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I’d rather write than talk. Nobody interrupts! Posting monthly or less now--see below. |
My original purpose for this blog, which I started in August of 2019, was to see if I could maintain consistency, to discover what I want to write about, and to find my writing voice. In January, I started a "niche-less" blog at Wordpress.com where I've published weekly. -- Kit’s Kontemplations  . -- I'm preparing to start a Catholic blog on Wordpress.com where I'll post weekly, and another site to put the rest of my writing. I also want to spend more time reading other blogs and offering thoughtful comments, both here on WDC and elsewhere. At most, I will publish once a month at no set time in this blog starting in September of 2020. Thank you to those who have read and rated any posts on this blog. I really appreciate it. I did NOT want to write “about” me on this blog. I wanted to share my interests, discoveries and maybe a few useful insights. If anything I've written helps even one person, whether or not they respond to the post, then this blog has been successful. |
| It’s been decades since I made a New Year’s resolution. Why? Because I tend to be an “all or nothing” person and I struggle with perfectionism. As soon as I broke a resolution, then I’d dump it and my sense of self-worth would take yet another nose-dive. I no longer say to myself nor do I write in my journal on December 31st a list of things that “I will do every morning” or things that “I will not do”. After abandoning resolutions, I started to set goals instead. I list all of the things that I want to accomplish during a specific period such as a year or month. This includes the books I want to read, the subjects that I want to study and the habits that I’d like to develop. I usually list far more things than there is any hope of accomplishing. I have far more projects, interests and hobbies than I have time to develop at any one time. There are some that I’ve dropped altogether and which I have no intention of pursuing again. For example, since I am now retired I have neither the need nor the desire to become more proficient in French. Because I used to work for the Canadian federal government, I needed to be relatively fluent in French. There are other things on which I focused very intensely until I achieved my goal and which are now more in the background but which are still on my radar. Between June 2018 and February 2019, I lost 25 pounds. I still need to be vigilant with my food boundaries but the habits are well established so I don’t need to devote as much attention to weight management as I did this time last year. There are other activities that I am still very interested in but which are on the back burner. I can’t do everything and I need to make choices. It is better to focus on a couple of things and do them well. Otherwise I am too scattered and frustrated with not having enough time and solitude to spend enough time in every activity to actually achieve anything. Besides the daily disciplines of my spiritual practice, creative writing has been my primary focus for the past five months. This, along with developing a blog, will remain my first choice for how I spend my available time. The “old me” would make resolutions such as: “I will write 500 words every day”. Since a friend introduced me to James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, I’ve taken an entirely new approach to my usual New Year’s ritual. Instead of listing what I want to accomplish, I made a list of identity statements. Each of these statements expresses who I want to become in terms of the habits I expect to have established. For example: “I am a person who writes every day”. Instead of planning to write for a specific period of time or a particular number of words each day, I have started the habit of writing at least one sentence every day. Although my goal is only one sentence, I usually write at least half a page in my journal. This is an “atomic habit”. Every time I do it, I’ll get the positive reinforcement that I am acting in accordance with my chosen identity. As James Clear would put it, I will be casting a positive vote for being a writer. If I miss a day, then I will make sure that I write the following day. If I keep missing days then I will be casting a vote against being a writer. The little things we do each day compound to a significant result over a long enough period of time. There are so many things in life that we have no control over but we do have the power to create positive habits and to crowd out unhelpful ones. Using our will to change what we can makes a lot more sense than stressing over what we can’t control. I can choose to keep a habit that feels good in the moment, like eating what I want whenever I want, but which will have a painful result like getting fat and unhealthy. I would much rather choose one that involves a sacrifice in the moment, like exercising regularly, but which will have a transformational effect, given enough time. There are apps for habit trackers and I’ve tried them but I usually end up forgetting to track the habit then it’s an extra burden to try to recall whether I did any of the 5 or 6 things I had listed. For a habit tracker to be useful, I have to get in the habit of using it! Do you reflect on your life at New Year’s, on your birthday or at other times of the year? Do you make resolutions, goals or plans? Would you consider starting an “atomic habit”? Sources: Atomic Habit e-book — https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break-ebook/dp/B07D23CFGR/ref=... Summary of book on YouTube (20 minutes) — https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zJiKc_2h7a0 Interview by Rich Roll with James Clear (2 hours) — https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s9uDVVWN_ZE&t=53s Atomic Habits Resources — https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits James Clear - Best articles — https://jamesclear.com/articles |
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Yes, I know some people do that but I'm a creative writer not a journalist. Poetry sells ... but it's a money-maker for only a few. I write A LOT. Almost 180 pieces since Spring equinox. My goal is 300-400 per year. One year I went over 1,000. I need to do more editing, polishing, sharing, submitting. Writer's block? Who has time for that? I don't.