amount of talent and recent YouTube success.  He does not gravitate to vlogging videos, so I am able to give some of his fans a peak into the real life of epicLLOYD.  It was also a unique opportunity to acknowledge a number of important people in my life.  No Christmas gift, birthday card or sunday night phone call seemed to do enough to shine the light on my amazing family.
I’d like to thank everyone that liked or commented on a post either on WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Those little encouragements kept me going!  It was also a boost when someone would mention to me they had been reading my posts as well as their hope I would continue.
Even if you didn’t do any of those things, but still hopped online to check out a post or two, I appreciate you too.  I didn’t go into this challenge with a subscriber or daily view count goal.  But as anyone who has taken on a lofty project, like training for a marathon, you know that support helps.
So what is next for Josie and The Art of Doing?
For the good of my doc program, marriage, and social life I cannot keep releasing posts daily.  I love structure and crossing things off my list, but I also want a quality product.  Considering, this is a compromise.  My friend Peter Shukoff, also known as Nice Peter, releases a video every Monday called ‘The Monday Show.’  He draws a huge following of teenagers, but I also enjoy his videos, as they were basically a pep talk for the week.  Looking at the stats on my blog, Mondays tended to be the most popular day for ‘my’ readers.
Funny enough, I wrote about the (possible dread) of Mondays or case of the mondays.  What better day to choose.  So, I will release a new post at least once per week, ideally on Mondays.
While numerous blogging sites encourage writers/bloggers to narrow down on their topics, I am not there yet.  I enjoy writing about higher education, but I have so many other interests and parts of my life that I want to write about too.
Maybe that is why I gravitated to the blog title “The Art of Doing.”  Our identities.  Who we are, is not one thing.  We are made up of many moving parts.  If we focus only on work, other areas will suffer.
The Art of Doing is about balance.  It is about bringing out your authentic self into all roles of your life.  The art of impact.  It is about creating yourself.  The life you want.  I just happen to be putting myself out there, while I create my own.
When I began blogging fifty days ago, I took on the challenge secretly hoping for transformation.  I made myself vulnerable, which at times was pretty scary.  Risky.
Leaving my job.  Going to school full-time.  Posting online personal topics about myself, class projects and family members.  The payoff has been worth it.  By fully embracing the risk, I forced myself into flight.
Hope you’ll continue to join me as I continue leaping.
As seen in the beginning video with Sally, I am going to ‘Kick, Stretch and KICK!’