Step #17: Make it a Habit.

Q: How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
A: Practice. Practice. Practice.

This is what popped in my head this morning. After the spirit of Jack Benny left my body, I thought I should probably get to work. It's been 20 some-odd days since my last entry and that one had a stamp in the top-left corner. My list of excuses has been long, distinguished and creative-- I can dress them up all I like but they are just that: excuses.

The honeymoon here is over. So now what?

I find that when I am extremely busy, I am highly functional. There is no system overload for me. However, serve me up hours and hours of free time at my disposal and there is synapse-stoppage. My brain decides to hibernate and go into power save mode. I have been basking in the glow of a well earned work hiatus. I have quite literally been eating, drinking and taking merry to another level. Seizing the day/moment comes with little to no introspection. I'd go into the deeper reaches of my brain and no unrest existed, no words dying to get out into a quiet universe bounced around. So, I let it go. I thought, "Meh, no big whoop. It'll come later."

What I was doing, which I realize now was distancing myself from the process.

Mistake.

I fell out of my own practice. I stopped watering the plant.

Mistake.

The words were not coming easily so, I waited for them.

Mistake.

Consistency is key when it comes to making any new habit second nature. Neglect it and it goes by the way side. Labors of love usually have some sort of labor attached to it. (Not just a clever turn of phrase). If it were as effortless as breathing there wouldn't be a catharsis attached to it. This thing...whatever it is I'm doing, needs to be nurtured.

I guess my point is that anything worth doing takes work. Devote yourself to the practice even when you "don't feel like it." It's not always going to be easy but, nothing ever is.

So, here I am...back. Re-focused. I won't ever leave you again.