We’ve been talking about this blog a lot lately. That sounds a lot more arrogant when I lead with it than it did when I was writing this post in my head. I should clarify, we’ve been experiencing some emotional breakdowns weight on account of our 365 day promise. Blogging is difficult. I think it’s a lot harder than writing. Brevity was never a strong characteristic of mine.
We have, in a strange sense, been challenged by the very existence of our own blog in the last few weeks. When we sit down to read blogs we like to experience something special or something creative or something insightful. In turn we want to provide that on our own blog. We want to live that so we can blog about it. It keeps us on our toes. It forces us to create more and think more and do more in real life because nobody wants to read 25 straight posts about us watching TV shows or sitting on the couch. We don’t want that to be our story either. When you blog about your life every day you start paying closer attention to what you do with your time and the wasteful moments become far more abhorrent.
[uhhh hold on...my wife just brought me one of these guys...I gotta take a quick break]
The hard part has been going out and creating a legitimate story rather than just doing random intriguing stuff because we need something to blog about. This blog has been a catalyst of a lot of the events taking place in our lives over the last few months. Let me explain: we don’t go see cool movies so we can tell you what we saw and we don’t buy new books so we can show you what we read. However, we have been choosing non-traditional methods of living, finding better hobbies, creating more thoughtful ideas, and asking harder questions about why we do what we do. We’ve been asking a lot of questions.
Without the blog, does any of that happen? I don’t know.
There’s a quote above the Oklahoma State training room in Gallagher-Iba Arena that goes like this, “if something isn’t difficult and you don’t have to work hard then you won’t care whether you win or lose.” I don’t really know what our “win” is on this blog but I know that if you’re inspired to become more like the Lord because of any single word we’ve typed on here then all the hours we’ve pumped into it are completely worth it. And if our story becomes better because of it…well, all the better.
Why are we writing this post? Mostly for ourselves. Do we think each of you should start a blog? Maybe. More than that we think you should find something that forces you to live a more thoughtful, creative story.
What is that thing for you? What forces you to live rather than to just exist?
Oh, and my tipping point for writing all this? See below:
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i love this line…
“if something isn’t difficult and you don’t have to work hard then you won’t care whether you win or lose.”
great words to live by. i worked for a guy in the past that always said "if it was easy then everyone would be doing it".
keep it up guys, you both are constantly challenging/reminding me of a better way to live.
Yeah, I can't remember who said it (either Gallagher or Iba) but it's slapped right above the training room behind Pete on the NE entrance to GIA…
Don't get so caught up in trying to be someone YOU think is more interesting to us, the readers. Be yourselves. We'll read.
Haha thanks Syd, and I think in the end that's what I was trying to convey. That we can't do things for the sake of doing them, we just have to live…but the blog does force you to think about how you're living, what you're doing, just as I'm sure yours forces to think about what crafts you've got going, and pushes you to finish them…
Of course! I was just trying to confirm what you said. My blog makes me think, too. I don't specifically set out to do things so I can blog about them, but I am forced to think more deeply about them upon reflection. It's a good exercise – it's like well-presented journaling.
Agreed.
I completely agree. I just started blogging (http://blog.laurenandelissa.com/) and was really hesitant about it. But it's been really amazing and fun! Good luck with yours. Love reading it.
Ditto to yours.
Good post.
Thanks.