My One Word for 2020: Write
You are a writer. You just need to write. It’s time to kill the excuses and start writing.
— from You Are a Writer, by Jeff Goins
I began my One Word journey in 2019 with create. Create new content, new learning, and new relationships.
And — I’m happy to report — 2019 was a spectacular year. Not the fruition of my wildest dreams, exactly, but spectacular nonetheless.
I published 41 blog posts and 52 episodes for the Teachers on Fire podcast. I was blessed to be able to build a ton of new professional relationships along the way. And best of all, I completed my MEdL thesis and degree program — convocation to happen later this month. More on my 2019 here.
Thinking About My Next OneWord
I’ve been thinking a lot about my One Word for this year, ever since tweeting last August about all the OneWord puns sure to be triggered by the arrival of 2020.
Sight. Vision. Focus. Clarity. They’re all right there … ripe for the taking. But I wanted to go a different route.
I’ve thought about my personal and professional lives. My relationships. My community. My dreams and aspirations for the future.
And I keep thinking about writing.
A Lifelong Love
I’ve been a writer my whole life. I mean, I haven’t always written publicly, or at all. But I’ve always been a writer.
Writing is in my blood. From as early as primary school, I wrote letters and bulletins and manifestos voluntarily. In eighth grade, I asked my teacher if I could publish a class newspaper on an ancient word processor called PrintMaster. If you’re over 40, you might remember that thing.
In high school, I wrote love notes and poems with anxious passion. In my twenties, I built my own blogs from scratch using basic HTML on hosting platforms like Angelfire and Lycos. I wrote long opinion pieces that got little to no traffic, too early in the game to grasp the importance of a social network or search engine optimization.
The point is that all along the way, that love of writing has always been there. Always. Even when I wasn’t writing.
Sitting down at a keyboard is a place of torment for some. For me, it’s usually a place of enjoyment. Of peace. Satisfaction. Fulfillment.
In 2019, the demands of a heavily cited Master’s thesis infringed on that enjoyment and peace. It was hard to write for pleasure with the Monster constantly lurking in the shadows of my mind. But that’s all behind me now.
Writing is where I belong. And now, in 2020, it’s time to get serious about it.
Weekly serious. Hopefully better than weekly.
As I shared recently on Instagram, I’m aiming for at least 78 blog posts this year, including at least 52 education posts. I’m setting aside the balance — 26 posts or more — for other personal passions, including stepparenting, productivity, outdoor recreation, politics, and real estate. Because those interests make up who I am, as well.
But the weekly education posts are key, because education is the centerpiece of my creative and professional work. And if I’m successful — if I can manage this kind of consistency — what then?
My WHY
A book, that’s what. If 2020 translates into a solid, consistent, and fruitful year of writing, then 2021 will be my year of the book.
Phew. That’s a lot of naked ambition to thrust into the public eye.
But it’s doable. And as Steven Pressfield writes in The War of Art, “Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.”
The book is my Big Why. But there are many other reasons why I want to write more faithfully.
I want to learn more about myself. Reflect more deeply on my professional practice. Find and improve my writer’s voice. Model creative risk for my learners.
There’s a lot to be gained simply by properly aligning my passions and activities. So that’s the mission.
Writers Who Inspire Me
My friend Annick Rauch wrote in December about how a gentle nudge from George Couros — a provocateur of the very best kind — helped her make the transition from a casual blogger to a serious one.
Annick has done it. She’s left no room for excuses or negotiation. She’s just made the commitment to write reflectively each week, and she hasn’t looked back.
So has Pernille Ripp, another mother of four, full-time teacher, author, and perennial blogger who inspires me to no end.
So enough with the excuses, the delays, the fantasies about one day in the future.
This is the time. This is the year.
This is 2020.
It’s time for me to write.
