3 MONTHS — It’s hard to believe that I’ve been completely off of Facebook and Twitter for this long.  [If you want to read Part 1 of my Social Media Sabbatical, click here, & Part 2 Social Media Sabbatical Day 30-ish click here]

It’s become normal.  I don’t tweet. I don’t cruise Facebook updates every other second.   It’s really kinda nice.

There have been mornings, when I’m sitting at the kitchen counter, enjoying my Chocolate Teeccino and my husband is looking at his Facebook page on the big computer in the kitchen.  I glance over and see those little red icons at the top of his screen: 3 new messages, 2 new notifications, etc. and I get a little pang in my stomach.

“What am I missing?”

But it passes pretty quickly now.

I suppose that as the holiday season is ending and this year comes to a close and my sabbatical officially ends, I need to start thinking about what I’ve learned from this experiment.  Will I go back to tweeting and facebooking?

Honestly, I haven’t decided yet.

I have several projects that I’m really excited about pouring my energy into and I’m a little hesitant to dilute my precious time and focus.  I know that tweeting and facebooking have been a huge time and energy suck for me in the past and a grande way to procrastinate on things I want to accomplish.

However, there are a few people that I’ve wanted to reach out to and Facebook and Twitter are such great ways to connect to people these days.  So, I guess I will be signing back on, just not as often.

Internally, the whole “Look at me! Look at me!” feeling has really passed.  I now know for sure that I don’t need to be broadcasting my life anymore.  There have been some really exciting things in the last 3 months, but I talked myself into being in the moment the whole time and truly enjoying the process and the people I’ve been playing with rather than diminishing the moment with a cute twit-pic or 140 character status update.

This Social Media Sabbatical was good for my soul.  People still reached out to me by commenting on my blog or sending me an email.  I didn’t disappear – whatever that means.  My “presence” on social media sites probably wasn’t missed much, but the social media sites weren’t missed much in my real life either.  And, in fact, my “presence” greatly affected my real life in many ways.

The ability to focus on what’s really important was huge.  You know that black hole thing that happens sometimes when you go on twitter or facebook and you read something mildly interesting and then you click on the link and go to a blog post and it’s mildly entertaining and then that takes you to another article or site that kind of peaks your curiosity and before you know it you’ve been reading stuff that really has nothing to do with your life or your work or your passion and whatever you’ve been reading is making you feel like you’ve missed out on something or you’re just plain missing something or not good enough in some way and your whole body feels deflated and kind of depressed? Has this happened to you?

After too much wasted time, you snap to attention and think; “What the hell? Why am I reading this? This has absolutely nothing to do with what I want to do in my life today, or possibly evahhhh.”

Yeah, well, that doesn’t really happen anymore…(much).

Actually, it did happen recently, when I got an email in my “To Read” file from an acquaintance.  This is the file I set up for the things I felt bad about unsubscribing from, but I didn’t really want to read them either.  Why did I set it up as “To Read”? Why not just straight to trash? Diagnosis = Fear of missing out on something.

So now I have the opportunity to change those settings. No more “To Read” file.  It’s straight to the trash. Ahhhhhhhhhh.

NOW…. the Black Hole Thing is really not going to happen anymore.

So maybe this Social Media Sabbatical was really a way for me to change my own internal settings.

No more reading stuff that doesn’t enrich my life.  No more clicking on links just because I’m bored or avoiding what I said I really, really wanted to do but I’m too afraid to actually get off my ass and just do it.

Now, I’m doing it. I’m working on projects that make me excited and little afraid.  I’m stretching my comfort zone. This is what my sabbatical was all about. Growing. Determining my focus. Taking steps in the direction of my dreams. Hanging out with people that inspire me and make me want to be a better version of myself.

So as we head off into the new year, I send this wish to you.

May you surround yourself with amazing beings that inspire you to be the greatest version of yourself.  May you feel relaxed and content and satisfied by your work and in your daily life.  May you focus on what’s truly important and forget the rest.  And may you have countless Perfect Moments to toast in the coming year.

Happy New Year.

Cheers! xoxoxoxo Sandy !

PS: If you need a little motivation to move past your fears in 2012, here’s a little video to “push you over the edge”, heh, heh.