Five days later and... | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

…my second goal on joining the Yakezie is down.

When I joined on November 1st, I announced two goals in the six months: to be below 200k globally and to be below 10k in the UK. As you know the former was my NY present. Now, five days later, The Money Principle is at 9,997 in the UK (well, it is below 10k, in'it).

I had to tell somebody and the natural choice was this group. It is a bit like long distance running: only another marathon runner can comprehend how upsetting it is to run a marthon 5 min slower than you planned. 'Normal' people say: 'but you run for close to 5 hours; what difference do 5 min make?'

This is the last time I brag, I promise. Now back to work.

Love to all

Maria

Not bragging…good news is worth sharing!

Nicely done! Congrats!

Congratulations

Congrats  - Great to hear your progress!

Congrats!  The hard work is paying off!

Thank you for your kind words. Now to Jai's question, what has changed.

First, I was tempted to say 'not much' but then thinking about it this is very similar to the way I felt after my viva (sometime ago now but the feeling is hard to forget). After the initial elation and the inevitable emotional 'land crash' what is left is the following:

1) I don't mumble about 'blogging a little' (I live in the UK, after all, and here we do mumble about these things); I have been telling people about my blog;

2) I start thinking of myself as 'a blogger' – the interesting effect is that I am relaxing with blogging so it is even more fun;

3) I have started thinking about the other aspects of 'blogging' except content – content is important but now is time to focus on navigation, technical aspects, look.

4) I have proof that this is an amazing group of people – if one needs to discuss something, support etc. just ask. This feels good because now I can properly give back. The Yakezie network also reminds me of what academic communities used to be – groups of peers where people support each other to be extraordinary. Yes, we inevitably compete but it is in our interest for everone else to be very good; this is the only way for each of us to become even better.

5) Last, yesterday I was approached for the first time for advertising – now this is very interesting given that the state of my blog doesn't really make it easy for people to get in touch.

I thought I'd share in a way of thanks (and giving back); this is also a good avoidance technique – have to edit loads of academic papers (other people's) for my day job and this is not amongst my favourites.

Maria

Congrats!