Why I’m undertaking #100DaysOfBlogging

How a public announcement kickstarted a new journey. (Day #2)

“You should start a blog”, a good friend said to me in January 2012.

In August 2012, I spent 3 full days editing a singular post that I was using to apply to be an opinion columnist for the Michigan Daily. It was called “You can find your passions too”. I thought that the writing gig would force me to get my thoughts onto paper.

In June 2013, I had an awkward exchange standing outside of the apartment of a girl from Wisconsin I liked in Prague. As we stood in silence, the door slammed shut and she yelled at me “if you want something, you have to say it!”.

Fast forward 4 years, 2 jobs, a failed startup endeavor, and over 200 iPhone notes from that initial blog-starting suggestion later (‘Blog post — Why golf represents what’s wrong with society’ or ‘Blog post- How grading curves kill curiosity’) and I still didn’t have that blog. Those ‘blog posts’ never came to be.

Then, yesterday, another good friend mentioned “You should stop being so paranoid.”

Wow, I thought.

If blogging is supposedly so easy, and I am supposedly a good writer and communicator, and if I have ideas that I would like to attempt to put to words to share with others, why should I not start blogging?

Besides time constraints (which, IMO, are usually bullshit excuses) one of the main reasons I hadn’t written the blog posts I had wanted up until now had been paranoia, a form of social-fear.

Fear of having my ideas laughed at. Fear of sounding incoherent or ineloquent. Fear of not having the perfect sentences and paragraphs. A general fear that had at times suppressed my ability to communicate.

Simultaneously, I knew that fear was a quality I want to drive out of my life. In January 2013 I heard Bay McLaughlin say “whenever I’m fearful of something, I run towards doing that”. This line really resonated with me.

Fear is the opposite of expression. Fear is the opposite of free speech. Fear prevents us from sharing ideas, from sharing our feelings with others, from communicating the specifics of what we really want in our relationships, work, and lives.

Having been called out by a friend, things started to click internally. Since graduating college 2.5 years back, I’ve seen some of my classmates express their passions fervently, in a fearless manner, and it has almost always lead to greater things and newer, better opportunities.

Positivity Dan. Good friend creates rap startup, leads to even better job opportunity. Good friend starts doing stand up comedy, just for fun, is hilarious and received well. Good friend starts making new and awesome music, when he started not knowing a thing. Good friend writes a book. These people had forgone fear in exchange for a raw pursuit of their passions, an open dialogue with themselves. All while I sat idly, thinking about what could be.

Writing is my favorite form of art. It is one of my strengths. I wanted to prove to myself that writing more was possible. I wanted to challenge myself, undertake a new commitment for a new year. I wanted to make sure that I actually write for Bitcoinist, not just sell advertisements. I wanted to eradicate fear from my life, to strengthen the muscle that is our ability to accurately express ideas in words and subsequently improve all facets of my life.

It’s 4 years late, but I knew it was time to start writing. The question was, how?

That’s when, on a bit of a whim, I posted a Facebook announcement.

The 100 days model, pioneered by Justin Brezhnev and his fitness campaign #100DaystothePier, requires doing something for 100 consecutive days.

I wanted to make a contract with myself, but had no means of enforcing it (smart contracts haven’t been fully developed, yet, at least.). What a better way to hold myself accountable, I thought, than to publicly make a Facebook post to ~1700 friends promoting this #100DaysOfBlogging undertaking?

The post was well received, and I am already on Day 2 of this journey. I have set a few guidelines for myself along the way:

• No writing on Saturdays (I’m a big advocate of taking a ‘Technological Shabbat’)
• Spend 3 pomodoros (1.5 hours) maximum writing/formatting.
• Write only one blog post per day.

My inspiration for this is also part of a larger story. So often, we lack the desire, vocabulary, or ability to express our ideas. We are often not vulnerable. We hide from our real feelings and thoughts, and succumb to the popular belief of the day. We accept notions of ‘Political Correctness’ and ‘Safe Spaces’ as being normal, despite the fact that they discourage deep, pointed, or against-the-grain thought.

By undertaking #100DaysOfBlogging I’m hoping to remove these societal barriers and break through my own personal paranoia, to take action and publicly challenge myself to not put off something I’ve been wanting to do for 4 years, and to inspire others to do the same. As I wrote yesterday, information consumption is the opposite of creation.

This is, without question, one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. The only other thing that comes to mind which evokes similar feelings was my fraternity’s pledge term, and at least for that the mindset was team-based. This one’s on me.

It requires a lot of vulnerability. It requires a lot of time, thought, and ideas. Heck, it’s possible my kids will read this one day!

The jump is certainly scary, but I know that others are up for it too.

They say starting a company is like jumping from a plane and building a parachute on the way down, and this project is no different. If you commit to it from Day 1, publicly, it becomes a whole-lot easier to accept that you’re free falling, and you better figure out what to write/what parachute to build along the way.

Even if only one other person undertakes and completes this endeavor, I will consider this a success.

“The computer is a bicycle for the mind”, Steve Jobs once said. I hope that others will take the leap on their own bicycles down their own intellectual mountains in pursuit of improving themselves and the world.

Writing, then, can be thought of as a 3-part process: first, formulate the ideas in your head; then, turn those ideas into words in your head; then, put those words onto paper (or, virtual paper).

It’s a long way down, but at the end, the exhilarating rush experienced and view of what-was will surely be rewarding.

Please follow along the way! @ryanstr on Medium/Twitter. Happy reading! (and writing, too).