My daily writing habit has become somewhat less than daily. 🙂
In reflecting on it some, I think I’ve identified at least one of the reasons. It both surprises me, and yet it makes sense.
I want to matter.
Rather, I want my words — my writing — to matter.
That transforms into: if I don’t feel like what I have to say is “important”, for some definition of importance, that’s a roadblock to actually putting fingers to keyboard and pushing out the words.
In a way it’s at odds with what I wrote months about about performing this writing exercise publicly. I want to use the knowledge that my writing will be public to force me to hold to some level of quality and expectation. As I said then, writing for an actual audience “…Â challenges me to write more clearly and more completely.” That’s how I want my writing to be, that’s part of the goal of this exercise. Each post should be a coherent whole, not just a pile of disorganized notes to myself.
Writing for you forces me to think that way.
The problem is that perhaps I set the bar way too high. Resistance loves this and uses it as an excuse to prevent me from making the attempt. (If you’ve read The War of Art you’ll know of what I speak. If you’ve not read it, read it.)
What I guess this, then, boils down too is my setting expectations for both myself and for whomever happens to be following along. While I’ll always try to have something significant to say so as to not waste your time, I’m lowering my bar so as to allow myself to write here more frequently.
The irony, and perhaps the lesson learned, is that whatever I write will likely be of some value to someone, some day. Our own self-imposed limitations and expectations often prevent us from taking action, even when those limitations are wrong and expectations too great.