Sometimes, I sit down at my computer with the idea that I can write my blog post for the next day, but when I sit down, I really don’t have an idea in mind. Sometimes, I sit down at my computer when really I want to sit down in front of my television and watch something completely useless while I drink a delicious cup of soothing, warm tea.
Sometimes, I think about this site and the fact that you come here to read what I write every day, and I think, “Man, that’s crazy. Who would ever imagine that you would care that much about what I sit down to write?” It seems a bit surreal. Even so, sometimes I sit down to write, and it’s just not something I want to do.
Sometimes it feels a bit more like an obligation rather than a hobby.
“Would the world end if I decided to go a couple of days without a post?” I ask myself. Probably not. The world would probably, most likely, keep on spinning on its tilted axis. So why make myself sit down to write on this site, using this keyboard of mine that is old and tired, when I really don’t feel like it?
Chris Brogan wrote a post today about the actions we undertake that are like stacking wood. I have done a lot of tedious tasks in my day. Have you ever done trenching on a forest path? Have you ever built steps moving up a bank from a creek? Have you ever picked up sticks in a yard after a giant wind? Have you ever analyzed things till your eyes cross and you start seeing double?
Sure you have.
We do things like that because we’re building something. We stack wood because we want to build a fire. We clean up hiking paths so we can build safer, better trails. We blog when we don’t feel like it sometimes because we are building something on our site. We are building something online in this new virtual world. Does every little bit help?
You know the answer to that one.
I didn’t feel like blogging tonight. Sometimes bloggers don’t feel like blogging. Sometimes tweeters don’t feel like tweeting. It’s not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean you’re missing something. Sometimes you don’t feel like doing that last little bit of work for the day before you collapse into watching your guilty pleasure (mine this particular evening is Biggest Loser). But you have to keep trudging ahead, even when you don’t feel like it, because you know that what you are building is worth that last little push. What you are doing, whatever it may be, is worth that last little effort.
You’re worth that last little effort, aren’t you?
Image by Marina Avila. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/donzeladef