Happy Birthday to SincerelyIreneB… yeah… me!
So here we are. I made it! Twelve months of writing, blogging, posting. And I’m beyond excited about it!
One whole year since I showed up to my own party, nervous but absolutely refusing to wait for the ‘Productivity Fairy’ to convince me that now was the right time to begin. One year since I typed out that first post, hit publish before I could talk myself out of it, and officially committed to Starting Sideways.
So… how’d that go?
Well, grab something and lemme tell ya.
The Checklist, Revisited
If you read my very first post, you know I showed up with a list. A whole, proud, optimistic, bullet-pointed list. The delulu was deep and it went like this:
- Publishing my Y.O.U, Recharged A 31-Day Guided Journal — CHECK
- Creating artful designs to offload my visual passion — CHECK
- Writing blog posts — STARTING HERE — CHECK
- Completing my novel — DEFINITELY ON TRACK TO COMPLETION — CHECK
- And is there more to come — CHECK, CHECK, and CHECK
That last one though? Life looked me dead in the eye and was like “not so fast, bitch!” Pause. Pace yaself, but watch this space.
Past me was crazy confident, high on optimism, but slid into loooooow on ‘can I really keep this up-ism’.
But you know what, a slip here and there aside, I did the damn thing! Just on an extended-remix timeline. And I’m for certain looking at my first book. But still I pushed and kept pushing.
What Actually Surprised Even Me
I expected the creativity to always feel good. And don’t get me wrong, it does… overall. But with regular life still in play, even adding what feels good is a weighty extra. This weight made me move from two blog posts per week, where I was more frazzled than a squirrel at a rave, to one. One solid post per week meant I could survive and thrive.
Yet, I was sure, in time, that I’d see it as a defeat. Like I wimped out and wasn’t really up to this, but I didn’t. That beautiful wave of relief was immediate, stuck, and keeps going. That OG pretty picture in your head can’t always be it. Sometimes it’s a little wobbly. But it’s your wobbly, and it starts feeling really bloody good.
I also didn’t expect how much showing up here would feel like accountability in the best way. Like I made a promise to myself out loud, and something in me decided to keep it, even to my current wee audience. I appreciate you all.
What Also Surprised Me, Honestly? The world.
Because this year, this ‘climate’ has been and still is a lot. There were stretches where sitting down to create anything with my baked-in and vibey, ‘you got this’ spin felt bloody idiotic. I love an exaggerated tale, truly I do, but never a hard, ugly lie. So pretending ain’t it.
But Here’s What I Kept Coming Back To
Creating. In every way and shape, we are all creatives. Mine just happens to be a love of writing and designing things that speak to me, and hopefully others. But none of it is separate from living through these diabolical times. I don’t ever want to see my writing or storytelling as a distraction from the world, but as how I’m interpreting it. Maybe I’m addressing the world, how I weave through and around it, or carving out a space for other valid and goofy thoughts. For me, that’s key to how I process, stay sane, and stay me on my own terms.
What ‘Flopped’ (And What It Taught Me)
My numero uno was and is my book. Well flopped-ish, I should say. I mean it took me extra extra to get my solid first draft out, but I bloody well did it, anyway. #WOOHOO!! As a person who likes to do too many things, the real flop was me failing to rein in my gabillion ideas. I’ll never abandon what keeps calling me, but the little cute ideas and want-to-start projects now get put in a placeholder box. Yes we have time, but it is too precious to keep trying to juggle it all. So the shift for me was from flop to focus, and I’m not remotely mad about it.
Where I’m Happily Still Standing
Still multi-passionate. Still without a neat niche. And now with a year of evidence that this actually works for me.
Stubbornly, defiantly, and deliciously intact. Even with everything going on in the world. Maybe… especially because of it.
One Year In, Here’s What I Know
And I’ll always keep learning. But ‘Perfect’ is still a shady lil bitch.
But I’ve gotten faster at recognizing it in things and people, so every day, I get faster at slamming those doors shut. Blocked.
And yeah, Starting Sideways is still my thing. Not because it’s a clever strategy, or catchy phrase, but because it’s honestly how I’m choosing to show up and operate.
So if you’re reading this from the beginning of your own thing — your own project, pivot, creative leap, brave weird idea — first off, congrats! Don’t wait until you have the whole plan mapped out. And Luv, forget feeling ready… just Start Sideways.
We’re not worrying about the time. This is our chapter. We’re not taking on everything. We’re focusing on what keeps pulling our attention, what gives us that giggly feeling. And the rest? Put those bitches on pause. We didn’t fail (flop) because we couldn’t fit it all in. We are focusing.
I’ll be here. Yeah baby!
And celebrating, too. 🥂
Still moving and always
Starting Sideways.
— Irene B 🧡
