The Seth Godin Method
Seth Godin is most famous for being a marketing guru, but anyone who’s signed up to his daily blog knows that definition barely scratches the surface.
Seth ‘notices things’ about culture, psychology, and life in general. And then deftly distills those insights into a few lines which frequently leave me stunned. It’s practically poetry at times.
And one thing Seth keeps circling back to in his reflections is the potentially life-changing benefits of blogging each and every day. But not because someone’s reading and not because you’re trying to hustle your way towards being that nebulous but omnipresent thing, an influencer.
No, Seth’s point is that only by exercising the creative muscle — along with the ‘pull-the-trigger-muscle’ — can we get better at our work. The legendary Science Fiction writer, Isaac Asimov, wrote hundreds of books during his lifetime. How? According to Seth, it’s because he wasn’t afraid of writing crap — he just kept writing until it wasn’t crap anymore. ‘Writer’s Block’ is a relatively modern concept which, Seth argues, doesn’t really exist. It’s simply the resistance we feel to writing or releasing work that we don’t think is ‘ready’. It’s that primal fear of not being ‘good enough’ which so often prevents us from taking a (very minimal) risk and practising. And so we do nothing (except feel like shit, of course, but that’s easy to do — no problem at all!).
The idea of being a writer who doesn’t write haunts me. I’ve written books, blog posts and various academic articles. But lately, in the wake of putting my new book out, I’ve written almost nothing. So do I still get to call myself a writer? Are you still a boxer if you no longer box? I’m not sure.
In part, I’m just not confident I have anything to say right now. But, following Seth’s advice, I think that’s getting things back-to-front. If you don’t go running often, you don’t have much ‘run’ in you, either. But if you start lacing the trainers a few times a week, you’ll soon get rolling. And the same might be true of writing: if you sit down and put something on the page, sooner or later, better ideas are going to turn up.
I’ve tried the ‘Morning Pages’ routine, where you brain-dump onto the page first thing in the morning. It’s stream of conscious stuff – not something to share with the world. But it helps clear the cobwebs and reduce the madness in your (well, my) head, at least a bit.
And that’s been surprisingly fun and interesting. But it’s still not actually writing. It’s more like going to the gym, warming up, and then slinking out the fire exit with your tail between your legs. Every day.
So, now I’ve set up my new website and created this blogging space, I’m going to take the plunge and follow Seth’s advice. I’m going to write something here every day. I don’t promise it’s going to be great, but sometimes it might be – at least for some people. I don’t know what it’s going to be about, either. But maybe the sense of not knowing is going to be half the fun —being excited to see who turns up, rather than refusing to ever have a party in case you end up sat on your own sipping from a vodka laced with Loser Tears.
So, this is Day 1. Let’s see what happens next. Thanks for coming with me :)
