doing the damn thing, pt. 2

…I’m one to talk. (haha, mostly kidding!)

This is hard! Sometimes I have “just do it” down quite well, and sometimes there’s really a lag. I get this stuff wrong at times just like everybody else. There are days I show up as my brightest, gleamingest self, pouring into the life I most want to be living… and there are also days when I feel like I’m barely keeping everything together, and some things, not even.

I am a big believer in sticking with important values and actions. I love habit and commitment containers that actually, truly, successfully work (like Duolingo, weekly powerlifting programming, my freaking wild commitment to blog 25 posts per month every month in 2023…).

I also sometimes want to rebel against them with every bone in my body and fussily quit on the spot.

For the stuff that really matters to me, I’m always glad when I don’t. 😆 When, instead, I show up yet again, and do the damn thing.

This has been a struuuuuuggle with writing the past several weeks. I do not want to write! I am fantasizing about being done with 2023’s 25 posts per month, and I’m trying to decide if I want to keep the same structure past December 31, or if I’ll let it drop.

It has been such a satisfying, wildly stretching and enriching, useful, exciting, delightful, empowering project. I’m proud of everyday magic. Right now, I don’t feel as plugged into it as I was for much of the year, and it isn’t thriving as richly as it has been in months past, so I don’t feel as much swelling pride at this moment, but I know it’s work I’m so glad I’ve done.

The writing has changed me. Doing the damn thing matters when it’s for something worthwhile that brings transformation into your own life that you wouldn’t have without the damn thing. We don’t show up and do shit just to do it; we pick actions and visions that align with our values, and then we stack and invest into them, over and over, with heart and commitment, for good reason.

I do really, really love to write. Yet, the blog is gaining less love and attention from me and is dwindling in ways — overall, my writing practice is less vibrant and consistent right now, and has been much more difficult — because my life is so full of other things at this time. I LOVE my job, which is an astonishing and deliriously delightful development, even still, three months in! And I think, honestly, getting this new job this year is a large accomplishment, owed in part, to all of the growth and personal challenges, rising, and discovery I’ve experienced through the journey and through creating this blog. Holding the vow for 25 posts per month on everyday magic has given me a container to find myself, meeting myself over and over, on the blank page, and continuing to write my story. It has forced me to take honest looks at my life and thoughts, the magic within and all around me, what is truly important to me. It has helped me grow and build courage and heart in a difficult time in my life. It’s given me a greater sense of accomplishment. Writing so much has helped me pull back the curtain on my own empowered honesty, noticing, and learning. I am building resilience and authority and wholeheartedness in my own life, and these things can really grow best when witnessed; blogging lets me witness them, deeply, expansively, and repeatedly.

What we focus on grows. I have spent this year focusing on who I am and where I’m going. Who I am becoming. What matters to me, and what I can do — what I have power over — even when it’s something tiny and even when it seems like, all around me, nothing is going right (like when I felt stuck in a job I hated and spent months trying to go somewhere else, not even imagining I could find a job like the one I have now that is so unbelievably perfect in nearly every way!). I have focused on my present magic and future visions. I have challenged my assumptions and bad habits/thoughts. I have tried to evolve towards the light. I have reached for joy and, in all the times I’ve felt scared or defeated, bravery. I have persisted.

This fall, I am finding a lot of resistance and time challenge (also energy, focus, and interest challenges, due to capacity and other priorities!) with writing. But that’s okay, and I know everything will continue to ebb, flow, and evolve as needed.

When I look back on the year — which still has two months left! — I am so proud. I am amazed. What a season. I love the new things that have started and the things that have prevailed.

I’m grateful to have some clarity on what areas of my life I refuse to allow myself to stop doing the damn thing, because there is too much good that comes out of it. The payout is too huge. I’m grateful. I’m happy to be here. I’m excited for the future.

Those three sentences speak volumes. There was a time I wouldn’t have necessarily had these thoughts with so much passionate feeling behind them…

I’m grateful. I’m happy to be here. I’m excited for the future.

Now though, those three sentences apply to so much in my life!

Because of that, I will keep persisting. I will keep doing the damn thing. I will choose magic and joy and delight and bravery, over and over and over. I will lean ever towards the light. I will write and write my story. I will be adventurous and authentic and hard working; I will be creative and generous and true to myself; and I will live a life of belonging and wholeheartedness.

Through my writing. Through my work. In my relationships. In the gym. With my goals. When I’m motivated. When I really want to quit.

It’s all normal. Don’t give up. Just find your path, keep discovering yourself, and keep doing the damn thing.

Love love love…

Bri