The Road So Far
Last July, the Lord put it on my heart to start this blog. It was an unexpected answer to a prayer that I had been asking Him for quite some time. What’s next? Where do I go from here? My entire life has changed, and my future has become an empty page, so what do I do now?
At the time, I had written one book in three years. Writing is the thing that I do. It’s part of what makes me who I am. It’s what drives me and gives me joy. And not being able to write has affected me in ways I cannot describe.
Being instructed to write this blog answered that question, and a few others that I had assumed were already answered. But getting to this point has had its bumps and pitfalls. And the burnout and disillusionment that I have been fighting for years now has not gone completely away.
This is the road so far…
Where it all began…
When I started SideStreet Cookie publishing LLC over a decade ago, I never imagined I would ever again have to figure out what direction I wanted to take with my career. But the last two years have seen me in a place of unsurety, and not just in writing and publishing. Somewhere along the way, I lost my calling and my purpose.
In 2018, I began to sink into a burnout that I am still trying to pull myself out of. The need to find and redefine my direction and purpose has been heavy on my soul. I struggle to justify who I know I am with who I have been and who I’ve become. How do I justify the talents the Lord has given me with what I’m able to do?
It’s still hard to sit down and write. Many days, if I manage it at all, I have to settle for a fifteen-minute sprint and call that a success for the day. But I get the work done, even if it gets done slowly.
Starting new
When The Lord told me in July of 2023 that He wanted me to start this blog, I was all for it. Everything that I needed to get started seemed to come my way. I had the energy and the motivation to sit down, figure out the blog posts I wanted to write, and write them. It was mostly a matter of getting them done and figuring out the message.
I knew that I wanted to write about fear. I’ve had this message on my heart for several years, but I couldn’t figure out how best to get it out. Recently, the Lord has really put it on my heart that He wants me to talk about fear and becoming fearless. Last year, He showed me how He wants me to do it.
I’ll be honest with you, I don’t anticipate this becoming a religious blog. But there will be moments where I’m going to talk about my faith as it pertains to what’s happening in my life. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Jesus Christ. If that’s not for you, that’s understandable, but please, don’t skip out on the content because of it.
The purpose of this blog
It is my desire that this blog become the place where you, as authors (and hopefully all creatives and entrepreneurs) can come to learn how to be fearless in the pursuit of your calling and purpose. It may take some time to get there, but with your help, I know that we can make this what you need it to be. I look forward to your comments and your suggestions of what you need and what you’d like to see. I am open for emails and comments, so please feel free to utilize them.
As I work to create a consistent writing and posting schedule, I hope that you will continue to visit. New posts will go up each weekday. My inclination is to write about the things I wish I had known when I started. But I also need to know what you need to know, because our needs will be different, even where they are similar.
Calling and Purpose
My heart is for those who are in the same boat as me, who are looking for a way to take their talents and their abilities and make them their calling. And how that calling works in conjunction with their purpose. Because, if we don’t have purpose, then we will inevitably lose interest and burnout on the things that we’re doing. If what you’re doing is not your calling, then it’s going to be hard to stay interested.
Perhaps, that’s why I have been struggling for the last few years. Perhaps my burnout has been because I was not using my talents as my calling for my purpose. Instead, they’ve become a job.
We will explore these things more as we move forward, and I fine tune the blog’s message. I’ll be taking this as seriously as I have taken the rest of my writing career. I look forward to hearing from you.
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