What this therapist learned from doing a 30 Day Blog challenge……

On August 24th, I completed my first 30 day blog challenge.  I really didn’t know if I could do it.   Blogging every day for 30 days seemed like a lot.   It would have seemed like a lot regardless, but for some crazy reason I decided to start the initial blog challenge when my therapy practice was at it’s busiest and I was juggling to fit things in.   But, somehow I did it and blogged daily even though I had a lot going on.  I was even organized enough to write and schedule 3 posts to be published while I was on vacation.

You may be thinking… So what?  That’s good for you, Sarah, but what does this have to do with me or professional development for mental health providers?  I don’t even want to blog!

Here’s how I think this post relates to professional development for mental health providers, even if they have no interest in blogging:

• Professional development is all about continuing to learn and grow.   This blog challenge definitely offered me lots of opportunities for learning which I’ll outline below for those who are interested.  As you’ll see, the lessons and reminders that seem to stick with me the most from the blog challenge really have little to do with blogging.   Yes, I did learn some technical and marketing information related to blogging, but that isn’t what stands out the most.
• I have observed that many mental health professionals have expanded their work outside of the confines of the therapy office or therapeutic relationships.  Writing is one way that many mental health professionals have expanded the work that they do.  Is that for everyone?  No.  Is it wrong to want to focus solely on therapy?  No. Some people find it really rewarding to connect with a broader audience.  Writing can be one alternative for connecting with more people.   Others use supervision, workshops, podcasting and more to share their knowledge and skills.  The main thing is to create a work life that satisfies you, energizes you and keeps you in the right frame of mind to support others.  I personally was very happy just providing individual, family and group therapy for a long time, but when I opened my own practice I found a part of me that wanted to be creative in a different way.  This blog challenge helped me focus on my writing and reflect on other ideas that I want to explore further.

Reflection questions for us all to consider:

• In what ways in which you are learning and growing as a mental health provider every day?   Think outside of the box!  Check in with us on Facebook every Friday to share what you’ve learned over the course of the week.
• What type of work energizes you the most?
• Are there ways you’d like to expand your reach outside of the confines of your therapy office?   What would that look like for you?

What did this therapist learn from doing a 30 Day Blog Challenge?

• I love writing and the blog challenge reminded me that  a portion of what I want to be doing is not therapy, but rather education for families.   Connecting with families through my in person workshops is a really energizing way for me to do this, but I am able to connect with so many more families through the blog on my Counseling page.
• I can make time for what I really want to do, even if I am busy.  I think this is always such an important reminder.   It is easy to use the “I am busy” excuse to put off things that we want to do or need to do for ourselves, but it may not always be a valid excuse.  I personally struggle to make time for self care and prioritize my family and my work over taking care of myself, so this blogging challenge reminded me that I want to be more mindful of how I prioritize my time and how I use that “I am too busy” excuse in and out of my office.
• I do well with accountability.   Most of us do.   Accountability can help us overcome some of our mental and emotional barriers in achieving our goals.  Accountability can also help us build our sense of community.   Accountability is different than comparison.  You may recall that in a previous post, I wrote about how  comparison can steal our joy.   Accountability is about having support as we work towards achieving a goal without the need to compare or compete with those we are sharing support with.
• I want to be purposeful about how I use my time.  I honestly started my first blogging challenge without really thinking about it much.   Someone in one of the therapist groups I am a part of shared the challenge and I just signed up without really reflecting on the timing and exactly how I was going to use the challenge.   As I mentioned, my practice was incredibly busy and I had a vacation scheduled during the challenge.   At 2-3 days in, I was already telling my husband that I wasn’t sure why I started the challenge then.  🙂   I decided to keep plugging along, bu I could have stopped mid-way and everything would have been fine.  I am happy that I did it, but I thought long and hard about whether I was going to do another round this month. Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that I did want to do another round, but I am going to be a little more flexible with myself.    You are reading my first post in Round 2 right now.
• I don’t have to be perfect.  Writing a post a day really forced me to give up on my tendency to over think and over work my posts.    Some of the blog posts that I wrote during the blog challenge have gotten a lot of positive feedback, more so than some that I spent days agonizing over.  It can be challenging to let go of that fear of being judged and evaluated, but I have found that my connections with others are stronger when I can be my authentic self.   Which by the way, is not perfect.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this post and the reflection questions I shared.  Please feel free to leave me a comment below.

Sarah

P.S. If you are interested in participating in a blog challenge yourself, this is the one that I did:  Sark eMedia