Nobody Knows What They’re Doing

So I’ve been putting off getting this Communications Breakdown blog rolling because… well, because I’m a natural procrastinator. That’s not an excuse – it’s what my wife tells me (she’s never wrong), and it’s the way I’ve been ever since I can remember having to take on the responsibility of completing my own tasks.

I used to cite busy-ness as an excuse, but come on – everyone is busy these days. And we all have the same amount of time in a day, so what’s the real reason? For me it’s disorganization. I want to become more organized… just… not right now. (Not only am I a procrastinator, I’m also lazy.)

I have all kinds of reasons not to blog: 1) No one will read it anyway, so why bother? 2) Hey, I’ve waited this long, so what’s another week gonna hurt? (See: reason number 1.) 3) What if what I create is useless material that doesn’t improve this world in any way, shape or form? (Well, genius, it’s probably not going to rock the world anyway – and while you’re at it, repeat reason number 1.)

And so on, and so on… always reverting back to reason number 1.

But then I found inspiration from a very unlikely source: Mr. Conan O’Brien.

I hadn’t bothered to set up TiVo to catch The Tonight Show when Conan took the helm (I wanted to, but I promised myself I would do it later), but I was recording episodes of Inside the Actors Studio. And once, during a routine TiVo scan, lo and behold there it was; a two-hour interview with Conan O’Brien (it’s usually only an hour long show).

Two hours??? Wow. Conan must be something else to warrant twice the episode time most actors receive. So I watched it.

And suddenly around one-quarter of the way through James Lipton’s interview of the Late Night with Conan O’Brien host (he hadn’t made the move to L.A. at time of taping), there it was. The kick in the pants I needed to get moving. Conan got on a roll at one point and remarked:

Nobody knows really what they’re doing. They don’t. They don’t know what they’re doing, and… and… there’s two ways to go with that information. One is to be afraid, and the other is to be liberated. And I choose to be liberated by it.

Simple as that.

And he’s right. Nobody really knows what they’re doing… that’s why they’re called life lessons. Everyone’s learning as they go here, so why should I be any different and have all the answers before I get started?

I can’t.

I don’t.

I won’t.

So there you have it. No more excuses.

I like to write (yes, I know; technically it’s typing – don’t get me started), so it’s time to start.

Come along if you want. I’m not promising anything exciting or life-changing, but at least I’ll have fun. And everyone’s welcome.