It Begins

I am a New Year’s Resolutions believer, some say an obnoxious evangelist for the practice. I’m the opposite of the cool person that loves to tell you that most resolutions fail and actually you can just change your life at any given moment. To you I say, a little delusional optimism never hurt anyone!

Every year, I like to make a long list of resolutions. Many of them are your basic cliches (get healthier!), some are specific (buy some reasonable art for the living room walls), and some are wistful thinking (have a better brain and remember more stuff). 

While I stan for resolutions and have seen positive life changes from them, there is the shame of the repeated failed resolution. For many years, I’ve had one goal fall short every year - “Write more.”

I work in communications, so I write plenty. However, it’s been many years since I’ve done regular nonwork writing. I want to find joy in it instead of the task oriented, anxiety-driven way I tend to make anything now. 

The best advice I’ve read about this boils down to “just write.” Stop worrying about making bad art because a lot of it will be bad, but the habit of making things is valuable. 

However, I also need accountability. That’s why I’ve created Colleen’s Content. I generously expect one or two folks to be regular readers, but the mere act of public sharing will hopefully force my hand. 

This comes to the next issue that has tripped me up in the past, what the hell to write about? 

Years ago, I was on a critically acclaimed podcast discussing movies. Despite an extremely pedestrian understanding of film making, I loved the process of critiquing and dissecting art. And if I’m being honest, my current day-to-day slips into mindless scrolling or passive watching/listening, not really taking in what I’m consuming.

To that end, this writing project (blog? email newsletter? untethered ramblings?) will kill two birds - more thoughtful use of my free time and what I engage with, while also finally getting that damn resolution resoluted. This project will just be commentary on the books, films, albums, etc. that I’ve been consuming. 

Now why is this “Colleen’s Content” when I referred to critiquing art? Doesn’t that devalue what I’ll be doing? Well first and most importantly, I love the hard k sound alliteration. And second, I love the open endedness of it (already foresee a puzzle post in the future). Plus, I am creating my content here, it works on so many levels. It’s actually super clever if you think about it. 

So the rules, subject to change:

1. I will attempt one post a week. 
2. Despite what you see here, I will try to keep them at a manageable length.
3. I will try to read/watch/listen based on suggestions. See the Google Form to submit suggestions. 
4. For now, I’m keeping TV shows out of it. I love TV with my whole heart, but I only have so much time!

I will likely add or change rules as we go along, but that’s the basic outline for now. If you’ve made it this far, bless you. Any feedback is welcome, unless it’s really mean. A little compliment sandwich never hurt anyone.