Celebrating Victory

Let us celebrate our victories, for we are otherwise wallowing in the mire of continuous defeat.

We are faced with the difficult task of always juggling more than a handful. In my life, for example, I’m dealing with the following challenges, in no particular order:

-the struggle to eat healthy
-the struggle to exercise regularly
-the struggle to find an hour-a-day to spend writing
-the struggle of training a new puppy
-our struggle of owning a hosue (finding a roommate, maintenance, etc)
-the struggle to stick to a regular schedule

There are more challenges, to be sure, but these are merely the few that come to mind first. In each of these is the desire to better myself and my situation… yet also in each is the seed of resistance:

As much as I want to eat healthy, I also want to gorge myself and not give a crap. As much as I want to exercise regularly, I also want to sit around and bum it from day to day. As much as I want to stick to a regular schedule, I am also enticed by the allure of staying out late and snoozing the alarm. I want to keep my cool with the puppy, but losing the temper happens more often than I’d like. Writing an hour a day is the ideal, but taking a day off is too appealing sometimes…

So we come to my humble point: in spite of our various shortcomings and pitfalls, all of which we hopefully are able to get up from and keep moving, let us remember to recognize and celebrate our victories. Because we have victories, all of us do… even in the terminal field of constant defeat, there are things we succeed at. Let us look to these things as a bearing, perhaps, instead of viewing everything relative to our shortcomings. No amount of victory should ever quell our desire to further better ourselves, but it does not mean we cannot boost our self-esteem by taking into account that which we have accomplished.

For example, in the past two weeks I have learned to juggle, and it is glorious.

Writing Log: the Three Week Prelude

I returned from a two-week vacation earlier this month with a stern resolve to resume a regularly scheduled writing regiment. The goal is to spend one hour writing a day. Chief inspiration (aside from the swelling feeling of am I ever going to finish this thing) came from this NPR interview with Walter Mosley. Titled “Stop Reading and Start Writing,” Mosley dishes out the advice for 31 minutes. At the crux of it is his central rule: write everyday. Anything less, he said, and you’ll lose the flow.

Inspiration also belongs to Jerry Seinfeld. He too starts with the write everyday advice, but follows it up with this:

“For each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

One could surely collect pieces of motivation and inspiration, but after a while even this practice can be defeating. You cannot forget the writing, you see. I need not spend time pouring over previous seeds of inspiration, for they have been many. I focus now on my progress.

I started three weeks ago, the very day I returned from vacation. One hour a day. That was the goal I set for myself.

In the approximate 23 days since then, how have I done? Good; perhaps very good. I did miss a few days, perhaps one or two a week; though in each case I followed up the next day with a double-dose of hourly writing slots. A big wound came when I took a 3 day trip to NYC, where I feel three days off the wagon. Regretful, but acceptable at the moment… as penance, I shall turn my NYC-fueled seeds of inspiration into towering plants.

And so it is today, the Monday I returned from my trip, when the next stage of the evolution begins. I shall continue to spend one hour writing every day. There are other goals, to be sure, though these shall be given their fair attention in due time. At the moment, the writing is center stage.

What have I learned in the previous three weeks? What grains of humble wisdom have I accrued as I pick up the torch and enter the darkness once again? Primarily, I have rediscovered the priceless value of regular work. Doing something every day. It isn’t easy, and it isn’t always fun (especially at the outset of each day’s trial), but it isn’t meant. You’re not doing it to have a good time.

By showing up and wrestling with the task each and every day, you put yourself in a position for inspiration, revelation, and insight to pour through you. In a very real sense, you are each day refining yourself as a vehicle for these alien ideas to be channeled through you. A well-oiled machine, indeed. Time spent waiting for inspiration is time not spent writing; this is perhaps one of the greatest examples of rationalization to crop out of our minds. Let it be cast down; pick your goal and set yourself to it.

And of course, as is no surprise at all, the daily writing sessions will yield results. As uninspired and creatively dry as we might feel at the start of various daily writing sessions, time and again we find that the ideas and inspiration find their way to us. They don’t come right away, of course, but rather after several dozen minutes of getting the hardware warmed up. This should be no surprise, not in the least.

But can it be kept up? Can it be maintained every day? That is why I am here; that is why I type these words. Nearby you shall find a calendar, a calendar that puts my progress out there for all to see.

And should my writing aspirations dry up, I shall turn my daily hour to something else. And just the same I shall keep track of my progress; I shall expect of myself the daily wrestling with the beast. I bind myself not to the writing, on a literal level… but rather to the wrestling, in figurative terms. I shall push onward; persevere, and continue. Every single day. Should I fall, which I very well may, I shall get back up again. May the motivation that swells within continue to flow, for I am ultimately the humble servant.

Across the Threshold

When entering a dungeon, be sure to have clarified that which you seek! He who enters the depths with unfocused intent and cloudy aspirations will quickly find trouble. The trials and tribulations that await are tricky enough by themselves; having an agenda or purpose in mind can make things even more complicated. The solution is not to be without goals (“risking nothing,” as it were), but rather the opposite approach: knowing your goals well.

And yet, as this corridor is explored, we find a swelling fear taking root in the prospect of failed goals and unaccomplished aims. Each goal we make and aspiration we vocalize sets us up for failure. Again, the retort can be heard: why bother at all? Why not go about things casually and without care, so that feelings are never hurt and hearts are never broken? I shall not expound upon these seductive calls at this time, for their argument has no basis where I travel. They have been slain and left to rot.

Instead, we turn our attention to greener pastures. We look toward the Light; we shall travel where things grow. Ours is the business of planting seeds, taking root, and fostering that which is to soar upward. There will be failures and missteps along the way, though the prospect of such things shall not frighten us away. Unexpected stumbles can provide great opportunity if we are lucky: a keen eye taking careful note of the Path will find curiosity and wonder in the shadows; they shall not be cursed.

And so the dungeon we enter. The log shall be well kept. No more fancy words. There is a threshold to be crossed.