Blogging as a Habit

It’s NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month. For the month of November, I’m going to post every day. This is day 21.

I’ve heard that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Today is day 21 of NaBloPoMo, National Blog Posting Month. I’ve posted every day for the past three weeks, truly incredible! I’m not sure if I yet feel this is an established habit, although it has become easier to remember to post each day, and ideas for what to write have been popping into my head more and more frequently. So perhaps even if it isn’t yet a fully-formed habit, new synaptic pathways are starting to develop.

I started this blog back in February, 2010. That month I posted twenty-four times, nearly every day. This is the first time since the beginning that I’ve come even close to my initial excitement. I’ve had periods of time where I love writing and periods when it’s a complete drag and I have a hard time posting, feeling guilty about not writing.

I had a spell recently when I was not feeling so well. A nurse said something that has stuck in my mind and I keep thinking about. She asked me how I was feeling at that moment. At that moment I was actually feeling alright although I was still upset over how sick I had been a little over an hour before. “It doesn’t matter that you felt so sick then, it’s about how you feel now,” she said “forget about that and focus on right now and on continuing to just feel better and better.”

I keep thinking about what she said and using this piece of advice to propel myself forward, not feel upset, or dwell on miss-steps or frustrations from the past. I guess between forming new habits and learning to let go, when you put your mind to something you can really make things happen.