Dashboard Junkie

I have an announcement to make:

I am no longer a Dashboard Junkie.

I have finally reached that personal Nirvana where I see posts from writing peers popping up in my email, a one paragraph teaser displayed on my tiny phone screen, and I get that feeling, you know, the one where you’ve gotten a voicemail from a friend — your cell phone battery is low or you’re in a tight spot at work — and you’re anxious to get home to call them back.

I want to read more, comment more (if I have something of value to say or share), or hit the ‘like’ button to simply acknowledge that ‘yes’, I hear you.

It’s about the people.

Those that express thoughts, ideas, or simply share the joy of their day, in written format, I miss them. I want to stay connected

Not to say that I won’t ever look at my Dashboard again, and some of you might be thinking Why should you? Your follower count is pretty low.

Losing the idea that the Dashboard is important, for me, is liberating.

(A well-respected blogger with thousands of follows once queried people as to why they post and I fessed up to one day hoping my social media presence would impact an industry person.)

I’ve had essays published in newspapers, nursing magazines, even a literary journal or two, and I was starting to see writing as a task with stair step goals leading to, who knows, something big in the future. But, in the process of my obsessive goal setting, (ask friends, coworkers, and neighbors – it’s true) I had lost the joy of having found a way of expressing myself. I had inadvertently transferred the writing energy into setting the bar higher and seeing if I could jump over it. I saw the Dashboard graph as my reward.

No more.

Opening up WordPress is a treasure chest. The people posting here are fearless in the way they lay out their emotions, diligent in their efforts to support others, to bring only their best crafted stories and essays.

If I’m going to set any new goal regarding my blog, it will be to read what I have typed and ask myself each time, Susan, are you leaving anything out? Are you sugarcoating it?

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I’m in a good place.