finishing: a five minutes finale

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble”

– Helen Keller

Well, dear reader, we’ve come to the end of the 60(!)+ posts inspired by the book Five Minutes in the Morning. I am forever grateful to my friends for gifting me this lil book for xmas.

Now, maybe you’re wondering – if there were only around 60 prompts from the book that I got in December 2020 – why did it take me until the end of July 2021 to finish?

I wish I had a concrete answer for you.

Maybe it was because Life tends to have other plans.

Maybe it was fear that once I finished I’d lose a steady stream of post topics.

Maybe it was the fact that I’ve kinda fallen out of love with writing.

Maybe it was laziness.

Maybe I’ve just never been good at finishing (just ask anyone who’s had sex with me).

Maybe it was some combination of all these reasons, or because the remaining prompts from Five Minutes in the Morning weren’t’ so much prompts as they were helpful tips.

Speaking of, here is what the book says about finishing:

When you’re really close to the finishing line of a task or project you might need to persevere to finish what you started. […] Finishing can be hard and it is all too easy to slip back into your pregoal state. Here are some suggestions to help you finish successfully.

• Announce it
  When you’re done, say so. The words will have more impact spoken out loud.
• Stop and enjoy the moment
  Achieving your goal, whatever it is, is something to celebrate, so take time to look at the new view
• Assess and process all that you’ve learned along the way
• Thank the people who have helped you get there

Ahhhh, it feels good to be done, and like I mentioned yesterday I don’t have much planned for the near future – and I’m totally okay with that.

I’ve learned that it’s not difficult to update this every day, it just takes a little planning; I’d typically spend a few hours each Sunday putting together the posts for the front of the week, and then do the remaining ones on Tuesday or Wednesday. I think there were a few weeks where I’d write the post a few hours before I posted it, but that wasn’t sustainable. I like giving them time to marinate.

I’ve learned that the posts I enjoyed the most were the ones where I was able to be the most honest. I often say RE: my poetry and haiku that I don’t know one way or the other if they’re good, and that doesn’t even matter to me. What matters is that they’re honest. I’ve always been able to be honest with a pen and paper in hand, but now I notice I’m able to be honest without them. I don’t know if I can say posting these prompts was solely responsible for that, but I know it was good practice.

I am grateful that I’ve had the chance to take this gift from my friends and turn it into a steady(ish) stream of posts. Good friends know what your heart needs.

I’m grateful for the new ideas presented in this book that I never would have tried had I not read them here.

I’m grateful for all the new followers I’ve gained along the way. It tickles me that my words resonated so much with so many strangers. Thanks for coming along, and stick around if ya want – who knows where this is going!

And so, for now, that’s…