Blogging when you don’t want to

Why do we do it? Why every day? What is going to happen if I miss a day? I’m not getting paid for it; there are no Daily Blog Police to come round and arrest me if I miss a post; there is no prize for managing to post every single day for a whole year (is there? Seriously, is there? :D)

It’s not even as bad as missing brushing your teeth! Or is it? Do you grow a furry scum round your brain overnight and have to go get cavities in your mind filled by a scary person brandishing a whiny drill?

I’m stubborn. Those of my lovely readers who know me in person will not faint with amazement at this revelation. It is one of my major defining qualities, which I prefer to call determination, but at heart I know that stubbornness is the more appropriate term. So that’s the main reason why I plug away at this, day after day, even when I am not in the mood or am too tired to write a proper post.

Maybe I should give myself a break and switch to PostAWeek, but that would feel like giving up, admitting defeat. I don’t want to be defeated by a little blog! It’s not as if I have committed to being profound every day! (Or even ever…)

A hard lesson I have continually failed to learn through life is when to quit. Starting with my A-levels, when I was doing one more than I needed, and lost the thread of Maths totally when we got to algebraic long division. Things I should have done include:

1) admit that I had forgotten how to do simple long division (I felt like such an idiot! That was something we had learned back in Junior School and here I was unable to do it! But I had used a calculator for years, so hadn’t needed it. There was no real shame in admitting it, but it felt like there was. I should at least have asked my Mum for help!)

2) failing that, drop out of the class so I could have more time for other subjects, or bumming around.

Instead, I tried to discover just how small I could make my notes. It turns out I can write such tiny writing that I can get five lines of writing on one ruled line of normal lined paper! Also I looked out of the window at the trees and chatted to my friend. Calculus was not going to happen.

When my results came through, I was more chuffed with my grade C for Physics than either of my other two better grades, because I had managed it with almost no mathematical ability.

But I didn’t learn from that when it is time to quit!

Both in my studies and in my hobbies I have this stubborn streak a mile wide that stops me quitting even when I need to. I am not sure how you tell when to quit, before the faecal matter hits the rotating aeration device!

If you know, please share.