The beginning of the No Excuses project
July 21, 2009 by Juliet Chase
Filed under No Excuses Project
I’ve been used to thinking of excuses as something offered to someone else, usually with the intent of escaping something you’d rather not do e.g. I’m too tired to do the dishes or the all-time classic, the dog ate my homework. In adulthood I’ve been more accustomed to thinking of them as lies for the same purpose; a former friend was always either late or a no-show to agreed arrangements because of having to pick up the dry cleaning. Since she wore jeans to work, it wasn’t all that plausible as often as she used it. I’ve always made an effort to be honest with others, but somehow overlooked being just as honest with myself.
I finished up reading Wayne Dyer’s Excuses Begone! last week and am starting to face how good I am at excuses. These are the ones that you use against yourself to keep safe and keep the status quo even when you don’t want it. From ‘I can’t afford it’ to ‘It’s never happened successfully before’ I’ve used almost all of them and they’ve been holding me back from what I want in my life. It’s time to stop.
As I’ve been thinking about what kind of year-long project would be significant for me and interesting to write about, I’ve been drawing something of a blank except for wondering if there was something I could do where I could emerge as a latin dancer at the end of it (fantasy more than true desire on that one!) I think this is it – a year without excuses. No saying ‘I can’t afford it’ but not running up the credit card either; instead finding a way to make it happen. It’s not quite as delicious as the Julia Child project but it feels much more critical for where and who I am. So here goes – no more excuses, not even the one about how it would be nice to wait until I’ve got this figured out as to how I’m going to do it and wouldn’t it be better to wait for the first of the month or something that is a clearer starting point. Yesterday was the anniversary of the moon landing so maybe that’s significant enough…
A year to do something
June 29, 2009 by Juliet Chase
Filed under Health and Happiness
For some yet-to-be-ascertained reason, Julia Child has been on my mind for the last few months. It could be that her career transition from secret service to chef could teach me a few things about making major changes or maybe just that I’ve been self-analyzing too much and the fact that we have the same initials is enough. In any event, when I saw the movie trailer for Julie&Julia coming out this summer I paid attention.
The premise is based on a book which is based on the blog, The Julie/Julia Project, of spending one year cooking everything in Julia Child’s book, presumably with some expectation of great insight or achievement. It occurred to me that I’ve passed this theme, ‘a year doing ____’ several times in the past six months. From Judith Levine’s year without spending to the blog, The Happiness Project , a continuation of a year studying happiness. And these are just the ones that garnered book deals. There are photographers who have spent a year taking a picture of the same tree or scene every day for a year and people that have taken off for the wilds of another continent for a year, some getting book deals, but most not. These kinds of experiments aren’t really all that new; Henry David Thoreau’s Walden was in the same vein although he hung out at Walden Pond for 26 months and I don’t believe he had a specific calendar in mind when he started, although he did see it as an experiment.
So is this synchronicity or a delaying tactic for not getting other things done?
While my ego would rejoice in a book deal, I find that I’m more intrigued by the thought of trying to stick to something every day for a year. There are plenty of things that I’ve done for longer than that but none that I can say I touched on a daily basis. Just as there are projects that I’ve started and completed in far less time. I’m doubtful of my ability to carry through on a year’s commitment to a project that isn’t work related. Mostly because my bookshelves are riddled with blank books, each purchased with the intent that this was going to be the one that started the diary I would keep up. But also, I think I feel a little intimidated at the thought of ending something. In some ways it seems easier to contemplate a project that goes on forever, like that work-out routine I keep trying to implement, or moving somewhere exotic for an unspecified number of years than it does to set the end date before I even begin.
And then there’s that big problem of what the project is. It wouldn’t be much fun to be a copycat and it’s not a good time for me to be taking off for Borneo anytime soon. Nor do I have money or time to spare. So what I need is a project that doesn’t take up much time but could last a year, doesn’t cost money, can be done locally and hasn’t been made into a book yet. And that I’m interested in doing and that won’t turn into a job… Maybe I could take a year thinking up ideas for how to spend a year? Yeah, maybe not. I guess I’d better go off and think about this some more. Maybe inspiration will strike!
to be continued…
