Monday, June 27, 2011

Today's fortune: June 27, 2011

Today's fortune: Do not give up; the beginning is always the hardest.

If I had received this fortune on January 1, this project may not have lasted to January 2.

In all seriousness, as it pertains to this project, I think today's fortune is incorrect. Today marks the 178th day of this project. In just five days, we will arrive at Day 183. That number may not seem significant, but it is.

Day 183 - or July 2, 2011 - marks the halfway point of the year, and hence the halfway point of My Daily Fortune. After July 2, which is this coming Saturday, I will be facing the proverbial "downhill slide."

But that doesn't mean this will get any easier. I gotta tell ya - coming home every single night, even when I have a horrible day at work (like today), and writing a post for this blog is exhausting. I don't take off weekends. I don't take off holidays. I didn't even take a day off when I opened an empty fortune cookie.

(I'm not trying to toot my own horn or make you appreciate me even more. But I'm an open book here, and those are my true feelings.)

In some ways, for me this blog is similar to the way I read a book. Usually after I start the book, I turn to the last page - not to see the ending, but to see how many pages of text there are. Then I divide that number by two and place a tiny scrap of paper at the page that represents the halfway mark. It's always a pleasant surprise to me when I reach that halfway point.

I know this is all in my mind, but it always seems like the second half goes faster than the first half. And by far the hardest part of a book's journey for me is the 50 pages or so before I reach the halfway marker.

If that reasoning holds true for this project, I'm in the trenches right now. This is the hardest part. After July 2, it will get easier.

That being said... when I think back to the very very beginning - the time before January 1, when My Daily Fortune was just an idea in my head - that was hard, too. Starting this blog and publicizing it and putting my heart and soul on the screen every day was extremely difficult for me. Maybe there's truth in this fortune after all.

In that spirit, I was able to use today's fortune along with my experiences here to give advice to my wife. Jamie is actually planning to start a blog of her own. I won't give away too much just yet because the blog isn't live, but it would pertain to saving money in varous ways. She is planning to use her incredible sense of humor to make the blog fun even for those of us who don't clip coupons or send away for free samples.

For Jamie - since her project won't have a definite end date like mine does, and since she won't be required to post every day - the beginning is definitely going to be the most difficult.

I told her to not give up. It's important that she sees it through. I'm busting-at-the-seams proud of her for even trying this, and I'll be even prouder when she can look back in a few months and see all she's done.

I'll post a link to her blog soon. And be sure to check it out - she's the best writer in the family.

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