Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Day 1 Reflection: Dedication


My list of blog posts



I have written 693 blog posts including this post. In mid-April, this blog will be two years old. I write almost every day unless I'm fighting depression, and even then I usually write.

I don't always feel motivated to write. I would find it easy to devote myself to writing if I received accolades for it, or if I knew my writing impacted someone in some way. Rewarding a behavior results in more of that behavior -- that's called classical conditioning. In the case of my blog, readership and comments and likes would be the rewards for blogging behavior. However, I only have an average of twenty readers per day, and I have no idea whether they like my work. Comments on the blog and likes on Facebook and Twitter are few and far between.

Still, I write, almost every day. 

It takes dedication -- in my case, dedication to the craft of writing; dedication to the confraternity of writers; dedication to the concept that it's important to reflect, to soul-search, to speak truth whether or not anyone listens.

Dedication in the face of obscurity makes me more solid, braced by my convictions that writing is the work of my soul. 

4 comments:

  1. Such a good message.. Just keep showing up to the page.

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  2. Thank you for reading! I hope you keep showing up here too!

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  3. I read daily, I often comment, but they don't always show up?!

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  4. Stephanie -- I get yours now and again; at least two or three you've sent; just not lately!

    ReplyDelete

I believe that everyone here comes with good intent. If you come to spoil my assumptions by verbal abuse, excessive profanity, spam or other abuses I had not considered, I reserve the right to delete your notes or delete your participation. I am the arbiter of what violates good intent.