There are three reasons why I’ve joined WordPress Post A Day 2011. And gone public with it.

1. To conquer ambivalence

A few years ago, before the economy got into trouble, I was having trouble selling my house. People were coming round to visit it, but not with any enthusiasm or conviction (aside from the oohs and aahs over my lovely original painting hanging in the hallway that I seriously didn’t want anyone touching – least of all househunting strangers with greasy fingertips). I couldn’t understand why no-one was biting. Then a friend of mine told me to visualise a ‘sold’ sign in the front garden. Doing that, she said, would fast-track the process as my unconscious mind would already believe it to be sold, and reality just had to catch up. At that point, I didn’t even have a ‘for sale’ sign in the front garden, as I didn’t want to be the subject of (more) gossip among the neighbours. However, I took the friend’s advice and asked the estate agent to put up the sign. Within an hour, the next-door neighbour had put an offer in on the property, to buy it for her son. Moral of the story is not to be ambivalent; not to be shy of advertising my intentions; or be afraid of what the neighbours (or complete strangers) might think of me.

2. To beat procrastination

There’s nothing like meeting the expectations of an audience to keep me motivated. I’ve been making lists of posts for this blog for about three years; lists of ideas that could have populated this empty space for the whole of 2010 and 2009 (if wordpress was doing the postaday challenge back then. I’ve committed to doing this. I’ve gone public. Now I have no excuse for turning up at the screen and typing in 250 words. Every day. Bearing in mind that I’ve already missed 61 of the postadays. However, I’m choosing not to beat myself up about that. I can’t change those 61 days, but I can change the next 304. And that feels empowering.

3. Because I’m choosing ‘good enough’ over ‘perfect’

Procrastination’s twin sister, Perfectionism, has for far too long been snooty and sneering at my work. She insists that I hold on until things are perfect and proper; she scans one of my many lists and finds it lacking, like a socialite at yet another party to go to, who flounces out of her walk-in wardrobe proclaiming that she has nothing to wear. I do have lots of things to wear: perhaps adding a flourish here, or an accessory there, can enliven the source material that is very there and very real – but just never gets the chance for an airing. So, instead of waiting for perfection, this blog will be packed full  of ‘good enough’ posts that are meaningful to me at the time.

I look forward to savouring the quotidian challenge for the rest of 2011, and beyond…