Day 5 of the 30-Day Challenge: Creative Movement:
Task: to add the rest of my reading and writing series items (individually) to my Degrees of Maternity Etsy shop.
Reason for Task: Day 3: Creative Movement 30-Day Challenge contains the particulars, regarding my reasoning behind participating in this particular goal.
Duration of Task: So, the task will actually end up taking 3 1/2 days. (This post contains details of the third day of the Degrees of Maternity Etsy shop updates). And no, I didn’t spend entire days working on this project; because of course, I had other to-dos to accomplish besides this one. But, I did manage to take big chunks of my time and work on this task each day. I’ll be finishing it up today. And then I can move on. Woo hoo!
Now, you might be wondering why such a task took so long, especially if you’ve never published a listing to Etsy. Well, there were some updates behind-the-scenes that I didn’t mention to you because I didn’t want to bore you with any technical details. But since I was only 99% successful in completing this goal on time, I thought I’d let you in on a little of those particulars in this post.
The updates included adding individual items from the reading and writing printable bundles to my Etsy shop. This is true. But, the updates also involved enhancing some images and switching up layouts on the coloring pages for the journal covers, bookmarks, and doorknob hangers to create more of the aesthetic I was going for. And since the artwork to the coloring pages was pretty much all updated during this process, then that meant new photos and PDFs need to be created and uploaded to Etsy before the new listings could even be created. (And some of the old listings required updates because of this process as well.)
Oh, and by the way, my wonderful daughter had to do the brunt of all the image updates with yours truly participating in the artistic layout work (in Canva) on the journal covers, bookmarks and doorknob hangers. So, this process was a little more involved than you might have realized at first glance. You’re talking about a technologically-challenged individual (I’m not a techie) working with graphic art design (I’m not a visual arts designer).
I’M A WRITER!
Needless to say, I’m quite thankful for my daughter’s handiwork and Canva’s ease of usability. I definitely couldn’t have gotten through this challenge without their help. That’s for sure. Well, actually Canva has a little more help it’s going to provide to me before everything is all said and done. I have at least a couple more hours of work in publishing listings to do and then I should be done for the continuation of day 5’s challenge item.
Practical Application of Day 5 for Your Life:
Okay, so I promised you that I’d come back and make the practical application of this task more meaningful to you on a personal level. So, here’s my attempt to do just that. Hope you find this advice helpful. I’ve learned it or am learning it by personal experience.
- If you have the option of setting your own goals, make sure they’re realistic. It’s okay to reach for a stretch goal but don’t needlessly overextend yourself. Treat yourself kindly.
- If you have a sizeable goal challenge you’re participating in, you’ve got to take care of yourself or you’ll burn out quickly. Make sure you’re meeting the trifecta effect during, before, and after the challenge. I call the perfect trifecta for healthy living: eating/drinking right, sleeping right, and exercising right. (Guess I better get on this one.)
- Build some flexibility into your goal-setting challenge. You’re going to have unexpected situations occur that are going to take you off your steady course while traveling toward goal destinations. And, you have to plan for them. Building in flexibility helps make your goals more realistic. So, avoid being too hard on yourself when goal achievement doesn’t happen when or how you anticipated it would and plan for disruptions to your best-laid plans.
- Get some help where you can. If you can’t enlist help to complete your actual goal, then have your helper(s) take over other tasks in your day to free up more of your time to work on your goal challenges.
- Remember to breath. It’s going to be all right. Things may not go as planned at times, but it’s good to have a plan mapped out to give you some structure and direction on how to proceed in accomplishing those things you’ve set out to do. You have more control over the outcome of your goal-setting and achieving journey than you think. So, make your experience a positive one.
degreesofmaternity.com 