It’s the festive season and the time of the year when we start setting resolutions.
Resolutions that for me I have been carrying over from year to year.
Over the course of the year I have learnt some lessons I will share.
1.Slow progress is better than no progress. With writing and other tasks in life it gets really hard to do the work we imagine at the pace we imagine. The practical progress is slow so we end up doing nothing.
As a student with so many things to work on, writing for fifteen minutes a day is not the exact thing I imagine myself doing as a professional writer but it is better than doing nothing.
Put this in mind five years gone by and nothing done. No progress made. Funny thing is the longer it takes you start getting irritated (reminded) when you see books, writers of the dream you did not follow.
2. You get good at writing by writing
As a beginner when I sit to write, one of the voices I hear the most in my head is the voice telling me the work I will write is no good.
In a sense that’s true because I don’t know how to write well. With every work as a writer you are discovering. A work of faith and skill.
The analogy that shifted my mind is this.
Speaker A: I love to ride a bicycle
Speaker B: when do you ride?
Speaker A: me, no I don’t ride.
Speaker B: why is that
Speaker A: because I don’t know how to ride a bicycle even though I would love to.
Speaker B: You get good at riding by riding.
Using this analogy even though you are reading a book on writing, getting a guide, finding a coach, joining a mastermind , joining a club etc it is to get you to write and to know how to write well.
3. Reframing my goals into system
The goal is not to write a book but to be a writer. This is a big shift for me in thinking. Of course you need to have something to show. But all those things are more like the byproducts and bonuses of being a writer. Showing up and writing consistently.
I mean if you think of it. If you write the book then what.
Think of it, how do you even make a book? Other than showing up and working on it consistently.
I used to have these bright goals but nothing ever really happened because I had no system in place to get that done. I didn’t have the “writer’s lifestyle”.
All goals come to life when we give time to it. Well it depends on how big the goal and that influences the amount of time we should give to it.
What you give your time to say a lot about what I love and prioritize. The things I deem important.
These are my lessons learnt.
Until next time , keep writing.
