On January 25, 2019, I took a big breath and hit “Publish” on sherribassner.com.  In preparation for writing this essay, I decided to reread all I’ve written over these five years: about 130 essays, and around 156,000 words.  It took me a while.  My first thought was, “Wow—I’ve written a book.  Maybe two books.”  I guess I can say that’s one life goal met.

My second thought was, “Just goes to show—when you really have passion for something and make it a priority, you can do big things.”  To get to this point, I had to first figure out HOW to create a blog.  I started, cleverly, by Googling, “How to create a blog.”  Oftentimes, for me, just that first step is an impassable barrier.  But I found a tutorial on how to create a website and set up a basic blog (the creator got a commission from my hosting site) and got going.  Putting my writing out there was really scary.  I am not known for having a thick skin but if I was going to do this, I had to accept the vulnerability.  I oscillated between just wanting to keep this among my friends and family and, of course, wanting to be a viral sensation and Oprah or Brené Brown getting me a book deal.  I’m pretty happy with where things have landed. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 subscribers, which means that in addition to my close friends and family, there are a bunch of acquaintances and even people I don’t know at all who felt compelled enough by something I wrote to go through the process of subscribing.  In addition to the subscribers, each post gets somewhere around an additional 50-100 hits.  While this doesn’t really sound like a lot of people, I am still amazed that that many people occasionally read something I wrote!  Know that I am so honored each time one of you chooses to read an essay.

As I read through the body of work, I noticed a few things.  First, that the initial year was pretty strong!  I credit both Trish’s editing skill (who knew I mixed tenses so frequently?) and the fact that most of those first essays were thoughts that had been clogging my brain for years.  If you are new-ish to the blog and are looking for those essays focused more on career coaching, you’ll find most of them in those first two years.  Those lessons still resonate.  As time went on and I began to write more about “life lessons,” the pull-through of those topics I coached on was pretty clear.  It’s a reminder to all of us that there is not a big difference between effective behavior in the workplace and effective behavior in life—as well as the importance of being your authentic self in both arenas.

My favorite pieces tend to be the “theme arcs.”  Early on there was the three part-er on Transitioning to Retirement.  A bit later was a deep series on creating sustainable change in yourself, anchored by the example of the weight loss journey that Trish and I went on during the pandemic.  I have written many times in these essays that I know I am not breaking new philosophical ground with what I write.  I hope, though, that I am finding ways of expressing thoughts that help you better internalize and then act on the lessons.  I know when I read on personal growth, I am rarely confronted with brand new thinking.  However, I am often exposed to ways of thinking about a topic that make me say, “I never thought about it that way” which helps me internalize and use a thought more effectively.  I hope I’ve been able to occasionally do that for some of you.

I also hope I’ve made you laugh a bit.  My all-time favorite essay has to be A Day in the Life, the story of when Trish and I got new cell phones.  I can be a very serious person, especially in my writing, yet I try to inject humor when I can.  Laughing, particularly laughing at yourself, is one of the healthiest things you can do.  This is a crazy world we live in and it can be easy to get caught up in all the drama.  One of my themes continues to be taking a deep breath and recognizing that you can only control so much.  Giving yourself the grace to laugh and release a little of that external stress gives you the fortitude and energy to then work to effect change outward.

Speaking of external stressors, 2020 provided a lot of food for thought and writing.  What a year that was!  A global pandemic, a contentious election, and a lot of social unrest.  It was fascinating to live through that.  My writing during that time captured the angst, yet I was glad to see I didn’t totally dwell on it.  My journal is another story!  And, when I was going through my hard drive printing out essays, I found several drafts that I had written during that time that I just couldn’t publish.  There was a lot of rage that I wasn’t comfortable sharing.

Things have settled down a bit for now, yet I know there will still be much to write about going forward.  I do feel, though, that I am at a bit of an inflection point.  To me, the Abecedarium started to become a bit derivative toward the end.  While I was gratified to see that I hadn’t repeated myself too much in the bulk of my writing, over these last few months I kept circling around the same thoughts.  Maybe it was the pressure of my self-imposed biweekly publishing deadline.  Maybe I just need to take a little time to reset.

I’m going to close this reflective essay with a request.  Over these last five years, I’ve gotten amazing feedback and encouragement from so many of you.  If you have some thoughts to share with me on what kinds of essays you’ve enjoyed the most or found most useful, I would appreciate hearing that.  Is there anything in particular you’d like me to write about more (or less)?  I know I’m going to keep this blog going for at least a little while longer (I just re-upped the hosting fees for another year) but I am going to back off the biweekly posting goal.  I want to make sure when I post something, it is on a topic I have felt strongly about.  My frequency will be more unpredictable.  (Don’t worry—there are at least three topics going on in my head right now.)

Thank you for joining me on this very personal journey.  As noted above, I am humbled that you have taken the time to read some of my writing and have found it enjoyable/useful.  While I started writing for me, I keep writing for you.  Oh, and if anyone has any thoughts on how I might get a book deal, I’m all ears!  Apparently, I’m going to need the income since Trish says she’s going to start charging me editing.