Matt B. Perkins

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The Clockwork Function of Excuses

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Excuses.

The despicable little forces that convince us to put things off for another hour, day, week, month, year, then oh guess what? It’s too late. You’re old, decrepit, facing death, and those books you wanted to write, the ones that you knew were in you and that would come forth if you just let them, withered away like ash.

Excuses are what keep us from doing what’s uncomfortable. They keep us safe, in the comfort zone, whatever that might be. Mentally, figuratively, literally. Doesn’t matter. Their main role is to trick us into thinking we’re making the right choice, because they’re afraid of being ignored. Because when we don’t listen to the excuses? When we don’t agree with them and bring them to reality? Then they have no purpose. Then it’s they that fade and wither away like ash.

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What If? A Conversation With Fear

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Ah, fear. It’s a concept most of us hate to face, let alone talk about. There are many who talk about overcoming fear, about how to become fearless. But in my perspective, fear is a relative force. It’s not necessarily ideal to live without it, and I don’t even know if such a thing is possible.

There is, however, a way to live without letting Fear remain in the driver’s seat. Instead of sitting behind the wheel, Fear can sit in the back (or even in the way back, if you’re driving a ’92 Ford station wagon). Anyway, my point is, fear can actually be a guide of sorts, a teacher, and — gulp, dare I say it — a friend. A teacher even?

But what if we actually spoke to our own inner source of fear? Turned around, looked at it head-on, asked it some questions — what would this be like? Well, I decided to give that a try.

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The Ugly Truth About the Snooze Button

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Somewhere in the groggy mist between sleep and consciousness I hear a weird, distant sound. At first I think I’m in a strange dream, and then as the mist fades I realize it’s the piano melody of Vince Guaraldi, the song is O Tannenbaum from “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

Yes, this probably sounds like a strange choice for wake-up call music, but I don’t care. This is the smooth, calming tune I’ve chosen; Christmas being one of my favorite seasons, I have this unavoidable notion that it’s a good thing to wake up to.

So, once I hear this, I mosey on out of bed over across the room to grab my phone. I’ve given up on using my traditional alarm clock; by default I just slap that long flat snooze button that I’ll be talking about in a minute. Instead I’ve been using the Alarmy Pro app on my phone, one of the only apps I’ve felt the need to pay for. There is a setting in this app to include snooze, but I don’t use it. I think by doing this that I’ve defeated the snooze option once and for all, that by removing it I have hereby defeated one of my most formidable foes.

I’ve written about the snooze button briefly before and about my efforts with morning habits, but I wanted to take a deeper dive here into what I’m really getting at when I talk about snooze and how it ties in with creativity and goals and procrastination.

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The Path Ahead: What to Expect Here Moving Forward

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I’ve written quite a bit lately about establishing a creative mindset, writing more, even about my diet shift in recent years.

Still, some may be wondering, What the hell is he rambling about?

And if so, first, apologies for the confusion. Either way, I felt it would be a good time to clarify what you can expect from me here on the blog and through other avenues moving forward.

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Five Things I’ve Learned from Becoming a Vegetarian

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A little more than two years ago, I decided to become a vegetarian. This was actually something I’d been brewing in my head for quite a while, but was always afraid to take the leap. When I finally did, some people naturally asked why. Two years out, I still get questions, so I thought I’d answer some of them now and assemble a list of takeaways from what I’ve learned so far from this experience.

Okay, in all honesty, there are actually quite a bit more than just five things I’ve learned from this transition, and the points I lay out below are pretty layered. I could write a series of posts on this topic alone (and I may at some point). But they fall into five main buckets and I’ve tried to summarize as best I can.

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My Thoughts on ‘The Dark Tower’ Movie Trailer

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It. Has. Arrived.

No, not that It. That comes later.

I’m talking about The Dark Tower film trailer.

After weeks of silence, after months of anticipation (years, really, if you think about all the build up and back-and-forths leading up to this), the trailer finally arrived on Wednesday. Here’s the clip, in case you missed it:

Now, before I divulge my thoughts on this, let me provide some background and context.

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