Hello, dear friend,
Here I am, one year after sending the first newsletter article to YOU: my Growing and Blooming audience. I am elated to celebrate this moment. I see it as a reason to appreciate and reflect upon the progress, as well as an opportunity to examine the method that brought me to this milestone full of new lessons.
I can still recall the emotions and anxiety I felt when I pressed the “send” button for the first newsletter. It was my first time using MailChimp, creating a newsletter layout, and perhaps most importantly, setting an intention to share my thoughts publicly on a regular basis. It was quite a lot of newness at once. On that day, I woke up early and personally sent my first article at 6 a.m. EET. I have done this for all of the editions that followed up to this day. To maintain the consistency of receiving a morning story in your inbox, I even did this while traveling in other time zones. With plenty of practice, the nervous feelings subsided, but my curiosity continued to expand. What messages would I get after this article? What reactions would I receive? Is my article personal enough? Is it too personal? These are just a few of the questions populating my mind before sending each newsletter.
Why did I do it?
I have a habit of setting new goals and intentions every year. For 2022 and 2023, I aimed at the same target: to explore my own voice. I refer to it as “my voice,” but what it really signifies is the array of messages and subjects I want to discuss and how I can express my identity through them. I engage in several activities for this, including the dinners I organize, the mastermind groups and the retreats for women I facilitate. Occasionally, I am invited to be a speaker for a variety of audiences, ranging from students to entrepreneurs.
I see life as a huge stage where we have a daily opportunity to contribute our best intentions. What is my contribution to the conversations I start? What is my contribution through social media? What is my contribution within the things I write about?
Then I realized that, due to my lack of comfort with writing, I was not properly equipped to step up on this stage. Since most of the people I admire and look up to are excellent writers, I decided that this was a skill I wanted to develop.
I also decided to set aside my concern that I might not be entitled to speak about most of the topics I address and focus instead on the aspirations I had in mind for this newsletter.
My first intention was to establish a culture of sharing. I don’t write as though I am an expert or that I know more than others. I write about my own personal experiences and share insights only from my perspective rather than general conclusions. I treat the professionals around me as responsible adults who choose what they learn on their own.
My second intention was to practice writing. To hold me accountable for producing at least two articles per month, I needed to make it a public announcement. I realized that the fear of writer’s block was unreasonable. Once I started to observe ideas around me, I was able to identify far more than two topics per month.
My third intention was to create a bridge for meaningful conversations. After I post an article, I receive messages from people sharing their personal stories of vulnerable moments with me. When I run into people I haven’t seen in a long time, they often start a conversation by mentioning a theme from one of my previous articles, and the rest just flows.
My fourth intention was to promote a life of multidimensional growth. It’s easy to claim we are too busy concentrating on our professional growth to have any leftover time or energy to bloom in other aspects of our lives. However, I am surrounded by outstanding leaders who thrive in other ways. They do their best to grow professionally, find meaning in their work, contribute value, forge quality relationships, reflect on their behaviors, live purposefully, and bloom as individuals.
What did I learn?
Discipline is king. Consistency is queen. It was complicated for me to write in the beginning and took countless hours. I felt that, even though I found an intriguing concept, I was unable to express it in writing in a way that sounded smooth and engaging. I started to sit down and write every week to get used to the process, to accept that some texts are better than others, and to produce enough content to satisfy my goals. Now, one year later, it only takes me half as long to write an article I am happy about.
Habits create the future version of myself. Something else I enjoyed about this experiment is how I view myself a year later. I believe that by applying the same model—discipline, consistency, and practice—I can now address tasks that don’t come to me as naturally. The habit of writing regularly has improved not only my ability to communicate ideas but also my confidence in my advancement.
Progress is better than perfection. Is my writing the best it can be now? Not at all. There is a great deal of room for improvement. But progress fuels me. It gives me hope that anything is possible if only I try. Additionally, there is not much at stake for me to become a talented writer, but if there were, I think I know how to start the journey.
What is next?
I have a passion for writing about topics that touch me and people whom I admire. Is this the best use of my time or the best way I can contribute? I don’t know yet. I would love to hear what you find most valuable about this newsletter and how you believe I could bring even more value in the future.
Let’s encourage the voice I am testing and spread the knowledge as well. For this first anniversary of the Growing and Blooming newsletter, I would be so grateful if you could recommend it to a friend willing to sign up for the next edition. I will consider this action to be favorable feedback for my stories.
Last but not least, I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to all of you who read, share, and take the time to write about the impact you’ve felt of this culture of growing and blooming.