Talkin bout a resolution

At our house we call it “pulling a Trader Joes.” This is the phenomenon of getting inordinately excited and committed to a new, seemingly life changing idea and then watching it die as life’s commitments get in the way. It’s why we simultaneously have a growing mutli-billion dollar weight loss industry in a country with a more fat people than you can shake a Nutrishake at. There’s no threat that the weight loss gurus will succeed their way out of business. Not with all of us quitters out there.

We call this a “Trader Joes” because Colin and I vowed to do our shopping there after a particularly enrapturing experience with inexpensive prepared food and bizarrely friendly check out staff. Sure, it was much less convenient than our normal grocery store, but what a better experience! “We should always come here!”

Despite our initial enthusiasm, we repeated the experience exactly zero times. Stop and Shop was walkable and cheap, and we’re lazy.

For this blog, I vowed publicly, even if no one was listening, to write a little bit each day. Lately, I’ve averaged one post a month. Pathetic.

I know the root of this problem. Instead of confidently posting a quick description or rant and hitting “publish,” I expound on an issue at length and from all angles I can think of. I fear (but fail at) posting something that might offend or fail a grammar test and rework it. I won’t post something unless I like it, and I’m paralytically critical of myself. All this stymies progress and deters me from even starting most days.

So, the point is in order to reach a goal, you need to bite off reasonable chunks. I go to the gym pretty regularly – but only because it is downstairs from my office. If I’m not entirely in the mood, I still go and just do a short workout. There are no “transportation costs” allowing me easy excuses. On busy days, I do excuse myself, but overall it’s part of my routine because it’s manageable.

So, I’m going to make this blogging thing more manageable by doing more regular short posts. Every once in a while I’ll probably expound on something at length. (I’m restraining myself right now from delving into all the other factors that make goals attainable: having someone hold you accountable, early and observable success, interim reachable goals, making the tasks something you enjoy…). Maybe the invisible reader will hold me to this new task…