Change Your Life With 500 Words a Day

Benjamin Pyle
Jul 25, 2017 · 3 min read

Supposedly a simple writing habit can change your life. That’s why I’m committing to write everyday.

I’m not a writer (yet) and I’ve never taken a writing class. I’ve never day-dreamed about being on the NY Times best seller list or anything.

So why do I want to write?

To be a leader at scale and make an impact.

Words are forever and they can change the lives of those who read them. Having the courage to share your work with the world can make it a better place while at the same time making you a better person.

Writing also allows you a space to deal with ideas that we don’t normally sit and talk about.

Ya know, those big questions. Like “what’s the meaning of life?”, “What are the moral implications of AI?”, and “Why does Buffett (my dog) choose squirrels over me?!?!”…

James Clear talks about leadership at scale in this article which I highly recommend reading.

As of now I’ve been writing a minimum of 500 words a day for 6 days a week for a little over a month. Here are 2 things I’ve noticed:

1. Free Writing is Your Emotional Therapy Session

The first thing I tried was free writing. That means you simply pour out your stream of consciousness on paper (or rather a screen for us digital folk) until you hit your word count.

I’ve half-assed this exercise in the past once or twice without really giving it a fair shot. This time I went all in.

Something happened within the first couple of sessions…

Within a few minutes of writing my mind slipped into this alternate state. I noticed the running script in my brain moved to the back ground and I was able to visualize different situations in my day.

I remembered a positive situation and it made me smile…. like when I made a really good connection with someone I just met.

I also remembered negative situations too, but instead of making me more frustrated by thinking of them I was somehow able to get peace with them…. free writing allowed me to release the pressure of problems in my life.

2. The Point is to Work in Public

Nathan Barry, founder of ConvertKit, recently inspired me with this video: Vlog 2 — Create Everyday. One of the principles his company operates by at ConvertKit is to work in public.

They do this by making the company’s metrics available to everyone.

For people like us it means sharing our work with the world often and regularly….before we’ve gotten really good.

Sitting in our apartment trying to become a pro at something without showing it to the world first rarely works. It’s why I never made it as a musician because I wanted to sit in my room and practice without getting on the stage and playing more shows.

We need feedback from our audience….as much as we can get. Sometimes that feedback will be silence and that’s ok.

To be honest, I’m a little nervous about this writing experiment I’ve committed to. I haven’t done much writing and I plan to write some things in my personal life I’ve never shared publicly.

“What if people don’t care what I have to say?” I ask myself…

So what if they don’t? Worst case scenario is I become a better writer :-)

Update: I’ve decided that instead of committing to writing the 500 words a day I will be working on a piece of content daily, whether that be writing or editing. The goal here is to produce more, so I need to move things through the pipeline. When I was just writing I ended up with a bunch of un-finished drafts.

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