Early in December, I committed to writing one post each day on this blog. I don’t feel much like writing this today, but here I am. That’s what commitment means.
I also committed to making an honest attempt to have each post follow Kurt Vonnegut first rule of good writing: “Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.”
Whether or not I succeed at that is up to you to decide. So is whether or not I achieve his second guideline: “Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.” (Let’s agree to make that character you. It’ll be easier on the both of us.)
I bring this up, not only because it’s a cheap and easy topic to write about when you don’t feel much like writing, but also because I wonder what you’ve committed to.
Truth be told, this blog post didn’t have to be as long as it is. I could have given you a single sentence — a succinct little nebulous and mystical-sounding quote, and called it a day.
Sitting down to write, I was tempted to do just that, and so splurted out a handful of them. And who knows? Maybe one of them will become a blog post on some day that I’m even less interested in writing than I am now.
But today, I’m reminded of Kenny Werner, a musician, who is author of the perennial bestselling book on practice techniques, Effortless Mastery.
Werner made famous the recommendation that if you find yourself stuck in a rut, where you aren’t consistently following through with your practice, to just commit to doing it for just five minutes every day.
That’s it. Five minutes. No hour. No thirty minutes. Just five.
In that spirit, I committed to come here and write one sentence for you. And here we are. Over three hundred words later.
I hope that you feel your time has not been wasted.
Good luck to you, and keep on doing what is most important to you. Every single day.