Seven months ago, I made a commitment to post to this website every weekday for a year. It started with a spur of the moment post at almost midnight on February 1st.

“I’ve been meaning to start a blog for years. F*ck it. Let’s do it.”

That’s the text of the post in its entirety. Short, not so sweet, but a milestone. It was movement, momentum, action.

It was in the following day’s post I admitted I had no plan but that I had only one goal, to keep writing posts for a year.

That commitment was made because I wanted to become a better writer. Expressing oneself in writing, being, I believe, one of two, absolute, fundamental skills that anyone can benefit from improving. The other being expressing oneself verbally. It doesn’t matter what your job is or what you want to do, sharpening those two skills are what will put you ahead.

Posting less frequently would have allowed me to spend longer on each post but it would also have allowed me to spend more time procrastinating. By posting every weekday I’m forced into the act of writing more often. I’m forced to practice more.

Frequent posting brings its own issue. The issue isn’t getting it done. The issue is getting it done right.

Just getting it done poses no benefit. Simply clattering away at a keyboard does not improve anyone’s ability to write. It’s not just writing either, mindlessly working through any task will not bestow improvement.

In order to learn, there needs to be more levels to the process. One has to think through it. Consider angles. Consider options. Consider different ways of writing it. Look for the better way to do something. Make decisions. Make choices.

Banging on the keyboard and hitting publish as soon as possible does nothing to accomplish any of this. There’s no point in simply going through the motions. After all, what’s the point in posting all year and not getting any better?

But, like anyone else, I don’t have all day, so ‘done right’ doesn’t always happen.

Yesterday, I flip-flopped between several possible pieces, including this one. Struggling to get any to a stage where it could be published. After several hours, a new idea for a post popped into my head and I wrote and published that. Did it tick the ‘done right’ box though? I’m unconvinced.

The day before was similar. Again, I fought with several potential pieces. Then one took off and gave me what I needed to write it. I felt I didn’t merely tick the ‘done’ box, but ticked the ‘done right’ box too. I still wrestled with that article and spent too much time on it but it always felt like it was coming together. Even when I had to rewrite half of it. Twice.

Sometimes I hold off on publishing an article. I see potential for it to be better so don’t want to let it go. Those articles tend never to find the light of day.

And there are days where I’ve spent hours working on something worthwhile and before it’s finished time starts to run out. On those occasions there’s little choice but to write something quick to meet the deadline.

So, no it’s not always possible to tick the ‘done right’ box.

But it’s always possible to strive to.

We try to find the perfect solution. We know it’s out there, we know we can find it if we just look hard enough.

Most of the time though we shouldn’t even try for perfection. Instead we should use the best solution we can find in a limited time.

If you keep trying to find the perfect present for that special occasion, rejecting all other options along the way, you’ll end up not giving any present at all.

Use the best solution you can find, until you find a better one. Then use that.

What is seen is not all that was produced.

One hundred words are seen, but to get there perhaps ten thousand were written.

Nine thousand nine hundred words are merely invisible, not waste. Their invisibility gives power to the one hundred seen.

Without the invisible the one hundred would have no shape. The nine thousand nine hundred are the stone carved away in sculpting a face from a granite block.

The one hundred are really the ten thousand. Mostly invisible, yet all present.

Look around. What do you see? And what do you not see that made it that way?

There are three paths in front of you and you must choose one.

All three paths will lead you to the same destination. All run in more or less the same direction and run side-by-side to the destination. There are a few differences, and deviations, sure, but nothing much. All in all, the three paths are near identical and choosing one over the over two won’t make difference to your day.

How to you choose which path to take?

When you figure it out let me know. I’m currently trying to pick a logo from three options and could use the advice.

Any number of people will tell you how to be more productive.

Start with the hardest task.

Start with the easiest task.

I don’t know which is best. Except that the answer isn’t always the same. Go with the option that gets you moving.

An education does not mean school. It does not mean college. It does not mean university. It does not mean a degree, a masters, a PhD.

For the person willing to attain it, an education is unconfined by place or time. And there is the crux of it. Willingness. As with most things willingness is not binary – willing or unwilling – but a scale. Of course, context can increase or decrease willingness.

Gaining an education relies heavily on willingness as manifested by attention, interest, and curiosity. Without it one could remain in a library for the full span of one’s life and still at the end be uneducated.

But attention, interest, and curiosity can fuel the desire for learning. One so inclined is always on the lookout to learn something related to their favoured subjects. The walls of schools, colleges, or universities are not boundaries.

That’s not to say that institutional learning doesn’t help. Eduction does take place in the rooms of schools, colleges, universities, and other institutes of learning. It is also acknowledged with formal awards such as degrees, masters and PhDs. But a full education is rarely only these things.

Be willing.

Life takes twists and turns, constantly changing. Our lives are always changing, for better or worse. Changes happen big and small.

We hope we drive the important changes in our own lives. In general we do, but not always in ways we expect or in ways we are aware of. A decision or an action taken weeks, months or years ago might have changed your life. But it takes time for that change to become visible. By the time it becomes visible you may no longer remember what brought the change about. Which is why deliberate action and decision is so important.

The birth of your child looks like the moment that changes your life. But you took the action that changes your life nine months prior. The life-changing decision may have happened years before or not at all.

Your overall health is, in most cases, the result of many small decisions made over many, many years. Actively or not. Eating sugary food or not. Exercise or not. These are actions made or not made over and over over your life. The result is how healthy you are today.

Winning a marathon today comes from the deliberate training over many months before reaching the finish line.

Some life changes we have less control over.

What change in your life brought you to the place and time you first met your partner or spouse? Was it taking that job, going to that college, making that trip? Trace it back.

Your life could change forever today and you might not see it. Yet at least.