Since it's been four days since I've posted here, I suppose I'm no longer a Wordpress Postaday member in good standing. That's okay. I'm not beating myself up over it. I knew I'd never be able to keep up with that kind of blogging schedule. I had a pretty good run at it for a couple of weeks, but in the last few days somehow lost momentum.
The whole daily posting resolution reminded me a little bit of Mr. Federighe (fed-é-reek-e), my fourth grade violin teacher. Each time he taught us a new piece, we were supposed to go home and practice it 10 times every day.
Can you imagine? Suwanee River scratched out on the violin 10 times every day?
I don't think any of us ever did that (except for Margaret M., who ended up as principal violist in the Boston Symphony). I remember making it to six times through on one very rainy Saturday afternoon, before giving up and going back to reading Harriet the Spy.
Many years later, I ran in to Mr. F. once again - I was actually his accompanist for a while, and we shared a tiny office in the junior high school where he was teaching at the time. He was still telling the junior high students to practice every piece 10 times a day. "You don't really think they're going to do that, do you?" I asked him.
"Oh of course not," he answered. "But maybe they'll at least practice it once or twice before they throw in the towel!"
Pretty crafty thinking.
That's kind of what happened to me with the Postaday program. It tricks me into writing more often than I might otherwise do - and that's just fine.
How about you? Do you have any little mind tricks you play on yourself?