The Challenge Of Making Commitments & Keeping Them

There's a particular challenge in making commitments and sticking to them. Call them goals if you want, I don't call them that any more.

I'm talking about self commitments here, stuff we all say we want for ourselves then lament through later years as we failed to realise them.

The challenges are there and without them we can't ever experience that thing we're after.

They are necessary.

I've had a few challenges, no show stoppers though. I'll detail them now in a bit, and also how I dealt with them.

Anyway…

In this 365 Day Writing Challenge there are certain things I know I could do to make my life easier, like have a bank of articles ready to go.

But I don't.

I'm day to day, and I realise I need to do something about that.

Now, what's that to do with you? You're not a writer.

Well, you might not be a writer but the basic principle applies to everyone no matter what your discipline. And in time I hope that it will be evident.

For now you'll just have to take my word for it.

Or maybe you've experienced what I'm talking about already. If you haven't then you are fortunate and I have little to offer you.

Other than to say the flip side of the coin has enormous benefits. It's kind of like loving and never having your heart broken.

I detailed some of those challenges in a Medium article this week.

What's Been Going Down This Week

I'm writing my ass off this week and I have a bunch of stuff to report.

In addition to writing here I also write on Medium. It's mostly reposting of this content with some edits and additional commentary.

But I also fire up a couple of quick articles whenever I'm inspired to do so. Just reposting is a bit spammy and not really offering my readers there any additional value.

Here's a quick run down of this week's content

Monday

On Monday I was talking about our society and the madness of people. I outlined 50 ways that I see the human race in self destruct mode. We are an insane race of people who think that we are not really. We're kind of like Nero playing while Rome burned. Don't get too depressed though, it will all work out in the end.

Read it

Tuesday

On Tuesday I wanted to say in bed, but I couldn't. I had a Developmental Psychology exam (which didn't go too bad actually). In this article I was talking about how the common thrust of our culture now is to be productive. It's trendy. do what all these successful dudes do and then everything will be ok. It's horse shit, and it's killing your creativity.

Read it

Wednesday

Wednesday I was talking creativity and in particular how my fellow creative people can avoid the competition trap. Competition is a killer of everything creative and you must avoid it at all costs. It's a psychological state and this broken society has most of us convinced we need to play by these rule. It's horse shit too.

Read it

Thursday

Last Thursday I was talking about having the balls to do the hard work, albeit a little tongue in cheek. Really what I was trying to convey was that taking a back seat gets us not very far. Now if that's you bag then fair enough, there's nothing wrong with it. It's just for creatives, our entire existence is based upon making stuff and sharing with others. So we need to get comfortable being up front sometimes.

Read it

Friday

On Friday I was discussing daily ritual. If we bohemian types are looking for some appeal with our given audience and expect them to part with cash then we need to be devoted and obsessed. Nothing short of daily ritual of dedication to our art will ever get us to where we want to be.

Read it

Saturday

Today (it's Saturday night) I outlined my plan to publish The Artist's Manifesto. You see it appears after some self analysis and retrospect that I have a message I need to offer to my creative and artistic kind. And the best way to deliver this is via a personal and professional manifesto. A call to action to my people.

Read it

On Medium This Week

I fired out a couple of articles on Medium this week too. One or two of which were a little abrasive. Check them out;

Writing Every Day :: Here’s The Jackanory So Far

If You’re Gonna Say Fuck, Just Say Fuck

OK, Maybe I’m An Asshole, Don’t Take It Personally.

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