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Monday, December 5, 2011

What is success—really?

Not a picture of me :)

My kids and I have been sick for a week, so if I’ve been a little absent from the blog-o-shere, I’m sorry.

NaNoWriMo kicked my butt. I ended with 22, 039—which is good, but obviously short of my goal. I keep telling myself that it is 22K more than I had in October, but somehow it still feels like a failure.

I’m a bit of an overachiever, so less than perfect is never good enough. And I always make the mistake of doing too much at once.

Last month I—
  • Remodeled my bathroom
  • Started a new diet and exercise program (and lost 10 lbs)
  • Wrote 22k
  • Was sick for a week.
  • Had sick kids for a week.
  • Hosted Thanksgiving at my house.
  • Read 5 books
  • Did hours of house work
  • Finished all my Christmas shopping

I look at this list and in my mind I know I accomplished tons, but why does it feel like I failed?

AUGGH!!! Am I crazy? Someone help. I’m going to lie down...I'm still kind of sick.

-Angie





18 comments:

Chantele Sedgwick said...

I hope you feel better soon!! Being sick is NO fun. :(

Cassie Mae said...

You are not crazy! I think we all feel like failures at one point or another even when we accomplish so much. But you are not a failure! You have done an important step in recognizing all the stuff you did do this month. (And I think I found that 10 pounds you lost ;) )

We learn quite a bit from our 'failures'. Pushes us to try harder if we can or recognize what we did accomplish. 22,000 is a lot of words. You should be very proud of it. And be proud you did everything else while writing.

Kelley Lynn said...

Wow! Congrats on all of the above!

My November was not nearly as productive as yours.

Abby Fowers said...

The more I get to know you, the more I realize how much we have in common! I love it. I tend to be a bit of an overachiever too. Sometimes it's ridiculous. But you did AWESOME last month! You should reward yourself for all of that. You are amazing!

Meredith said...

Um, that is not even close to a failure! You wrote an amazing amount during a busy and productive month--I'd say that deserves some serious praise. :)

Madeline Mora-Summonte said...

You're not crazy. If you are, then so am I. :)

I tend to feel like no matter what I do, how much I do, etc. it's still never "enough" - for other people, for myself.

The thing is, it's so much easier to acknowledge and cheer on what other people have accomplished (yes, I'm looking at you!) than it is to do that for ourselves. I have no idea why... :)

Emily R. King said...

You had a great month! Success is relative. You're so amazing, Angie. I know you'll find a balance in the New Year.

Ruth Josse said...

My family was just talking about this on Saturday! What is success? Everyone had a different answer. And then they talked about it in church and my husband came up with this definition: success is your achievements leading up to your goal whether you reach your goal or not. So according to that, you're doing awesome!

Brinda said...

I read your post and now I need to go rest.

Donna K. Weaver said...

Because you didn't finish something important to you. But that doesn't mean you can finish it anyway. My problem last year was I didn't pick the dang ms up again. But, I decided to do it as YA instead of MG, so it ended up well.

So don't beat yourself up. Real life happens, and I think you chose the higher road in the things you did.

Melissa Sarno said...

Oh gosh, I hope you feel better Angie. Look at all you accomplished! I understand striving for more and more and more. But I hope you feel at least a little satisfied with your sucesses.

Angela Brown said...

WHAT???? You rocked last month! I mean, seriously, you actually read books while doing NaNo? Ha! Not even, well, not for me.

Consider how much you did last month alone versus what you did in the two months prior to that? I'm sure you'll notice you were and are a bad mamma jamma.

On top of all that, you were sick and you had sick kiddos. And still kicked out 22k words?

Whoa is all I can say at this point.

Small Town Shelly Brown said...

I think it might be your perfectionism that kept you from finishing your 50k. I bet everyone of those 22k words are perfect. They were well thought about, nice fitting, show not tell words.
I know that feeling of letting myself down and I don't want to down play it but you really rocked November and I mean it.
NaNo-Schmano, Jessie Spano!
Forgettaboutit!
You just go and rock December.

Kim said...

Angie!!!! I found an adage that I'm trying to live by: Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Maybe you didn't acheive everything you wanted to last month, but, dang girl, look what you did! I'm still trying to match last week's socks....
Kim Karras

Sara Bulla said...

I love the last comment by Kim. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. You are awesome and in many ways I feel like I'm playing catch up with you ... and I fear that I am eating your dust 99% of the time. You rock Angie and the new year is going to be amazing!

Laura Barnes said...

You did not fail!! And you are totally an overachiever :)

For the record, I didn't fail either, and I know exactly how you feel.

The East Coaster said...

Are you kidding? Your month ROCKED! Congrats on all you have accomplished. Take a step back and just look at what you've done!

Tara Tyler said...

is it my turn to steer the boat we are in?

i think we want something to show our success...?
or at least some appreciation!

great job, angie! woo hoo!

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