Category: Inspiring Max

Planning For Fun

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This week is Inspiring Max’s 8th birthday. When I started blogging on Mother’s Day 2014 I didn’t have a plan. I learnt as I went and took each new experience as it came. Like my life really. During the first few years I found inspiration easily. The older I am however the more distracted I get. As I am nearing 60 I am looking to the future. Retirement is coming so work needs to give way to fun. What changes do I want to make and how will I achieve them. Now is the time to start planning. This will ensure I achieve what I what and not have hours lost to distraction. To help my motivation I found the perfect quote.

To give this quote even more power I have added it to a sunrise photo I took from my drive way only weeks ago. For me this will mean starting with a weekly plan that is then dividing it into a daily one. This week I am going to start with a blogging plan. This will ensure that Inspiring Max has direction and over the next two years I can aim for 1000 posts. I am currently sitting on 665 which was only increased by 90 since my 6th anniversary blogpost, due to a lack of planning. Having a plan for the A-Z challenge this year made blogging fun and doable again. Blogging is fun. And I want more fun in my life. To do so I will stop overthinking things and start making them happen.

Celebrating 600

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Today I am excited to announce that I have written 600 posts. When I started Inspiring Max I never dreamed this was possible. My first post was Mother’s Day 2014. When I reached 100 posts on my Mother’s birthday 30th October, 2014, I had 3,000 views. I was so happy. My 400th post occurred on 16th February, 2016 a few months before I took a break from blogging. Now 6 1/2 years after my first post, I have approximately 32,000 views. My goal for next year is to continue to grow inspiring Max, gaining momentum with every post.

To celebrate my six hundredth post I have created an acrostic poem:

Seeking new ideas

Interacting and inspiring is my goal

Xcited to be on this amazing journey

Honing my skills with

Unique and positive posts

Navigating my way

Determined to make a difference

Respecting and responding to others

Enjoying the journey

Driven by inspiration

Trusting my instincts

Happy others find my hard work helpful

Passion, persistence and positivity

Open the way for my original

Simple success

Thankful for Inspiring Max’s amazing community

Over the last week I had a forced lesson on how important my blogging community is. Due to technical details, I was unable to connect with anyone on my blog. And can I tell you it felt terrible. It was like giving a speech in a large empty stadium. A lot of effort went into the preparation, but as there was no feedback, I had no idea whether my audience liked it or not.

Remembering Helen Reddy

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Helen Reddy was one of my favourite singers growing up. She sang many songs I loved. And I was super proud she was Australian. I am Woman, her most famous song has been the theme song to my life and woman everywhere. It was first recorded in the early 70’s when I was becoming a teenager and adjusting to my unique personality. I love the chorus:

“Oh yes, I am wise
But it’s wisdom born of pain
Yes, I’ve paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong
(Strong)
I am invincible
(Invincible)
I am woman”

After listening tonight to the first and last versions, more than 50 years apart, I think I like the later version better. Not something that can be said about many singer’s voices.

I also love Helen’s version of You and Me Against The World. She stated that she changed it to be about a mother and daughters relationship. I am sure it will be a song that is giving her family peace as they deal with their loss.

“And when one of us is gone,
And one of us is left to carry on,
Then remembering will have to do,
Our memories alone will get us through
Think about the days of me and you,
Of you and me against the world.”

Amazing woman, amazing life and unforgettable music.

6 Years Young

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Today Inspiring Max is 6. I can’t believe how much life has changed. My first blog post back in 2014 was titled Happy Mother’s Day.

Here is my 12 month celebratory post, my first blogiversary in 2015. I was excited by how far I’d come. In May 2014, I had 23 views and I didn’t care I had no followers, I had views and I began to believe in myself. I could do this. By May 2015, Inspiring Max was moving up with 12,567 views and 415 followers. This month, May 2020 I have created 574 posts, have had 16,106 visitors, 30,444 views and 1,108 followers.

I also love that after a year of blogging Inspiring Max had been read in 114 countries and in the following 5 years it continues to find new audiences and now has been read in 134 countries. Many of these countries I never knew existed.

One of the things that surprised me during my break from blogging is how my site kept growing even without me working it. Like our finances growing with compound interest for the approximately 800+ days I was absent Inspiring Max kept growing at 2-3 views per day without new content. This makes me wonder where I would have been if I had stayed.

When I returned to Inspiring Max, one of my favourite things was visiting my old blogging friends and seeing how much their blogs had grown. After all, blogging isn’t just about writing and posting good content. I believe it is a package. We are part of an ever growing community and no-one can blog alone.

To me, blogging is divided into four parts:

  • Blog hoping – going from one blog to another viewing and reading their sites
  • Joining in challenges created by other bloggers
  • Engaging with new and old blogs, by liking and commenting on their posts
  • Gaining knowledge by sharing experiences. Never has this been more relevant than now. We can all check on each other during this time of world lock down.