This is something different then I’m used to so let’s start with some background.
Seth Godin talks about the habit of writing daily, a signpost in the ground, at a specific point in time – like leaving a line of crumbs for the “chicken” to follow. It helps to form a crisp, clear, and honest writing about what I, or you, see in the world, or want to see, or maybe we can teach on how to do something (in writing), or outline what we believe and explain why.
He has a daily email you can subscribe to too, I of course am and find immense value from his nuggets of wisdom that get delivered into my inbox every morning.
I’ve been doing this writing daily thing as best as I can and want to begin to add on to these short snippets with some longer form content.
The thing is, I’ve been trying to accomplish this longer form content goal by putting out 1 blog a week, but I can never seem to get around to doing it.
A dream of mine is to become a creator though, a real one. One that entertains, educates, and inspires people to be better.
But it hasn’t been becoming a reality and I haven’t been taking the action steps necessary to make this a reality.
My recent analysis shows that this is due to the fact that I simply don’t have the habit of creating and putting content out, daily.
And a mere 500 words a day is how I am going to get this habit going.
Because 500 words a day doesn’t seem that big of a task
Vs what I was telling myself before…
Something grandiose and along the lines of “an ebook a week”
Some things are better to crawl, then walk, then run
Others it’s better to just jump right in
I’ve jumped in before in these endeavors – failing and hitting the ground hard – getting back up every time though…
Maybe I’ve learned a thing or two and this time will be different.
And this new 500 words a day concept is something I stole from a running concept.
I once heard this story that the hardest part of getting into the habit of running is lacing up the shoes and getting out the door
So instead of starting out and trying to run 5 miles a day, I started by making a commitment to lace up my shoes and just get to the sidewalk – if I wanted to turn back I could..
And most times I finished the run.
This small shift, to make the new habit so small that it’s almost impossible to not do it, took me from never running a day in my life to running a marathon to running 50 miles and eventually 100 miles and beyond.
Small daily actions + time = a radical difference in one’s life.
It may be difficult at first, but with time – it’ll just be like tying the shoes. Looking forward to this new form of expression.
Joe DiAndrea 