Writing as a discipline

Geoffrey Ward
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read

Writing as a discipline is hard. Writing everyday was my goal at the beginning of this year and the last post I wrote was in April and the one before that was in February. I have failed miserably at this. When I got started, I saw doing this as a fun challenge that would have some great benefits. I played around with trying to document my journey to starting an apparel company. I started to write about life in general and my weight loss journey. I honestly felt lost.

See secretly I wanted to build a brand, a community. A community of people who fell in love with my communication style and could relate to what I was writing about. I felt lost in the pressure of trying to write about just one topic. Questions about what interesting thing can I really write about topic x or y and how many times can I really come up with a new angle? The pressure was self imposed so why should I keep going? No one is going to care if I keep writing. So the drive faded and eventually I forgot about this community and so this community forgot about me.

On a long drive home from a Florida vacation, I started listening to a Tim Ferris podcast with Seth Godin. In it, Seth talks about writing everyday and how its a good discipline. The timing of that podcast could not have been more perfect because I had once again been thinking about writing and content creation. I understand the value of a good podcast and I know that writing is valuable. When I think about successful people who are doing important work in today’s modern age, they all seem to have a blog and a podcast and a youtube channel. They are telling a story in many mediums.

I’m not sure if i’m good at writing. Or if I have the interview skills to start a podcast. What I understand is simply this. To grow a brand or a community, I have to put myself out there. I have to be willing to be honest and vulnerable with total strangers and trust that they will handle my honesty and vulnerability with care and love. Thats scary!

Geoffrey Ward

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Solopreneur, Love Kindness Apparel, Family Man