#PostADay seems to be working for me and I am really trying to figure out why. On the face of it, promising to do A Post A Day does not seem all that different from doing Morning Pages but in the doing of things, they don’t really feel the same at all.
That could, at least in part, be due to expectations that I personally bring to the term Morning Pages. For me, their goal was to open the tap and let the rusted, brown water flow until it ran clean. Add to that a specific length, and a specific time, and it began to feel like a chore.
I would often degrade into writing about how much longer I had to write to meet the goal or comment on what I had written up to that point or simply become so very meta and detached that I could often see myself above myself commenting upon the very act of writing. All of this made it feel like a chore. And the commentary served to reinforce the barrier between me and wherever my creativity resided.
But, here I am, writing a post everyday, sometimes more — my secret goal is to get a full week ahead and always have a queue of 7 posts waiting to go live. And, let’s be honest, a few of these posts feel like they could have been Morning Pages of a sort…
Is the difference an audience? And if so, are you that audience? Or am I? Do I need you to read this or do I simply need to feel that the curtain is about to rise so there needs to be a show?
Whatever the difference is, I can feel it; in my mind, in my readiness, in my willingness to search for a turn of phrase, in my letting go of perfection because perfection kills more creativity than anything else.
PostADay feels like an improv class: A post needs to happen. Quick! What am I thinking or feeling or seeing or hearing or smelling or avoiding or (you get the idea). It’s all fair game when the curtain time is the only fixed parameter.
Right now, I have committed to this through the end of the month. I promised myself that I would not ponder whether I will continue beyond that until at least 3 weeks in. I am after that habit-establishing magical zone where something new becomes part of me. And repetition for at least a month feels like the right thing for me.