June is a very special month in my writing calendar.

I published my very first blog article on June 29th 2017. Every year since the topic of my June blog article is looking back and reflecting on my writing journey.

In this month’s article I will share with you my successes and challenges and most importantly my lessons learned. Hopefully they will be somewhat useful and/or relevant to your own journey.

Articles published between June 2020 & June 2021

During the past twelve months I have published the following articles which I have listed under the three categories you see below:

Covid related

Motherhood

Life lessons & reflections

Writing challenges between July 2020 & June 2021

While preparing the content for this article, I was reading my anniversary article from last year “THREE YEARS OF WRITING. THE JOURNEY CONTINUES…” where I describe the time between June 2019 to June 2020 as probably “the most challenging months in my grown up life.”

Well, I cannot say that July 2020 to June 2021 has been easier. To be honest with you, I have been struggling with the work-life-covid pandemic balance for pretty much every single month since last June.

And even then, for the past four years April 2021 was the first and only month I didn’t manage to publish an article on the last Thursday of the month. I just couldn’t. It was all too much and as much as I wanted to push myself I just couldn’t find the power to do so.

I have been promising myself to catch up ever since and although my April blog article is 80% ready, I still struggle to find the time and energy to finish and publish it. But trust me, I will!

Writing aspirations for the next twelve months

While trying to figure out how to balance work with my role as a mother in a situation of a world pandemic, I was not able to meet my aspirational goals for the past twelve moths.

By this June I was hoping to be able to share every article both in English and Bulgarian so my Bulgarian readers could potentially also enjoy and/or benefit from my stories.

However, considering the pandemic situation managing my responsibilities at work with being a mother and running the house was enough of a challenge to allow me to take my blog to the next level.

This doesn’t mean that I have given up on the goal to make my site bi-lingual. Even though I am not there yet, having the intention and making small and consistent steps in the direction of getting there is what keeps me doing what I am doing, namely publishing a new blog article every last Thursday of the month.

If anyone has any tips and tricks on how to find a low barrier way to publish my articles in both languages, your help is highly appreciated!

What’s in it for you?

Despite the fact that I had a challenging year and I am not where I was hoping I would be today, here I am celebrating four years since the publishing date of my first blog article.

I cannot express how proud I feel about reaching this major milestone.

The message I want to convey with this article is that it is ok to not always hit your targets. It’s ok to take a hit and take a step back. As long as you do not lose trust in your goal and you don’t forget what is important to you.

With this article I would like to acknowledge the fact that we are humans. As much as we want to plan, control and push ourselves in the direction of our goals, targets and dreams, when your body is crashing and your soul screams for a break, nothing can be as urgent or as important as giving yourself the time that you need to recharge.

I may have skipped one month of writing in four years but I have still produced 47 blog articles.

What I have learned and I would like to share with you today is that we should not let a moment of weakness or desperation crash our spirits and define our defeat.

When you are faced with a challenge, listen to your inner voice and do whatever seems true to you in that particular moment in time. Take as much time as you need but don’t forget your goal.

And when the time comes, come back and continue with your journey…