Not all personal projects are the success we planned for. We can invest a great amount of time and energy in something with the highest of expectations; sometimes only to be underwhelmed or even disappointed with the results.
To make it harder, the warning signs can often start to appear early on; but dedication to the idea, or just plain stubbornness prevent us from calling a halt ‘too soon’. No one wants to be known as a quitter.
In those cases, the best to be hoped for is that you can learn something positive from the experience, and move on to the next adventure. Often this easier said than done.
On the other hand, there are those surprising projects that start off ‘cautious, but hopeful’; not certain what to expect for the outcome. Success in these cases is all the sweeter for that. Perhaps, free from the weight of over-expectation( from others and ourselves), we just have a better chance of giving our best. Who knows…?
My recent journalling experiment has been just such a project. In all honesty I doubted that I would maintain the focus needed to stick to the target of thirty days. Life is busy enough, days already too short to get everything done without adding to the list.
But sometimes a challenge turns out to be just too engaging, rewarding or even too much fun, to stop. The second month of haiku is now drawing to a close, and a new target of a year is set.
It sounds contradictory, but there’s something quite liberating about the tight constraints of the haiku form. The struggle to express an idea in such a limited number of words (you certainly can’t waffle, unlike here); the feeling of reward when it’s done.
The journalling will continue, but remain private; the haiku, on the other hand are now being posted daily, and those foolish enough to want to can see them on my ‘The Year In Haiku’ page.
Tread cautiously, and don’t overdo it; they’re probably not everyone’s ‘cup of tea’. But I’m having a great time, and by the end of the year I might even be turning out some half-decent efforts; you can only hope.