1 year Anniversary

Happy Anniversary, me!

I never imagined twelve months ago today when I started this blog that I would soon discover a new love in blogging, and that my blog would reach over 8000 page views and that I would have written 118 posts.

I am so glad that I finally took the step to create a blog, as blogging has taught me that I love writing more than just novels - I just simply love writing.

Did I achieve the goals that I set out for myself?

- Blogging - yes.
I blogged a lot more than I thought I would - I 'hoped' to write two or three posts per month.  I ended up writing just for the Char Mesan Writes blog 118 posts.  I also opened up a couple of other blogs and wrote articles and posts for those blogs; it makes it that my 'hope' was very conservative in estimate.

- Weight Loss - no!

I started the year off (like all good New Year's Resolutions) really well, but by late February, early March I was losing momentum.  I've since realised that every summer I naturally lose weight because I love eating fresh seasonal foods like cherries, raspberries, strawberries, peaches, plums and mango to snack on, and it can get too hot to cook so I enjoy salads and grilled or BBQ'd meat for dinners. With all that healthy, non-fatting foods, and the natural increase in drinking water to stay hydrated against our soaring temperatures, I tend to 'slim down' about a dress size without really trying.  The only time I don't lose that weight slowly is if I eat too much ice-cream to cool down.

But then winter comes back and the summer foods that I love so much disappear from the supermarket shelves, and the weight slowly creeps back on again.  As much as I would love to be slim again and at my ideal weight, I've worked out that I don't stick at fad diets or 'get fit' kicks.

So, this year's resolution was to just accept my size and try to eat healthily without resorting to diets that once I fail at only cause me to become fatter afterwards.

Although I set the goal for myself to walk four days per week, after a fall where I skinned and bruised both knees quite badly because my poor night eyesight caused me to not see a huge 'pothole' in a grassy gravel section I had to walk through, I ceased going for walks on my own, especially because it had taken me ages (after badly injuring my right arm at work two months earlier) to get back to my feet.

Though, you may be interested to know, that my non-goal setting or following son, moved out of home and made improvements to the foods he now cooked for himself, and he lost the ten kilos that he had wanted to lose not from following any diet or exercise program but from simply (finally) adding salad and vegetables to his diet - I know, I know, why did he fight me all the way for so long! 

- Change Employer - yes.

I applied for a lot of positions outside of the Employment Services industry which I was getting increasingly fed up with, (ultimately) without success.  Too many employers interviewed me and later said that I was too over-qualified for the job, even though I had removed a lot of my great skills from my resume so I wouldn't be dismissed for lesser roles when I applied for them. Unfortunately, although I was getting results in that I my applications were working and I was being invited to interviews, overall I was not successful in being offered the jobs because I didn't disguise my higher abilities during the interview and employers felt I would get bored with a role which involved me just coming to work, doing my job and then going home. Maybe they were right for the long term, but it was what I was craving for the short term.

After setting the goal and following a strong action plan and technically still not getting success, plus with my current employer continuing to place even greater demands on its staff that was simply impossible to achieve, I realised that I actually genuinely love helping people gain work; and that it is just the different focus on placing people into a job, any old job, whether the client wanted to do that type of work or not, that I didn't like about the employment services industry and the work I was doing, plus the constant demand to do more, achieve more and never being given any time to do any of it that was what was causing me to hate my job so much. 

So, one day, I just resigned.


My mum was sick with chemotherapy treatment and had needed me to act as a carer for a few weeks, and the employer expected me to put my work ahead of everything including my mum and told me that if I take the time off I would be expected to still place the same amount of clients into jobs when I got back, so, worried about Mum and also developing a few health issues myself, I resigned.


By this time, I had completely fallen in love with writing and blogging and desired being a full time writer; and after discussions with my children once Mum was over the last of her chemotherapy and had 'survived' her cancer, I decided to become self-employed again.

A number of years ago I worked for myself as a typist and resume writer, and now having even greater experience and those same abilities to type and write quality resumes for people, I figured I may as well return to working for myself so that I could once again focus on helping the client without the push to place and keep them into whatever work we managed to gain for them.

And, for the short amount of time I have been operating the business, I'm starting to get more and more work - which I am happy about.

This year, I am going to keep writing resumes for my clients (I love seeing the delight on their faces when I give them their new resume), and writing articles to help with their jobsearch (I love readers telling me that they are finding my articles and blog posts helpful).  I have a few 'ideas' up my sleeve, which I will be working on during my 'quiet' business periods.

So, Happy 1st Anniversary to me; hopefully this time next year I'll have even more positive results to share!