It’s hard to believe that I’m celebrating 10 years of writing a blog. [Yes, that also means I’ve been retired for over 10 years.] The blogging world has shifted in the past 10 years; many bloggers I started following early on have moved onto other things as life transitions happened. Other bloggers have moved to podcasts. But I’m still a words-on-paper girl and prefer blogs over podcasts. I find that writing has a way of helping me sort through my thinking and I love how comments from readers provide me with different perspectives.
Given the magnitude of this anniversary, I did a long look back over the years of my blogging.
I have made 439 blog posts. Not as prolific as some others, but who knew I had that much to say! I’ve had over 53,000 visitors to my blog – again, not as many as many other bloggers but simply amazing to me. My most popular post this past 12 months was Living with Uncertainty. In the past 3 years my most popular post was Retirement A to Z. [I can’t figure out older than that – my blogging technical skills are not that good.]
My first year of blogging was all about how I was applying the product design process from my career to my retirement. I blogged about many of life’s domains and how to approach them as one transitions into retirement – relationships, healthy living, to work or not to work, location, exploring possibilities. Much of that blog content ended up in my book, Retirement Transition, still available on Amazon – link here.
Year two of my blog saw me finding new life tools, many of which I still use. My Morning Journal will often include an Emotional Assessment and I’ve chosen a Word Of The Year (WOTY) on and off through the years. This second year of blogging about retirement transition saw me “trying on” new things like yoga (which I still do) and becoming a certified Retirement Life Coach (which I don’t still do).
Year three of blogging saw big life changes and the realization that retirement life, like non-retirement life, was full of transitions. We downsized into a new house (in Ohio) with the plan to snowbird (in Florida), took a trip of a lifetime (African Safari), and I got cancer. There was a refinement on my retirement lifestyle vision and the introduction of seasonal bucket lists/action plans (another new tool that I’ve used on/off through the years).
Year 4 saw more transitions with me stopping the consulting work I had been doing since I retired, us finally trying on snow-birding (my retirement life vision), and me trying on even more new things like learning to ride a motorcycle and do meditation (neither was successful). I also published my Retirement Transitions book!
Year 5 was a year of personal exploration. I blogged about exploring spirituality, positivity, and gratitude. We made the decision to move full time to Florida (a major retirement life vision shift), but could not execute it immediately. Year 6 was The Pandemic where I focused on a deep exploration of positive psychology, self-limiting beliefs, and personality profiling (Enneagram). I did some major refinement to my retirement lifestyle vision, with a big push of putting Positive Psychology into Practice.
Year 7 was the major transition of the Big Move to permanent residency in Florida. This was not my original retirement vision, but refinement is a critical aspect of my Retirement Transition Process. The ups and down of creating a new lifestyle was blogged about, and I relooked at my entire Retirement Transition Process in a series of throw-back posts.
Blogging in year 8 had my first summer study as I dabbled in exploring and summarizing areas of interest – goddess archetypes, feminine consciousness, triggers and glimmers. Summer in Florida is hot, so indoor summer study projects seemed like a good thing to do! Year 8 was also learning the reality of living in Florida – from our first evacuation to settling into the hobbies I love. And there was the heartache of losing my mom just weeks after we had moved her to live closer to us.
Year 9 had me working though grief, coming back to seasonal action plans, and finding acceptance in life as it is – the reality of friendship (versus the fantasies of friendship), the realization that I’d finally found my volunteering places, and accepting I was a dabbler at heart (it’s all about engagement, not mastery).
Blog year 10 began with another summer study – this one on salt-tolerant plants, not realizing the full impact of that as we then experienced complete house and yard devastation with hurricane storm surge (salt-water) flooding. Year 10 has turned into a year of blogging about recovery – both physically (house) and emotionally (me).
It’s fascinating to see recurring themes through the years – questions on identity (Who Am I), the challenge of being versus doing, understanding what is accomplishment, purpose, and friendship are at this stage of life. I’ve shared a lot of my personal development, from putting Positive Psychology into Practice to changing self-liming beliefs to dealing with grief, trauma, and anger.
Back in July 2015, I entered the blogging world naïve, with a desire to write and share my thoughts. The inner sage in me wanted to share my learning about retirement transitioning, so I called my blog Retirement Transition, thinking it was about transitioning from full-time work into the unchartered (for me) space of retirement. I didn’t realize the significant transitions that would happen in our retirement– from the major ones (cancer, the pandemic, moving states, my mom’s unexpected passing, losing our home) to the minor ones (“trying things on” with many things not working out, learning how to live with a more positive outlook, coming to terms with expectations versus real desires, working on self-acceptance). I also didn’t realize how much I would learn from others – the bloggers I began to follow, the comments I receive on my blog.
It’s been a wonderful journey. I’m glad I modified my blog theme to recognize that Retirement Life is a Series of Transitions. I’m not sure what the next 10 years will hold, but I’m going to keep blogging about it for a while!
Thanks for reading!
Picture credit: me, the backdrop from a wonderful play about storytelling we saw this past weekend.
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Congrats on your 10-year anniversary. I love how you were able to break down each year into life passages. I hope Year 11 will be one of further growth and recovery for you.
I’ve also noticed more and more bloggers that I’ve followed for a while disappearing. Every once in a while, I search out new ones but I already follow too many and have less time to keep up. I’m with you on podcast blogs. That type of engagement doesn’t work for me so I usually just pass them by without listening. I prefer the written word.
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I’ve picked up a couple of new bloggers to follow. I still love the “old group” I’ve read for years, even if some are more sporadic in their posting. It always feels like hearing from an old friend. So I do hope you keep blogging…you were the very first blogger I followed!
It was insightful looking back over the 10 years and I know I would not have had that insight without my blog posts.
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Happy 10yr blog anniversary Pat!! I know I’m happy to have found your blog about 4-5 years ago before I retired. Your posts helped me feel good about where I was and to build a plan or guide for where I want to be. I’ve settled into my 4th year of retirement and still enjoy reading your posts about your journey. I’m really drawn to the posts where you pose a question or subject then you dive into the research and share your findings. I’m happy to hear you plan to keep posting!!! 😍
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I’m so glad you enjoy those research type of posts. I’m still a researcher inside and I do love when I can then synthesize things and figure out “so what”. My next post is actually along this vein again. I’m also glad you found my posts helpful in your own journey into retirement! I appreciate you telling me that.
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Congratulations on 10 years of blogging! I loved the summary of your focus for each year. It really has been a time of transitions for you.
“accepting I was a dabbler at heart (it’s all about engagement, not mastery).” I can so totally relate to this. I’ve also been seeking a more positive outlook and pondering this idea of friendship as you mentioned. Hopes vs. reality.
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Last year, pre-hurricane, I was working on self acceptance. Accepting being a dabbler and being okay with not even trying to reach mastery in any area is still a struggle for me as a recovering perfectionist. Recognizing that the fantasy of friendship as portrayed in books/movies, etc. was just that… a fantasy. And then accepting what I have in my life now is friendship, the reality of friendship in a world full of life transitions. I’m glad these ideas resonate with you.
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Congrats on your 10 year blogging anniversary. You have been more reliable than I when it comes to posting. I’m still waiting to see when I’ll have more time. I’m sure you’ve found the key is making time, not waiting for it. That needs to be my goal.
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Writing for me can be what they call “flow” and so I do try and make the time for it. When I don’t write for too long, I get stressed. Not all my writing makes it to blogs, but something pops eventually that feels “blog-like”. If you have other things that bring you that sense of flow, spend time there! There’s no timelines or deadlines for blog postings… only self imposed ones.
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Congrats on 10 yrs of blogging. Your ability to suss out the annual themes is impressive. Life is full of transiitions providing opportunity for personal growth. A song by Patty Loveless comes to mind – How Can I Help You Say Goodbye – with the line, “LIfe’s about changing, nothing ever stays the same.” Also, a poem by Veronica Shoffstall – After A While. The song & the poem resonate with the theme of goodbye as life transitions have us saying hello to something new following each goodbye.
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That’s a wonderful way of thinking about transitions – “saying hello to something new following each goodbye”. We so often focus on what we are leaving behind with transition, as the new can be uncomfortable, full of learning curves and uncertainty. I think looking back on my transitions for me right now was helpful in seeing I made it through all of them, often with personal growth, and so I know I will make it through the latest one as well.
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Congratulations on 10 years in blogland. I’m glad I found you along the way. I’ve enjoyed reading about your transitions and the questions they’re raised for you. In my observation it’s the bloggers who accept their life transitions then stick with blogging to talk about them who are the most interesting.
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Thanks Ally for thinking I’m interesting! Sometimes I do wonder! I guess we all do. One things I’m sure of now, I do expect to have more life transitions… and hoping moving into a new home is one that happens soon! But I’m probably going to be blogging about the headaches of building before that transition occurs.
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Congratulations Pat. Living life out loud and having your blog as an accountability partner for ten years is a huge accomplishment – growth, reflective moments, connections, the evolution of mind, body, and spirit. It’s all right there, in your own words. I enjoyed your recap very much. Ten years, wow!
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Suzanne, what a great way to think about the blog – an accountability partner. It’s also a digital diary. Looking back, it was amazing to me to see how my life has unfolded the past 10 years. I’m not sure I’d have been able to capture the growth and evolution if it wasn’t there…in my own words, as you say.
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53,000 visitors is a lot of people. Congrats on your 10 year milestone, that’s something to celebrate!
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Hi Pat – congrats on 10 years and all the transitions that has encompassed. I look back on my 10 years or so on the blog and can see a number of transitions too. One thing that continues to stand out for me is how much happier and how much more at peace I am these days. I really think retirement has been the best gift ever – I just love the freedom and flexibility that I never grasped when I was working. Here’s to many more happy years of living life our way and blogging about it as we go. x
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Leanne, those two words really do sum it up – the freedom and flexibility that you don’t have when you’re working full time. I loved that today I could just putter all day long – no rush to be anywhere or do anything. I don’t think I ever had days like that working, not even weekend or vacation days.
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Couldn’t have said it better myself!
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Congratulations on 10 years of blogging.
I wondered what that backdrop was. Lovely colours.
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Thank you Liz.
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