In the timeless advice of Stephen Covey, it’s best to begin with the end in mind. Yet, sometimes, that end isn’t exactly clear. And, therefore, the plan for getting there isn’t particularly clear, either. As I mentioned in a prior post, that’s essentially my friend Cal Newport’s explanation of procrastination: when our brain doesn’t believe our approach is going to get us where we want, it’s tough to start on the next step.

For larger-scale projects, I’ve increasingly become zen to that reality. The first piece of some big initiative will sit on my to-do list, untouched for weeks or even months. But, during that time, the whole thing is still sort of bubbling in my subconscious. Eventually, enough direction and clarity will percolate up that I’ll suddenly know what the endpoint looks like. And I’ll instantly overcome the built inertia of procrastination, feel compelled to drop everything else and get right to work on the long-delayed first task.

In the case of this blog, however, that hasn’t seemed to work. For months, I’ve felt completely unsure of what this site is even about. (As Jess said to me, when I mentioned as much a couple of weeks back: “people still have blogs?”) I’ve waited and percolated and brain-back-burned. And, thus far, it hasn’t really helped.

Recently, however, I’ve started to think that I’ve been looking at it all wrong. These days, blogs and social media presence and whatever else are all done with an aim towards branding and positioning and owning a space and establishing expertise. But, back when this site was really cooking, I wasn’t actively doing any of those things. In fact, back then, this site wasn’t really about anything at all. Which, kind of, was the point.

So, in short, I’ve decided to turn back time. I’ll be shooting for at-least-weekly posting, but with an assortment of random stories poorly told, tortuous misadventures elliptically relayed, and half-baked musings loosely fleshed out. I’m beginning with no end in mind, aside from just getting back to writing regularly. And, for now at least, that seems good enough.

[Addendum: as was pointed out to me by a few people, if it was good enough for Seinfeld, perhaps a site about nothing isn’t a terrible place to (re-)start.]