More Than Halfway There

I was sitting here, brainstorming entry ideas when it occurred to me that eight days ago Kate and I passed the halfway mark in our year-long experiment. That's six months worth of entries for each of us, one entry a day, 362 entries total, without fail. Not to toot our own horns, but I think that's pretty amazing. Not a single entry missed (and only one or two that I'd consider throwaways) in six months is a testament to the power of commitment. I'm not sure I can speak for Kate on this, but for my part, interestingly enough, I never thought we wouldn't be able to do it. But I wasn't operating from the stance that we'd try it for a few weeks and see if it stuck. I was working from the position that this was something we were doing every day, for a year, and that missing a day wasn't an option.

That's why it's not surprising to me that we've kept up with it. I've never doubted that we would. I think it's safe to say that if we had approached this with a "try it and see" attitude we would have stopped writing regularly, if at all, months ago. It hasn't been easy staying up later at night or getting up early to fit in an entry that usually takes at least a half hour to write. The brainstorming process itself can be somewhat taxing. A new original entry everyday, some organically born from that day's experiences but many cogitated out of thin air, is something of an endeavor.

Obviously we're enjoying ourselves. If this process felt like a chore all the time (sometimes it does) we'd have a harder time sticking with it. But taking on a project like this requires commitment. Like many things in life, committing is the hardest step. Once that's taken care of a lot of the rest of the work feels less like work. Quitting goes off the table as an option and no longer looms over your head as a decision you have to struggle with. That constant tension of "Should I continue? Can I continue?" goes away because you are continuing. You're doing it, every day.

If we hadn't committed fully to this project and we hadn't stopped yet we'd likely be counting the days till completion. As it is though, the halfway mark came and went without a whimper, without being noticed. I think that's pretty cool.

Thanks to those of you who have committed to reading us on a regular basis. It makes our work much more fun, knowing that there are sentient people on the other end of this mostly one-sided communication.