Chapter 32 — One month of daily blogging.
And everything I’ve learned in that time.
One month ago, I wanted to do something big. I had seven days left at university, no full-time job on the horizon and a freelance career which was a lot of work for little pay. Not ideal, so I knew I needed something more.
I’ve always had a certain romance with writing. It’s a love affair which has so far lasted a decade, and yet until a month ago, that love had waned for over a year.
When love wanes, it weighs heavy on the heart. You continue life as normal, but, every few weeks, your mind drifts to a time when the love was still strong.
I wanted that love back, and I knew exactly how to do it.
One piece of writing, every single day, for at least a year.
No matter if I was busy, or hungover, or simply finding that the creative flow wouldn’t go, I had to write. No excuses. The more I wrote, even on difficult days, the stronger the old love would grow.
So far, my plan has worked. I’ve published a Chapter every day, and only on a few occasions has it felt like a chore. The romance is in full swing, and I don’t want it to end any time soon.
But enough about romance, let’s get in to what I’ve learned from one month of daily Chapters.
Making a commitment public motivates you to keep doing it.
Exactly a month ago, I hit publish on Chapter One — The Commitment. The title of that piece was entirely purposeful. I was making a public commitment, and I wanted everyone to know about it.
People make commitments and promises almost every day. Some people follow through with those commitments after they’ve made them public, while others get bored or lazy after a while and forget they made a commitment in the first place. That second group of people usually break their original promise because of one thing: they don’t tell enough people about what they’re doing.
The more people you tell, the more motivated you’ll be to complete whatever you’ve started. Why? Because we fear the shame and ridicule that would come with failure.
I don’t doubt that if I stopped writing these Chapters at any point before May 16th 2017, I’d never live it down.
Find motivation in fear and keep going.
The more you do, read and watch, the more you’ll be able to write about.
Writing a Chapter every day isn’t easy. I need to think about something to put in to words that I think people would actually want to read, then write it, then check it, then hit publish, then share it. I fully commit, and it’s a process which takes about two or three hours, each and every day.
That process gets even more difficult if I’ve done very little in that day or in the days prior. My mind has less ideas to roll out, and I’ve generally not learned a lot worth writing about if the waking hours have been spent watching Netflix, writing emails and ordering takeaway.
I always try by best to learn something new in the time between climbing out of bed and flopping back in, and these Chapters have motivated me to learn even more. If I see an event I can attend, I’ll be there. If there’s a book I think would be interesting to write about in the future, I’ll read it. If I have a few hours spare in my day, I’ll watch a TED Talk or a keynote speech. I never want to stop learning, and the more I learn each day, the happier I feel.
Obviously, some days need to be slower. I enjoy living life in the fast lane, doing as much as I can, but it’s healthy to drop down a gear every once in a while. But on those days where I’m raring to go, I’ll do as much as I can. The more I do, read and watch, the more meaningful and interesting my content will be to you.
Damn, look at me, thinking about you all.
Sometimes, the creative flow just won’t go.
Oh man, the days when the creative juices just downright refuse to budge are the worst. They usually follow a night of partying, which means the lack of flow is my own fault, but on occasion there’s no real reason for hitting a block.
Which is super annoying. But for as frustrating as it’s been, I’ve powered through. It takes a bit of determination, but by meditating, reading or heading out for a walk to get some fresh air, the block has lifted by the time I sit down to write.
Music feeds the flow.
If you read Chapter 12, you’ll know that music has played a massive part in helping me through the third year of university. So, naturally, if I had a day filled with writer’s block in this past month, I made sure to queue some songs while I’m writing. For me, nothing helps more during Chapter creation than putting a Spotify playlist on and forgetting the rest of the world exists.
Not all music is ideal for encouraging the fingers to type carelessly away, though. Like most (I assume) I can’t listen to anything that I know the words to, nor anything in the charts, nor anything which involves loud drums and electric guitars. But everyone is different and there is certain music, specific to you, which will put you in the right frame of mind almost instantly.
If you have Spotify, here are the playlists I’ve turned to the most this past month:
I have more ideas than I realised.
Overall though, regardless of anything else this month, I’ve learned that the brain is an absolute bottomless pit of thoughts and ideas.
Just when I thought I had nothing left to write about, I dug a little deeper and something else popped in to my head. The brain never fails to amaze me.
Not to get back in to yesterday’s Chapter again, but I genuinely put this constant production of ideas down to meditation. In fact, some of the past 32 Chapters have grown out of a thought that has randomly appeared during meditation. Most of the others cropped up while I was out walking or exercising.
So there you have it, meditation and exercise are the secret sauce to endless ideas.
For those of you who have kept track of all or most of my Chapters so far, thanks.
One month down, 11 to go. See you all tomorrow.
Thanks for taking the time to read my writings!
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