Excuses Aren't Always a Battle Between Good and Evil

Top 3 Reasons I Haven't Been Blogging:

1) I was writing.
2) I was swimming a la Scrooge McDuck in a sea of gold coins sent to me by a Nigerian Prince whose email I answered on a whim.
3) The dog ate my blog.

Wait, wrong list. Here are the real reasons:

1) I was paying for my vet's vacation house due to a series of unfortunate events.*
2) I was visiting family, where my time was occupied by necessities such as finally seeing the last Harry Potter movie and celebrating National Ice Cream Month.
3) I was with my amazing and inspiring colleagues at a work retreat, followed by lots of, well, work.

If you're my dog, my mom or my boss, you probably appreciate that second list. If you're a fellow writer prone to self-flagellation and comparing your process/word count/success to others, you may be thinking those are three Not Good Enough Excuses: You weren't eating ice cream with your family for two weeks straight, were you? No, I wasn't.

Maybe I could have sacrificed the few hours of sleep I got most nights to keep up with blogging, or scribbled the next chapter in the vet hospital waiting room. But that's not the way the past couple weeks went down.

Here's the thing: Life Happens.

And I'm choosing to cut myself some slack instead of wasting time fretting over what I should have done. Excuses can be a great exercise in creativity, but dwelling on them doesn't get books (or blogs) written.

You won't always get to the gym, stick to the diet, or eke out the next 1,000 words as planned. The key is to move on. So, here's me putting down the glass of self-flagellation-and-comparison-with-a-twist-of-lemon, and moving on.

Blog post: Check. Next stop: Manuscript.

What are your secrets to getting back on track when life derails you?

*Don't worry, the pack is on the mend!