I'm done with my 30 day writing challenge. At least I think I'm done. I'm not 100% sure. I'm too lazy to check and go back to see when I started.
I never really decided to do it in the first place. It just sort of happened. After I wrote a few blog posts for a few days in a row and felt like I was in a good flow I decided to make a 30 day writing challenge out of it.
So that's what I did. I wrote and published a post on my blog for 30 days in a row. More or less. I think. It doesn't really matter that much anyway. Because it wasn't about writing every day. What it really was all about for me was to see what I could learn from that experience.
Luckily I learned quite a lot. And to get my thoughts straight and maybe even push myself to keep up writing every day, I decided to write down the things I learned. So here we go..
# excuses
There will ALWAYS be excuses to NOT do something. To not start writing that novel. To not start that blog. To not start working on that idea you have. To not call him back. To not go over to talk to him. ALWAYS.
There will always be something that just doesn't make it for you. Until it's over. Until there's no time left anymore. Until all the time disappeared. Forever. Until there's not even any time left for excuses..
# decisions
When you write every day, you'll pretty much take away all the decisions you'd usually have to take. Like the things to write about. When to publish. When to write. How to write. If it's good enough to publish. If you should send it out to your email list. Or should you even write today. Or maybe tomorrow.
You know, all of these stupid things that will distract you from writing.
The stuff that usually takes up most of the time. Sometimes even more time than the writing itself. And when you publish one essay every day you're pretty much eliminating all of these time wasters. You just don't have the time to think about all of these things. The only goal is to publish one post a day. No matter what.
And writing and publishing every day takes away all of these decisions. And frees up space for more important things. For better ideas. For faster execution. For better writing.
Paradoxically, writing every day took less time than writing maybe once or twice a week. Because all the outside noise was gone. That's at least what happened to me after a few days of doing it..
# true fans
When you write and publish every day, you'll lose lots of subscribers. Or followers. Or fans. I don't know how many subscribers I lost. Or followers. I'm too lazy to check. But sometimes I lost maybe 10+ email subscribers with every email I sent out.
And this is a very good thing. I think. And this is a very good thing. I think. Because what publishing one essay every day does is that it kicks out the folks who are not really interested in the stuff you say. Or the stuff you do. The folks who barely ever read your stuff.
I guess it really is about pissing off some of your readers. Or customers. Or whatever. And letting some of them go to know who your true fans are. Your true "customers".
So you filter out those folks. And get a better idea about the number of your true fans. The ones who read your stuff. No matter what. The folks who would even read two posts a day. The folks I'm truly thankful for.
Thank you for reading my stuff. Thank you for being a true fan. And supporting my work. It really means a lot to me. Really..
# home runs
When you write every day, you can't hit a home run every single day. That's just not possible. No one can. Even Seth Godin can't. Most of his blog posts are just ok. And every once in a while he hits a home run. A home run that allows him to stay on top of the game. His game.
But the thing is that for every home run you'll probably need 10 or more mediocre posts. So when you write 365 days a year you might be able to come up with 36 home runs. More than most people will ever write in their entire life.
Let's say you write one article per week. You might end up with five or six home runs a year. And then you have to subtract pretty much all of these home runs and you'll end up with zero home runs again.
Why?
Because no one is able to get good at something without proper training. Without exercising. You just can't start lifting 200kgs the first time you lift weights. You'll maybe start with ten. And then slowly but steadily you'll improve until you might end up lifting that weight.
Same with writing. You'll only get better when you write a lot. When you lift the light weights on a daily basis. And then, one day you might be able to lift the heavy weights. Then you might be able to hit a few home runs a year. But there's absolutely no guarantee that you'll ever hit any home runs at all..
Exclusive Content: 121 Unusual Tips To Being A Better Writer I've put together a book with some of my best advice on writing. Over the past 5 years I've written more than 1000 blog posts, published 10 books and more than 3 million people from all over the world read my stuff. This book contains everything I've ever learned about writing. You can get your free copy here. If you want to improve your writing skills or want to get started writing online, this is for you. Click here to claim your copy now (it's free, for now)... |
# push
The hardest thing about writing is to push yourself to do it. It's so painful. And hard to take that decision. To sit down. And to write. There are so many other interesting things to do. And when you start writing there are usually hundreds of other cool things happening. Or things to watch. To read. Or to listen to.
But when you decide about writing every day, you don't have to get over that push anymore. You basically eliminated that push. I don't know what happens when you break the chain though. Maybe this will change everything. Maybe it won't change a thing.
I don't know. But I'll definitely know the answer rather sooner than later. I'll know it once I break the chain and stop publishing an essay every day. I'll let you know what happens then. Or maybe I won't..
# more
When you write a lot, when you get your thoughts out there, when you share your ideas with other people you'll come up with even more ideas. The more ideas you get out of your system, the more ideas you'll come up with.
You'll create an abundance mindset. Where there's plenty of everything. Instead of a scarcity mindset.
What happens when you don't share your ideas is that they'll keep your brain busy thinking about that one thing. So all your bandwidth will be taken by this one single thought. Or train of thought.
As a result you won't come up with new ideas.
And that's probably the single most important thing to understand when you want to come up with ideas. When you want to become an idea machine.
Many people ask me how I come up with so many ideas to write about. And that's it. This is it. This is the answer. That's how you make the magic happen..
# less
What basically happens when you write every day (or at least that's what happened to me) is that you'll need less everything.
You need less time to write the piece itself because you're getting better, faster and your thoughts are getting clearer. You'll eliminate the time pondering about what, if, how, and when to write that post.
You'll sometimes even write shorter posts because maybe that day you only have 5 minutes to write something. Or 90 seconds. Which brings me to the next point..
# reinvention
You'll have to reinvent yourself if you want to write and publish an essay every single day. You can't stick to the same way of telling your stories. Sometimes you just don't have the time to write a list post with 10+ items. Like this one.
Sometimes you only have 90 seconds. And that's when you have to leave your comfort zone. That's when you have to leave the comfort of your 2 pages long list posts you know will perform really, really well.
I guess that's one of the most valuable things writing every day will do for you. For me. That's one of the most important things to realize when you do something every day. Whatever that something is for you. It'll help you to reinvent yourself over and over again.
It pushes you to experiment. To see what works and what doesn't. It pushes you out of your comfort zone and ultimately makes you a better and more diversified storyteller. Or speaker. Or father. Or daughter. Of girlfriend. Or spouse. Or whatever. It forces you to constantly reinvent yourself.
# fear
Writing every day and publishing one post a day took away all of my fear. OK, not all of it. But most of it. Every second or third article was a flop. Engagement was low. Very few likes. And very few click throughs.
And if this happens almost every day, you'll start getting used to it. You'll get used to “failure”.
In the beginning I still deleted some posts from my Facebook wall because I felt embarrassed to have posted such a “bad” essay.
But I left all of them on my blog. They're all still there to read. To laugh about me. To make fun of me. But it doesn't matter.
What matters is to get over your fears. No matter what your fears are. No matter what you do to get over those fears. All that really matters is to figure out what works for you and what doesn't. What helps you to get over your fears.
And what works for me to get over my fears is to write every single day. It helps me to get over my fears. The fear of writing and the fear of life in general..
[Related: 121 Unusual Tips To Being A Better Writer]