Insanity is 30 hubs in 30 days

It is New Years Day of 2011 and this is the waking moment when I turn over in bed and ask, “What did I do last night?”

Don’t get too excited. This isn’t a story about sex. I’m not the kiss and tell kind of girl. No, this is the ‘morning after’ realization that I have made a commitment, part of my annual goal setting, to take the hubchallenge of 30 hubs in 30 days.

“What was I thinking?”

I’m sure this initial self doubt, nervousness, and panic will pass…I hope. Looming ahead of me I see my twelve hour shifts and wonder how I’m going to do a hub a day.

Now, I do realize that the Hubchallenge does not require me to write one hub per day. But, I’m curious to discover if I am able to actually hold to that schedule. I compare it a reporter whose assignment it is to get a daily article published. My personal challenge includes that restriction. I want to experience what it feels like to write each day and post something.

On the positive side, I have no other expectations than to meet the writing challenge. I’m not looking to make a certain amount of money from ads-that was never my intention when I joined Hubpages seven months ago. My desire was to have a place to write and receive feedback from people who had never read my work before; to broaden my audience from the circle of immediate family and friends. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. If money happens to come my way then that will be an added bonus.

On the down side of this, as I am sure it is for most people who take the challenge, I have a life I am trying to balance outside of Hubpages, and my writing does not support me at this time. In other words, I still have a career, which occupies the majority of my time during the day, along with family obligations, appointments, exercise, cooking, etc. Well…you get the idea.

Although I have had the inclination to take this step, and a rough idea as to when it would take place, primarily after the holidays , I still have to question my decision and wonder if I suffered from temporary insanity.

I mean no disrespect to anyone who may be suffering from a mental illness, or know someone who does; it is my line of work. So, when I use the term ‘insanity’ it is not intended from a clinical sense. By insanity I mean those situations of the ordinary.

I’m sure we have all experienced those moments in our own lives when, through the choices we made our lives took a turn that changed the course of our lives forever. Or, we ended up in a situation in which we asked, “How did I get here?” Because, by all reasonable accounts, not in our wildest imaginations would we thought we would be in that situation.To summarize why I am taking the challenge let me just say, it is my personal goal to increase my writing and through the hubchallenge it forces a discipline to achieve that. I have a great deal of tenacity…although; some people say I’m just darned stubborn. So, when I set a goal, I like to see it through. I’m planning on seeing this one through to the end.

I have no particular line of topics that I will write about. I imagine it will be a little like me-a rough idea with a lot of flexibility, but not too loose as to have no direction. Mostly, I imagine it will be filled with topics that I am interested in. That’s the beauty of writing with no agenda for outcome.

Some of the topics, for those who don’t know me or have not visited my profile, include, spirituality, family, nature, cooking, traveling, poetry, and humor. To me, humor is the grace of God to see us through the times we take ourselves too seriously.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this hub: I may be nervous about meeting this challenge, and, on investigation, it may have to do with a fear of failure; however, when I put the whole exercise into a realistic perspective I realize I am taking this commitment far too seriously. I’m here to have fun writing in the next 30 days and invite you along on my journey.

Happy New Year to all of you and may we each experience a year filled with love, contentment, and personal achievement, in whatever way that may be for us.

Hubchallenge #1 is written on 1/1/11. How cool is that!