I Totally Dropped the Ball - Can I pick it up again?

My last blog in WA was in December 2018. I cannot really believe that so much time has passed by. It had been so long since I signed in to Wealthy Affiliate that I had to reset my password because I forgot what it was. Sadly for my website, the same holds true, my last post was in December 2018. I totally dropped the ball on this amazing adventure. To those WA friends I left hanging... I am truly sorry. I hope that your 2019 was a great and successful one and I hope to reconnect.

A Year of Massive Change

The year 2019 will certainly be remembered as one of massive change for our family.

In January, our youngest daughter left our home on the mission field to find some work and get some experience. As she jokingly put it, she "broke our family". We were always together and always did everything together; and she broke it. Though sad to see her go, we are really proud of her as she worked hard and got lots of experience on a sheep farm. She also found a career she wanted to study and started up in September.

At the end of May, our middle daughter left our home on the mission field to find some work in order to get some money to study. It came as a bit of a shock because she had no intentions of leaving and no intentions of studying. Then all of a sudden, after a visit from a friend, a spark lit the fire of interest and away she went. We were sad to see her go, and are really proud of how she has grown since she started out on her own. She too started her studies in September.

It was quite the adventure trying to help them out from down here as they did paperwork, and looked for a place to stay, and looked for a vehicle, and looked for a church. In the end, everything turned out really well and we are thankful to the Lord for His guiding hand in all of these changes.

We were able to visit with them in September as they settled into their new place and discovered their new surroundings. We were all back together again for a couple of weeks and we just sent them back after their short visit home to Nicaragua. As parents, it is truly rewarding to see them doing so well and we are really proud of who they have become.

Our oldest daughter is still with us She studied online and now keeps busy working odd jobs and helping out in the mission field. She has grown and matured and is most definitely included in the "they" of we are really proud of who they have become. Our family isn't broken, it has just spread out, and reached out into the world.

Missed Opportunities

As so many successful Wealthy Affiliates members insist (and encourage), it is the daily and the weekly investment that pays off in the long run. I admire Jerry H. As I was once again familiarizing myself with the WA platform I came across one of his older blogs after seeing a "thank you" note someone posted to him. It was a good reminder of how much work and dedication it took for him to succeed. He is truly an inspiration. Two years of investment before he started seeing the results, and look at him now.

As I review my websites and their stalled progress, I ask myself what could have been. The year 2019 was a missed opportunity to invest, learn, grow online. I am coming up to my 2nd year of having signed up with WA. This opportunity is still amazing, and has so much potential, but I have to hang onto the ball. There is still much work and dedication required before I start seeing the desired results.

Despite the busyness and the multiple commitments I had in 2019, I can still see some opportunities missed, and some time wasted where I could have contributed even once in a while to the growth of my online presence.

Learning Experience

I did not, because I could not (or would not...?): This is my WA story of 2019.

I can, and I did. I hope this is my WA story for 2020.

Thankfully on a personal level, their were lots of opportunities to learn and grow. In many other facets of life, things are paying off. It is interesting how that experience, shows just how much this experience can flourish when the time and energy is invested.

The time away from WA was not completely wasted. Even though I was not actively building, I was still passively connected. All the training I had done, and the trials and errors, and the failures and successes of the past year, all rolled around in my mind to help develop a more concrete plan and a clearer vision of what it is I wanted to accomplish.

Despite not actively growing my website, I was shocked to see some residual effects of passed efforts. Over the year 2019, I received comments on blogs I had written in 2018. Even in google, I got new hits on my web pages without any promotion on my part. The residual effects of the investment are a great encouragement of what could be with a consistent and constant effort. The system works, I just need to do it.

Resolve - I got this

I have a lot to do to catch up. I can see that there are a lot of changes within WA and online. My websites need a good massage, a good face lift, but most importantly some good content.

I have reached down to pick up the ball once again. But as I look at the commitments already penciled into the agenda for 2020, I wonder for how long I will be able to bounce this ball without it running away on me again. All I know is that it is definitely worth the shot.

Getting this blog finished and posted makes me feel like I am back in the game. To the WA family, all the best for 2020.