Excuses, excuses

Have you heard of Eric Hoffer? During the time his peers were writing about the benefits of having good self-esteem, Hoffer wrote about the consequences of not having good self-esteem. He wrote about the danger of fanaticism and self-righteousness. He wrote about how important it is to have meaning in one’s own life to avoid obsessing about the other people and things outside of one’s control. He was a pretty smart guy.

I’d like to share with you what Mr. Hoffer said about excuses:

There are many who find a good alibi far more attractive than an achievement. For an achievement does not settle anything permanently. We still have to prove our worth anew each day: we have to prove that we are as good today as we were yesterday. But when we have a valid alibi for not achieving anything we are fixed, so to speak, for life. Moreover, when we have an alibi for not writing a book, painting a picture, and so on, we have an alibi for not writing the greatest book and not painting the greatest picture. Small wonder that the effort expended and the punishment endured in obtaining a good alibi often exceed the effort and grief requisite for the attainment of a most marked achievement.

I claim to write, yet days go by in which I write nothing. Why is this? Fear of failure? Perhaps. When I go back and read things I’ve written, I can always find room for improvement. When I put things out here for the world to read, I want for them to entertain or inform or inspire.

I always have a good excuse for not posting. I’m too busy at work or I’m sick (this week’s excuse).

Sometimes, I worry that what I have to say isn’t good enough. Oh, I usually get the grammar and spelling close enough but I know I switch tenses like I’m caught in a time machine gone mad. That’s not what I’m blathering on about…what if you come here and read what I’ve posted and it doesn’t do anything for you? What if ~gasp~ it bores you? What if you feel you wasted your time coming here? Horrors.

Sure, I do this blog thing for me and I’d probably do it even if no one ever read it or commented. It’s just that sometimes it’s a whole lot easier to make the excuses. If it weren’t for 55 Fiction Fridays, there would have been weeks without a new post. Stale blog = sadness blog. Thanks to those of you who’ve been playing along with 55 Fiction Friday, it doesn’t matter how busy or how sick or how filled with excuses I may find myself, I find time to make that one post a week. No excuses there.

I hesitate to do this. I can have a goal but as long as I don’t say it (post it) out loud, it doesn’t count (except in that whole internal debate/berate thing). So. Ehem. Um. Here it is.

I will post at least three times a week from this point forward. It might just be a quote or a haiku or who knows what but I will.

Feel free to publicly scold me if I fail to meet my goal.