Why is it so hard?*

To get into good habits, yet so easy to fall into bad ones?

At the beginning of the year I was posting here almost every day. Today's word changed with the regularity its title deserved, as did sheep and fruit of the week. Sometimes I found it hard to come up with reading recommendations, since I read very slowly, but I managed more or less. And I could always just type in whatever itunes was playing for my listening choice - easy. Away from here, I would do my best to get around other people's blogs too, and comment where their erudition moved me so to do. Then I started out on the epic that is Benfro book three, and things started to go downhill.

Except that blaming it on the writing is perhaps unfair. It's not as if I spend my every waking moment typing the adventures of Sir Benfro and his chum Errol Ramsbottom. I sometimes work for a living, sometimes stroll the dogs, and sometimes I even clean the house. But increasingly these things inspire me with no great enthusiasm. And likewise, blogging has become somewhat of a chore.

I should add that this is not the fault of those whose blogs I read regularly. Otherwise I'd stop reading them, most likely. More I'm going through one of those patches where enthusiasm is in short supply. If history is any indicator of the future, I'll pull through soon enough and be back to my normal chipper self in due course. But in the meantime, please excuse my maudlin posts and half-hearted comments.**

They*** say it takes twenty-eight days to change a behaviour pattern, but I think they're talking shite. It takes forever to change a bad behaviour into a good one, and just a second to revert.

*Yeah, yeah. You all sniggered, didn't you? Disgusting, filthy little minds that you are.
** it doesn't help that I've got a tiny skelf**** in my right thumb, exactly on the spot that holds a pen when I'm writing. Constant niggling pain is never good for the soul.
*** whoever 'they' are. 'They' are always full of good advice, and 'they' are always responsible for all the things that go wrong, too. 'They' should do something about it, really.
**** splinter, you ignorant Sassenachs.

Comments

Gabriele Campbell said…
Stuart may have a filthy mind, I'm an innocent girl who has no idea what you're talking about. Bare assed bandit.

That's for the Sassenach. :-)
JamesO said…
I'm not so innocent anymore, Gabriele, but most of the time I have no idea what I'm talking about either.
Sandra Ruttan said…
I think enthusiasm can't be kept at full all the time - like anything else. Sometimes, you need some down time to let the batteries recharge.

The thing is, going to other blogs might be a 'distraction' - maybe sometimes it is something I use as avoidance. But it's also something I use as my 'coffee break'. If you just go full steam, hours on end, on your book/project/whatever, you burn out.

It's part of striving for balance. I'm trying not to be so bad that I step out of my office one day and see Kevin getting the snow shovel and wonder why we aren't still raking leaves.
JamesO said…
You're right, Sandra. And time has a habit of creeping up on us obsessives.

I think the problem stemmed from having guests at the weekend. Not that I didn't enjoy their stay, but a three year old is necessarily high-maintenance and I'm just not cut out for that kind of thing. It's taken me this long to recover.

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