February 4, 2023 filed in Writing
Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy that you are trying to paper train. You don't drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor's yard every time it piddles on the floor. You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper.
~ Anne Lamott {citation}
I'm trying not to beat myself up about my lack of focus, my talant for procrastination. I know I'm not alone and I also know (after years and years of negative self-talk) that calling myself a lazy idiot doesn't actually get me writing, or if it does it doesn't get me writing with joy and creativity. No matter how badly I want to write, I don't want to do it if the only way I can get words onto the page is to be mean to myself.
Which brings me to the idea of habit. Seems like that's the way forward over anything else. Just make writing something I do, not something I think about doing, or do sometimes when the mood hits me, but something I do everyday - like brushing my teeth. It is a simple idea, but brillant in it's simplicity. I attended an excellent Pandemic University webinar with Zahra Noorbakhsh How to Think Less and Write. I've implemented habits in other parts of my life, but with writing I've find it very difficult to stick to the write everyday promises I've made myself. But what the ah ha moment I got from Zahra's workshop was that my writing shouldn't be "special", or, that the act of writing shouldn't be special.
Enter this blog!! I'm going to write here, and write here, and write here. I'm going to write about the things I love. I do journal everyday, but this blog will be more than journalling because there is that small chance that someone will read this so it needs to be at least a bit more structured and meaningful. I can't just make lists of all the things I want to do that day or whine about my kids (well I might do that a little bit).