I’m not feeling particularly artistic or creative or brilliant today. After a week of computer crashes, fatigue, and illness, I’m just grateful to be feeling human again.
My goal today is to get some ink on the page. I barely managed more than a scribble each day during the past seven days – but at least I managed, at least I stayed connected.
I did, however, have to reassess what my something daily is. Just a few weeks ago, I said it was posting something to my blog, then life got in the way. Technical and biological glitches made it difficult to keep my promise.
Doing something daily, the subject of a book I’m working on, has very few rules, but two of them are that your something be simple and that it be doable. Otherwise, weeks like the one I just had, the kind that you will inevitably one day have, can derail your commitment.
Putting ink on the page is simpler and more doable (and more personal) than creating blog posts. I can do it even when my computer crashes, even when I’m feeling tired, even when I have the flu and spend most of my day drifting in and out of sleep.
And if I do it every day, I’m far more likely to return to creating something more when life is back on track again.
In essence, that’s what doing something daily does for you. It keeps you on track when your life doesn’t seem to be. It keeps you connected when everything else seems to be coming unplugged.
So, I’m asking you to please do something daily. And I’m asking you to please remember to keep it simple, keep it doable, keep it moving, keep it going, even when nothing is going your way.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Ken:
Thanks for this post. It is a brilliant one, as usual.
I am concerned about your illness, though.
Just writing to wish you a speedy recovery, that’s all.
I am going to pray for your health, wealth and prosperity today. I am with you, especially when the chips are down.
You are a mover and a shaker: a darn good artist.
Hang in there, buddy, it can only get better. Cheerio!
Don’t worry, Archan. It’s just something that’s going around. Several of my coworkers had the same thing. Feel great today.
Missed your posts this week. Glad you’re feeling better. Love today’s drawing – it’s EXACTLY where I am with my running.
I’m sorry about the glitches. I hope you’re feeling back to 100% soon.
I totally agree with the doing-something-daily thing. And the keeping-it-simple thing.
I used to be really ambitious about my personal practice. I’d shoot for a solid hour of sound stuff each morning. Chanting, drumming, singing bowls, whatever.
That almost never happened. Especially on days full of busy.
Now I commit to spending 15 minutes in the morning. And it’s so much more doable.
And the sweet part about that is that, more often than not, the 15 minutes stretches out into 20 or 30 minutes. And sometimes even 45 minutes or an hour.
On those days where I feel kind of ack, I can still drum or chant or playing the bowls. Even if it’s for five minutes.
And I’m always grateful for that time. Always.
.-= Fabeku Fatunmise´s last blog ..In The Fight Or In The Flow? =-.
Found your blog through your guest post on productive flourishing.
Like your thinking and your writing.
Love the picture~
Love your phrase of “keep it going, even when nothing is going your way”
Your post reminded me a little unrelated quote that I don’t remember exactly but kinda says:
He is moving slowly, yet he is moving forward
.-= Sandy´s last blog ..Get outside, enjoy outdoors, the world is waiting =-.