Nothing to do with the movie.
This is the 28th post, which—considering I post every day—means it’s the 28th day since I committed to a practice of publishing online.
Over the years, I’ve started and almost-started so many projects, but eventually abandoned them when I couldn’t find the elusive perfect time to work on them; to fit them into or around my life.
It turns out (for me at least) it doesn’t really work like that. The perfect time never presents itself (because it doesn’t exist). The beautifully uninterrupted hours, days or weeks where you can simply commit “enough” time never quite come together.
Something that I’ve started to realize (more slowly than I’d like) is that I didn’t need a project, but a practice. A project feels big—you have to start and end it, and there’s a big scary stretch in the middle that only seems to get wider; the end further away.
A practice, however, is just something you show up for (in my interpretation at least). It doesn’t have a real beginning and certainly doesn’t have an end. To the extent it has a middle, it’s unbounded, but not in the same way as the long stretch of a project. It goes on forever because it’s actually supposed to.
Publishing every day isn’t a project for me, it’s a practice.
So far, my practice has existed for 28 days, and my plan is for it to continue forever. This is an important milestone because—subjectively; symbolically—it proves I can commit. If I can do it for 28 days (4 weeks) I can do it for 3 months, then for 12, and beyond.
It’s helped me to see past projects through a new lens. If I were to build them around a practice, what might have happened? If I commit to a practice related to my other interests, where might that lead?
Here’s to finding out, and to the next 28 days.