211

Today is my 211th post.  In a row.  Unbelievable!

If you had asked me way back in June how many times I could write a short essay about my life, I have no idea what I would have said.  I reached 50 pretty easily.  Somehow I made it to 101 in October.  But now that I have reached 211 consecutive posts, I admit that I am a bit flabbergasted at myself.  Apparently, it's all about habits.

For my writing class last fall, I read an internet article about Jerry Seinfeld's productivity secret.  He says that the way to get better at writing jokes is to write every day. But how to motivate yourself to write every day?

Jerry puts up a large one year calendar on the wall and every day that he writes, he marks off with a giant red X.  After you make more than a couple of continuous red Xs, you have a chain.  And then it somehow becomes the most important thing in the world to not break the chain.

Although I don't have an actual wall calendar with markings, I suppose I have a metaphorical one.  For the last 211 nights, I have done my best to not break the chain.  There have been late nights when I didn't want to write, didn't know what I was going to write about, and times when I felt very unenthusiastic about this dang blog, but I have always written something.

Only 184 days left to go . . .