How I figured out the writing equivalence of running a mile every day
Once upon a July day there was a Texas man who was zapped by lighting with a silly idea.
The idea wasn’t really even an idea, (because it wasn’t really even original), but what he found intriguing about it had less to do with the outcome of his goal and more to do with the outcome of the habit he was trying to build.
Shockingly, the Texas man is me and today’s writing is rooted in similar intentions.
The goal, as this daily writing project continues to unfold, is to cultivate a dependence for writing that parallels what’s become a dependence for running a mile each day.
Through the process of setting these coordinates and launching out accordingly, the hope is to somehow stumble onto that sweet spot in the Venn diagram of writing. I long to find that place that Jeff Goins and Chase Jarvis talk about early in this interview.
In that discussion they put words to the concept of what I’ll call “successful writing convergence.” It’s the merging of three different areas all prompted by the following types of questions:
1) What do those around me tell me I’m good at?
2) What do i like giving my time to or what subject am i passionate about?
3) What does the world need?
Heck, maybe throughout this process I’ll land in a different Venn diagram as well — which Chris Guillebeau refers to as the overlapping place of joy, money, and “flow”…but I’m getting way ahead of myself.
Right now I just want to put one foot in front of the other, each and every day.
I’m not sure if the course I’m trying to chart will match up with my overall destination but one of my favorite teachers has talked about the fact that when you’re searching for the direction that the Spirit behind the universe wants to take you, sometimes you simply have to throw up your sail so that the wind has something to catch hold of.
Sometimes we just need to have a bias towards action and this is me trying to be obedient to that idea.
So what are the mechanics of this endeavor?
As each day unfolds, the target will be to inventory and reframe some of the types of experiences we all have every day, and highlight how each one of these episodes might look a little different if we were better able to live in the other person’s shoes in the midst of that moment.
If I’m able to pay any sort of attention whatsoever, every day should be replete with opportunities to take a stab at. The key hinges on an ability to stay grounded in the moment and capture these lessons of the steady stream as they float on by.
I’ve had a voice tugging at me for some time now that I’m a storyteller — so the tentative plan is to simply develop eyes to see these instances of duality and present them to my audience in a narrative form.
If nothing else, perhaps I’ll begin to see things a bit more clearly. Maybe the process of discovering these two-sided cases will be become a tool for removing all of the logs lodged firmly into each of my eyeballs.
Ryan resides in Lantana, TX with his wife Katie and four children Kaisley Grace, Elijah Wyatt, Judah West, and June Selah. He works for a large construction management firm in the commercial building industry by day.
Ryan enjoys reading, writing, and just about anything that takes place outdoors. Though he’s probably never had an original thought, he possesses an omnivorous appetite for the insights of teachers much smarter than Him and he enjoys spreading their work widely. He is an aspiring Storyteller, and his mission is to help bring value to people by exploring and explaining — because everything is spiritual
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