Having started this December 2009 with little to no expectations other than keeping some sort of online accountability for simplifying my life, it's kind of hard to determine what "success" means in the blog world. But more thoughts on "success" later.
Most popular post of all time- Simple Things to Simplify: Clothing. Interestingly enough, I didn't even write this article. It was a guest post by my sister, so congrats! She's probably starting her own blog soon, so I'll give her a plug when she can figure out what to call it. :)
Second most popular- Homemade Granola. I actually need to make some of that, but I somehow keep getting free boxes of cereal from coupon deals my mom has (breaking into the box of Cinnamon Cheerios tomorrow!)
As for success. December 2009, I was planning on heading to a full-time grad program thus halving my income. This was freaking me out considerably, thus I started down the path of simplification. However, the grad school plan changed, & I gladly embraced pursuing simplicity for its own sake rather than having it thrust upon me.
For a long time, I've thought about success as being the absolute best at something, always winning & being happy about it, and always having your plan succeed & having something to show for it. My thoughts on success have greatly changed seeing as how my previous thoughts were unrealistic at best. In the last year, I don't know if I've experienced more FAILS than before or if I've just felt them more intensely. Lots of stuff happened that just wasn't in the plan.
So that's when I decided to scrap my previous definition and take a different, hopefully more realistic look at success (and basically scrapping the plan along the way too). Somewhat unfortunately, I'm still working on my thoughts on that, so I've got no fortune-cookie answer chock full of insight & wisdom to share.
But I do know now that true success requires a bigger dose of humility than I've got right now. FAILS aren't fun & they can take a while to get through, but part of success is learning from these and taking a different approach in the future. Another part is having realistic expectations included in the plan, especially when other people are involved which is basically always. Sure, I've got ideas of what I'd like to have happen in the future, but virtually every aspect, whether professionally or personally, involves other people. Other people are a tough nut to crack. I can't control them, and they tend to make decisions that significantly affect my plan. :) That's just the way it goes I guess.
So I'm still working on my thoughts on success. And in the meantime, I'm being ok with the FAILS and celebrating the WINS of the year. One big WIN- I have simplified!
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