Absentee Blogger

In posting this entry tonight, I’ve avoided going a full two weeks since my last blog post! Two weeks!

I’ve never before had such a long stretch without a blog post.

There are many factors or influencers that motivate me to write and post entries. For the most part, I feel an urge to express some thought(s) or opinion, or to pass along some information, etc. But there is also some blog/peer pressure in the blogosphere. And I even feel guilt at times, like now, when it’s been a really long time between posts.

According to Blogger I’ve posted 183 entries since this blog was established on September 4, 2006. September 2006, as it turns out, was a month that saw the beginning of several personal journeys, including this blog. In some ways it seems like yesterday. In others, it truly seems like a lifetime has passed. But, of course, that’s another story.

There were 69 blog entries in 2006 and 114 so far in 2007. A quick calculation reveals 393 days, inclusive, in that period, and thus one post/entry every 2.1 days (i.e. 393/183) on average.

I don’t really have much of an explanation for my being a recent absentee blogger. It’s certainly a busy time, but not as busy as many other periods in the past 393 days. And it’s certainly a stressful time, and yes perhaps a little more stressful than any other period in the past 393 days, but only slightly more stressful. There’s a lot happening within the normal spheres of thought and discourse that I tend to blog about (e.g. Parmasters Kitchener-Waterloo, the local golf scene, professional golf, day to day life, etc.), so there would seem to be lots of topics and lots to say. And yet, blogging temporarily moved to a lower priority.

I believe in the power of routines. We all love our routines and don’t appreciate it much when our routines are interrupted or disrupted. Humans are creatures of habit, for the most part shunning change.

Routines can serve both a positive purpose (i.e. getting into a routine of posting blog entries regularly) or they can be less positive (i.e. routinely typing on a Blackberry when one should be focusing elsewhere).

I’ve heard that it takes some 21 days/iterations to form a habit. So, if I posted daily for 21 days … hmmm.