Image by Mark Jo from Pixabay
An article a day. That’s it. It sounds relatively benign; even like no big deal. In fact, however, it is big. And with most big things I think about, my first inclination is: I can’t do this.
I felt that way about getting up before 5 AM, working out in the morning, fasting for 24 hours, writing books, starting a blog, or traveling overseas. And guess what: I actually did all those things. In fact, I’m still doing them (although the 5 AM wake ups are only on work days!). Fasting is an excellent way to periodically boost my energy and correct a day or two of bad eating choices. And running and walking, usually first thing in the morning, energize my day.
So my first reaction, I can’t do this, is actually not true. Taking it a step further, even asking myself can I do this is inadequate. The better perspective is will it benefit me to do this? From that angle, the answer is yes…I think. Certainly it’s worth considering instead of just dismissing it as too hard.
The reason I’m considering the challenge to write an article a day is that I read a post (here) about the importance of writing for the fun of it. This author, Eve Arnold, claims her success (which she admits did not happen overnight) results from the body of work she grew from just writing for fun. She found a decent level of success after writing an article a day for a couple of years. Writing diligently and seeking a following was not working. So instead of continuing something that didn’t work, she changed course and went back to writing what she wanted to and for pure enjoyment. That’s how she created a huge body of work and, eventually, the readership she sought.
There’s more to her story than that, but the gist of it is that daily practice. The commitment, the discipline, and the product that practice created. I can’t readily argue that to make a living from writing I’m going to have to, uh, write regularly. Defining regularly, however, has always been a stumbling block. Every day? Three times a week? During times when my current full-time job is less demanding? Any of these would work, but I had never committed to one of them. I had not set a schedule; therefore, I did not generate results. At least not regularly.
So here I am now—I didn’t even finish this article in one day! I think that means I need to give Arnold’s method a shot. It’s basically the Steven Pressfield method only adapted and quantified for blog writing. Time to get to it.