Yippee! Today I published my 30th of 30 hubs in less than 30 days! This is the 31^stJ. When I started out on this journey, I made a commitment to myself – that I need to write one hub a day or more in order to successfully complete this challenge. I had not been writing frequently at hub pages and thus this looked like quite a challenge.

While I had no doubt that I could do it, there were VOICES in my head. There was that voice that was urging me on, saying it will be fun, go ahead and take it up, and then there was that other “VOICE” in my head that questioned me- “do you really think you can do it? What if you cannot?” and I shushed that voice. It has always been there, even at work when I plan my schedules, when I commit dates to clients, or my team or my boss, this voice used to scare me. I’d always push myself and deliver before the date I had committed to. I’ve always met my deadlines – usually before time. As I did this time too. So for me, it is time to ‘squish’ that ” VOICE Of DOUBT” forever. It is a kill joy. It has been detrimental for me in many ways. This challenge is one of the things that has helped me overcome that feeling of self doubt that so often was sabotaging my confidence.

It was certainly not easy, this journey. I did have my moments of despair in the beginning when I’d wonder what to write about; or hit a writer’s block and then whip myself mentally for having done something so stupid as taking up that challenge, but it has been well worth all that.

This challenge has gotten me into the habit of writing at least one hub per day. (There were times when I managed more than one.) The happy side effects are that the number of hubs I published has increased and the steady flow has been very good for my hub score! I’ve yet to look at my Adsense account; i don’t know what has happened there.

Also in a way, due to wrtiting consistently everyday, I have moved from being motivated to being inspired. Somewhere down the line, it has happened. I began to look forward to writing and creating a hub instead of feeling like I had to do it because I said I would, and there was and still is a feeling of excitement because I rarely knew what the hub is going to be about till I started it. Sometimes I get an idea in my head, and then I couldn’t wait to get it all written down and sometimes I’d scrap everything I had written and start all over again..

I think this challenge has affected all those who took it up in some way. I even read a couple of hubs where the author was venting feelings of frustration over this challenge, of how a lot of hubbers were not paying attention to quality and all that. I did share some of those sentiments myself but not for too long. I just decided to keep my eyes on the finish line. I had taken up the challenge to raise the bar for myself. I did feel the need to get out of my comfort zone. I reminded myself I'm doing this for the fun of it, so there was no point getting stressed out about it. That would bring back the fun and the stress would just dissolve. It was only after I published that 30^thhub that I felt the exhilaration and the joy of having beaten that “voice of doubt”.

Now I have a new challenge ahead of me, I need to keep the pace of publishing one hub a day and not slip back into the old habit of writing sporadically or feeling like it is a chore. This is MY HUB. More importantly I want to ride on that feeling of exhilaration. I raised the bar and I lived up to it. I also learnt to have fun with whatever I am doing, no matter what the task at hand looked like.

That is how one changes habits of a lifetime, that is how one evolves, by continually raising the bar and having fun!