May 10
Posted by learningtowrite in Christianity, Writing, motivation, spritiual discipline | No Comments
Just about the time I decide I might just have to give up on this, I go read a post at flowerdust.net that completely removes any escape hatch for me:
The thing you do, when you have made a mistake, is not to give up doing what you were doing and start something altogether new, but to start over again with the thing you began badly and try, for the love of God, to do it well.
(Merton, Journals, Oct 7, 1949, II.372)
Well, there goes that. I guess I have to get back on the horse here.
Mentally I treat September (post Labor Day) as kind of a mini-January. Time to get a fresh start on things, revive habits that I’ve let die (especially over the hot summer months), things like that.
My plans for next week:
Resume my morning exercise before going to work
Resume my blogging – at least 3 days a week
Resume my morning quiet time.
This will result in less sleeping in. But maybe I’ll start going to bed before midnight. That’d be nice.
I just read that last sentence. Apparently I’ve suddenly gotten old.
The laptop still isn’t fixed, though I’m closer to getting it there. Just need to order the right part, probably getting it in an Ebay auction, and get it installed. Hopefully that will take care of it.
Though I haven’t posted here in a while, I think about this blog probably every day. And every day I cringe at the fact I haven’t updated in so long. And that makes the task seem even that much harder, so I put it off for another day. And that keeps going, and going, and going.
I recently had a breakthrough on this front. I might have had this breakthrough before – I need to go back and read the archives and see – but basically I’ve figured out that every post doesn’t have to be some deep thought or great personal development to be valid. I need to not be so freaking serious. I need to start posting about whatever I’m currently excited about, reading, listening to, cool link I found, or whatever. Basically stop taking this so seriously, so maybe one day I can take this more seriously.
So here it is. The first post of the rest of my blog life. What is this, new beginning #33 or something? The real great part is that it’s Thursday, and I’m leaving town tomorrow night for the weekend and going where there is no cell phone access, much less any interweb access. Hopefully I’ll still have this passion when I get back.
And I’m even taking the risk of posting this from work. Most of the times when I feel inspired to post something are when I’m at work. I mean, I sit in front of a computer all day. Lots of days the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit in front of a computer some more. I’m going to try doing this more here and there from work, and hopefully stay employed in the mean time. Wish me luck. And please stay tuned.
A new year. New resolutions. New attempts at getting that writing habit going again.
The main thing that seems to be holding me back is the overwhelming sense of this project (for lack of a better term.) The prospect of having to post every day seems like too much to manage, especially after my typical long PITA commute home every day. And to some degree I’m the kind of person that says (to myself, in my head) “Self, if you’re not going to do it 100%, don’t do it at all.” Not that all the posts need to be super compelling, or even interesting, but just be there and be something besides “Another post today because I have to.”
Via Mark Lee’s blog, I found a link to Creativity for Life. I haven’t really had a chance to check it out yet, but maybe that site will be some help in sparking my creativity.
Stick it out with me. Comment and help motivate me.
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