Humility is the virtue that requires the greatest amount of effort. ~ Philippine Duchesne #quote
Reading about child development years ago, I found a metaphor to help explain perceived set-backs in child behavior. Imagine a house of cards made with six cards. Each card represents something a child has learned. Let’s say the first card represents learning how to say “sorry” and the second card represents learning how to put away their toys. This child’s house of cards took years to build and both child and parent proud! Then. Tantrum. Tantrum. Tantrum. The child will not put away his toys or say “sorry.” The house of cards collapses.
In a month or two or six, the child returns to improved behaviors. Not only do they put away their toys and say they are sorry, they offer to share their toys with others and say “please.” The child has rebuilt their house of cards, to include more cards which make the house bigger and stronger. In this way, the collapse of the house of cards can be reframed as a precursor to growth and maturity.
It’s not only children who build with cards. Teens and adults have accumulated thousands of cards, building and building until one day, the house collapses. Collapse may be brought on by something obvious like a tragedy or emotionally hitting bottom. Sometimes, life simply provides “aha” moments or a sudden desire to strive for a goal. I have a goal.
Within the year I want to formalize my work as a life and family coach. With the spirit of an entrepreneur, I want to set up my own shop, much of which will be online. I’ve knocked my work related house of cards down and now I’m rebuilding.
Transitions are bumpy. I want to improve this blog and integrate it better into my broad love for social media as well as my future work. It has been several months since I went active with this blog and I’m grateful to say that I’m here to stay. Thank you for providing an environment of courtesy, thoughtfulness, and fun! So, I’m knocking down this blog and only want to keep what works best for you and me. Your suggestions to this end are always welcome.
What to you find most helpful an enjoyable about your favorite blogs? What things turn you away from blogs? If you are a blogger, what is your favorite insight or improvement that you’ve made to your blog?
Thank you for your help, encouragement, and loyalty. ~~~~~~~~ Angie Mc
Family Love Does More 
I was beginning to miss your posts, Angie. Glad to see you here. Transitions can be bumpy for sure, but well worth the while. Through my years working as an educator, I made changes to what I did in that environment to keep things interesting. I also thought that renewal also meant not getting burned out.
After I retired, I chose to write a blog about my favorite subject and still, in the teaching mode, teach readers how to do it right. I like to read blogs that link personal info and the subject matter together.
Here is an example of a blog I enjoy reading: http://sercocinera.wordpress.com/
Good luck with your redesign.
Jovina
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Jovina! How awesome to learn more about you and, like you, I’m an educator by trade and heart. I can see your passion at your blog and your blog is so very *alive*. I’ve been entrenched in and teaching about family living for years and want to find that happy balance between sharing my family life with broader principles. I’m getting there, but am definitely at the beginning of the learning curve in how this translates online and into new work. As a life long learner, I’ll never be bored and I’m guessing that is, in part, why we click because you are too 🙂 And thank you very much for missing me. Such a high compliment ❤ Happy weekend!
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Awesome post Angie and good luck. I was getting worried, I hadn’t seen you in a while.
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The positive side of me dropping the blog ball is that it is very sweet to be missed ❤ Thanks, Maggie. I look forward to hopping over to you blog to get caught up. How's your summer? Mine is HOT 🙂
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What a terrific analogy, Angie. I love when I can apply metaphors to complex human components of life. It simplifies things to such an extent I can extract so much more out of them.
And I’m really glad things are ticking along in the right direction for you. I, for one, certainly look forward to reading more of your words in the future.
Cheers to your progress!
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Thanks for the encouragement, Shelley! I’m easily entangled in details so I truly appreciate analogies, metaphors, and general principles that help me to grasp life with more clarity. I’ll take all the help I can get! And you might appreciate that I watched USA vs Portugal World Cup with my house full of men, teens, boys…and survived 🙂 You?
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Well done, you! And I hope all were happy with a draw. In my house, no one sees the bright side of a tie. It’s either win or die. Time for some Advil. 😛
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Of course no one was happy with the draw! Oh. My. Advil 😀 Great week ahead to you and yours and may the soccer gods see fit to give USA a victory over Germany on Thursday 🙂
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One of the most important things about a blog to me is honesty. I have seen from my blog that people want to see the real you and not some perfected or sugar coated version, and You have a nice blog here.
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Thanks for stopping by, Diana! I agree. Honesty, truth, vulnerability, trust…I value these in life and hope they shine through my blog. No sugar coating here 🙂 On of my favorite compliments came when an online friend met me in person and said, “You are exactly what I expected.” Nice 🙂 Have a great week ahead and I look forward to reading more from you.
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How exciting!! I look forward to seeing where this all takes you..I foresee great things xxx
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Your encouragement means so much to me, Kate! I love your energy and how it leaps off your blog. Hopefully it’s contagious and I’ll catch it 🙂 Have an awesome week ❤
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I’m a newcomer to your blog and I like your open way of saying whatever it is that you want to share. Wishing you the best in your new path.
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Thanks for the feedback and well wishes. “Open way” is a huge compliment for me. I’m working hard to be more open, true, fluid…battling the uptight part of myself, lol! Your blog is an inspiration to me, especially in the area of content curation and passionate voice. Thanks for the positive example.
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True dat: transitions are bumpy. I always feel like I fell off of a wagon and then rolled down a ravine or sumthin’ when it comes to makin’ transitions in my life.
Love your blog and your wonderful family pic header. Ya know, your profile pic is a refreshing one to see also (mine kinda looks a bit depressin’, I know). Yours, on the other hand, looks like an ad to welcome folks to some sunny resort or as if you’re in a great hair product ad. You take great pics!
As I’ve been bloggin’ consistently for just a year now, I have to say that it’s just the folks I meet along the way (like you!) who make it worthwhile. I just totally enjoy the “international friendship”. :oD
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sf, you have made my day! Thank you so very much for your kindness, courtesy, and generosity. You have a beautiful and fresh way with words and your blog is a pleasure to browse. I enjoy the international friendships, too. Love is so big, so broad, so far reaching 🙂 Have a blessed rest of the weekend ❤
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Those times when “Real Life” gets in the way of our best intentions can be viewed as disasters or opportunities. Glad you chose the latter, Angie. I’m kind of struggling with this issue, too. My business is fiction writing, but so many other writers do those type of blogs so well that I decided to write about my other passion, gardening, instead. I rarely run out of topics but now, after blogging for something over a year (seems to be a normal time to reassess, I think!) I am wanting to integrate more of my fiction into my gardening world without losing all the people who expect tales from the real garden, not a fictional one.
One of the lessons I’ve learned is that brevity takes more time but is worth the extra work.
My early posts were earnest tomes of knowledge–way too long and encyclopedic!
So I bet you’ve learned a lot about your own style over this past year that could be applied to your new goals. Just keep up your positive, affirming attitude. I really like that about you, and good luck reshaping your blog! I’ll be keeping tabs on your progress.
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Faith, you are the best! Thank you so very much for your specific feedback. I will definitely stay positive and affirming. And I want to add another dimension or two…give more depth. Still pondering 🙂
Personally, I love your blog as-is AND I can totally see you finding a creative way to merge your two passions of gardening and fiction writing. And I had to laugh about “tomes”, not yours, but in general 🙂 I agree that brevity is a reader’s best friend BUT there seems to be room for lengthy content as well. Check out this post from Buffer http://blog.bufferapp.com/the-ideal-length-of-everything-online-according-to-science Hmmm…I do think we’re onto something and I’m glad to be in on this blog review thing together. Wherever this takes us, I’m surely grateful to have met you through blogging 🙂
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Nice post. Life is about constant change and breaking out of our comfort zone regularly is good thing to do. Its not easy though 🙂
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Fascinating article and quite accurate! Transitions are certainly bumpy…
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