My Most Recent A-Ha Moment

What do I mean by a-ha?

Have you ever struggled with a problem? I don’t mean those ones that keep you up and night or seem insurmountable. What I mean are those things that don’t sit right with you, the thoughts and ideas surrounding the issue doesn’t seem to fit and you just “know” something isn’t right.

Yeah, me too.

I’ve been struggling with balance between my work and home life, between my non-fiction writing and my fiction writing, and my writing blog and my business blog.

The story goes back for a while.

I’ve been blogging for over three years now and have always wanted my blog to actually pay the bills. Which, I’ve discovered, is easier said than done.

Still, I enjoy blogging and interacting with people. I haven’t minded not pushing the monetization of my blog. I never wanted a blog filled with ads and whatnot anyway.

Coaching, I decided, would be my way to combine the two parts of my life: creativity (writing) and my professional license. Yay, me.

Well, I’ve been working toward my certification in creativity coaching for probably a year and a half. It is a perfect fit for me since I live a creative life and I’ve been helping people face and move beyond their issues for over 10 years.

Sounds great, right?

My brain doesn’t work that way. My brain tends to focus on certain issues (quite often not even the most important ones) and won’t let me move forward.

I’ve been working on this and have actually made progress. I can now actively work on issues rather than just stew on them.

Flash forward to about 6 months ago, as my brain was working out how I was going to combine my current blog with one specific for coaching. This idea is something that came from one of the many classes I’ve taken and is also where my brain got stuck.

Yes, stuck.

Six months ago, I had a flash of inspiration to create a new blog specifically related to coaching, which I did. I worked on and off on the structure of this blog for a few months before finally writing blog posts.

The next problem that showed up, just after I began writing blog posts, is that this no longer felt “right”.

The Problem

The problem is that this blog, AC Hoekwater, got neglected during this time. I didn’t want that either but how could I balance this?

I like this blog. I’ve worked hard on it. How could I make it work?

My brain once again began chewing on this problem. I kept working on my other blog all the while feeling out of sorts.

My Aha Moment

My aha moment came very recently. I woke up on Saturday morning and knew that I needed to somehow combine my blogs. There was no reason to have two when I could make this one work for both. Something I couldn’t see up to six months ago.

So, I’ve combined my two blogs. For the moment, you can still reach the Creativity Advocate but all, or most, of the information that is on that site has been moved to this one. I’m still working on fine tuning all of the details but I’m quite proud of what I have so far.

Though AC Hoekwater looks different, again, it is still the same blog. Only now, it is more.

You can sign up for a free coaching session, in case you ever wanted to know what that was like. As I am working on my certifications, yes, there are two of them, but that is another problem, I am in need of practice clients. This opportunity won’t be available for long so take advantage of it now.

I’m still working on a Resource page. I will be putting links to my favorite tools and books for you to enjoy. Check back to see those.

I will continue to write new content weekly although it will nearly always be a surprise as to what it will be. One of my brain teasers is how to create, maintain and follow through with an editorial calendar.

Lessons Learned

If I have learned anything throughout this process, it is to be patient with myself. It can take me a while to think through a problem and I have to give myself the time to do that.

Another lesson is to plan my work, then work the plan. I tend to simply jump before I have a plan. I think I do this to circumvent the paralyzing fear that holds me back. The clean up that occurs when I fail to plan can be a pain.

A final lesson is that feeling where everything simply fits is worth the wait. That is the aha moment. The moment where everything comes together and  you just know – that is worth the wait.

So, thank you for being patient and for sticking around. I hope to offer new things like webinars on journaling etc and I’m in the middle of an ebook on surviving NaNoWriMo. Stay tuned.

Until next time,
Angela