Note: This post was originally published just on my Facebook, but I have since added it to the blog (where it belongs) and backdated it so it fits where it should.
My site has been down for basically the entire day. There are a few reasons unrelated to the blog that this has been stressful for me, but at one point I found some silver lining in the knowledge that I would have an excuse for not posting something today.
I’ve been putting some kind of post out every day for about a month now, and that has occasionally been more stressful than I care to admit. Because it is not actually that big of a deal to do some writing every day. It’s right near the bottom of the basic requirements of being a writer. Pretty close to “want to be writer.”
Still, I thought, “Well, at least I have a good reason for breaking my streak now.” Then I thought about how silly that was. For one, my excuse was going to apply not just to missing a post, but to writing itself (excluding the day job writing, of course). If I can’t log in to my site, how can I write?
Obviously, you see how silly that is right away. It took me a few minutes though. I realized that a good excuse is no different from a bad excuse. Different in degree maybe, but not in kind. Regardless of the amount of time I have or the technology I have available, there are very few reasons why I can’t share some kind of content, and even fewer for not writing at all.
I can post this on Facebook. Not everyone will see it right away, but that is where most people have been connecting with the blog anyway. And I can later post it to my site, back-dating it if I wish. I can find options when I start to look for them.
This problem also serves as a reminder that I shouldn’t be living so close to the edge of not posting every day. In addition to writing every day, I should have a better and more forward looking plan for what I will write about. Overall, I should probably be more deliberate and have some contingencies in place. An email newsletter, for example, is much less likely to issues connecting with people. And maybe I should have a discussion with my host about their redundancy plan.
In the end, I have to take more responsibility for my process and my product. Ownership and responsibility are intricately linked. I feel like I keep coming back to this conclusion via different avenues. Eventually, I’ll catch on.
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