My Name Is Dana And I Am A Project 365 Quitter

Photo Credit

By now, most of you have at least heard about Project 365, and a lot of you have probably attempted one yourself.

I took on my first Project 365 (Dana Does Digital) in 2010. I made it through the year, taking (and usually posting) a picture a day. It was, at times, more painful than accidentally chewing on a piece of aluminum foil. 

I vowed to never do one again ...

Until 2012.

Suddenly, it seemed like a good idea (I'm guessing this is a similar phenomena to the one that allows people to have more than one child).

41 days into the 2012 project, I quit.

There were several reasons why I quit, but it really boiled down to setting unrealistic expectations (for myself and the project) and feeling like a failure when I didn't meet those expectations. 

I'd rather quit than fail to meet my unreasonable expectations.

What's that you say? That attitude is a little self-defeating??

Yeah ... well ...

I really do like the Project 365 premise, but how do I get past the must-take-one-excellent-photo-each-day-and-post-it-that-same-day-with-some-witty-banter-attached-or-I-am-a-failure mentality?

I set lower reasonable expectations.

1. I will remind myself that for me, this endeavor is less about the quality of the photos and more about the memories. It's just another means of documenting a period of my life, and I give myself permission to post crappy, unedited photos.

2. I will not start my Project 365 on January 1st. I hate New Year's resolutions almost as much as I hate Jell-O, yet for some reason I decide it's a good idea to start my Project 365 on January 1st? Pffffttttt! I'll start when I want to (I am such a rebel).

3. I will take at least one photo every day, but I will give myself permission to miss a day (or several) of posting a picture to the Dana Does Digital blog, catching up when I can. I will not invite needless guilt into my life by beating myself up over it "not really counting as a Project 365 blog" if I don't post to the blog daily (and yes, this was the the single issue that contributed most to my decision to quit this year after only 41 days).

4. I will use technology to my advantage. I have installed 365 Photo App on my phone and will use it, without fear of judgement, to capture moments in time. I will approach this project as an artist (in the loose, artsy-fartsy sense) rather than as an aspiring photographer, using all imaging resources available to me.

I think I've really limited my success with this project by setting cumbersome and arbitrary rules for what Project 365 should or should not be.

Some might say the practice of setting cumbersome and arbitrary rules of what  should or should not be has crept into more than just my Project 365 life.

Maybe there is a lesson here *smirk*

I'll let you know when I start the project again.

Rules

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I like rules.

Rules give me a level of confidence in the task I am working on. I know that if I follow the rules, whatever I do will be right, and I'm all about doing things right. Doing things wrong? *shudders* Oh the horrors! Seriously. Bad!

I get overwhelmed when there are no rules.

Last night I was working on some editing stuff for Band Back Together. I came across a couple of posts with embedded links. Now, this is pretty common on individual blogs, but I just wasn't sure if they were appropriate for the group blog format.

I looked at the posts. I read the posts. I clicked on the links. I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out if they should be left in or not. I closed the posts. I opened the posts. I read them again. I clicked on the links again. I closed the posts. I became overwhelmed with the lack of a rule and in desperation I IM'd Aunt Becky.

I got a "hahahahahahahahahaha"!

She laughed at me! Which is actually a good thing because then I realized that I should be laughing at myself!

And then she typed the four words I hate to see or hear ... ever ...

USE YOUR BEST JUDGMENT

Ummm ... hello?? Remember me?? Just last week I used my best judgment on twitter and RT'd someone I had recently unfollowed and @'d someone who apparently had blocked me, causing them such emotional distress, rumor has it they had to quit twitter. Thank goodness for a twitter friend who explained my actions might look goofy to normal people. OK - he didn't say "goofy" and he didn't say "normal", but still ...

That is where my best judgment gets me.

Give me rules damn it, and don't change them along the way. If it's a rule then it is a rule and breaking the rule is a bad thing and must be corrected.

Black and white thinking much?

That damn gray area is like a black hole for me.

I didn't edit either of those two posts.

And I'm trying to find a twitter wiki.

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Sunday Secret

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