There are many ways of doing things. Some are better, some are worse.
Is a blank screen the same as a blank page? They are both blank. They both need to be filled. But, if you’re stuck on one it could help to try the other.
This isn’t just something to try if you’re writing. There are different methods for most things. If you’re stuck with one try another.
You wake up and the first thing you think of doing is reaching for you phone.
But don’t. Keep it clear. Don’t put blocks in your way.
Don’t immediately go online. Don’t immediately go into content consumption mode.
Give yourself a chance to boot up. Give yourself a chance to start forming thoughts.
Don’t drown everything in your brain out before it has an opportunity to catch hold.
Keep it clear.
Are we there yet? This journey is taking too long.
Yes, the journey is long. Yes, there are many more steps. But, if you don’t keep going, if you give up too soon, you will have nothing to show for your efforts.
Yes, the start and the finish are the most interesting parts. But the middle, the in-between, matters just as much. The in-between connects beginning to end. Without the middle you have a start but no end.
No, we’re not there yet, but the journey matters.
You cannot work without knowing what to work on.
Without knowing, there can only be the appearance of work. Without knowing, there can only be the appearance of busyness. Without knowing, you can sit at a desk and put in the time but be no further along than when you started.
To do actual, meaningful work, the work must be known.
The problem is that figuring out what the work should be doesn’t look like work. It looks like laziness. It looks like you’re not trying. It looks like you’re not doing anything. It looks like you’re not busy. And if you don’t look busy you can’t be doing anything worthwhile. It’s what others might tell you. It’s what you might tell yourself.
Put up with the discomfort. The work must be known.
If you don’t complete things you can’t claim them as done.
You can start all the projects you want but if you don’t finish them you’ve done nothing. If you’re working on a side project don’t move on to that new idea you’ve just had until you finish what you’re doing. Otherwise it’s incomplete.
If you’re going for a five mile run but only run four miles, it’s incomplete. You don’t get to tick it off your list of things to do. If you’re trying not to break the chain, you’ve failed, the task is incomplete and the chain is broken.
Don’t just start stuff, finish them.
Heed It or You Don’t Need It
Articles, tutorials, videos, podcasts – if you want to learn something new the internet has you covered. But that great content is only any good if you follow through on it. It’s only any good if you DO.
If all you do is read that great tutorial you haven’t learned anything. You must put it into practice. That video won’t do anything for you unless you’re building off it. You’re fooling yourself into thinking you’re helping yourself. You’re procrastinating. You’re putting off the doing.
So stop. Close that article. Close that video. Start doing.
Start writing, or taking photos, or building websites, or building apps, or making furniture, or whatever it is you aspire to do.
Stop thinking you need to know more than you do now before you start. When you start you will be terrible. That’s okay. Be terrible. Revel in how bad you are. Celebrate it. This is the worst you’ll ever be.
Without starting you can’t improve. Reading about it is no substitute for doing. You still have to start. You can’t read about being a photographer and get to say you’re a photographer. You have to take photos. You can’t read about building websites and say you’re a web developer. You have build a website.
Start with the basics. Yes, you can use a tutorial as a guide. Just don’t use it to avoid the doing.
Once you’ve started, once you’ve actually done something, keep going. Now you know where you’re weak. Now you can find a tutorial about that. How can you improve? Try again. Do again. Read again.
You haven’t started at all if all you do is read tutorials, watch videos, listen to how-tos. Heed it or you don’t need it.
Enough reading. Enough watching. Enough listening. Start doing.
Cliché proclaimed content king. Cliché failed to mention that content is not a kindly, benevolent king. No, content is a cruel king, a hungry king. The king seems especially hungry when you’ve decided to post to your blog every day for a year. ‘Feed me’, says the smirking bastard.
I strongly believe that communicating well is the most important skill anyone can have. Writing well is one way of communicating well.
This blog is a way for me to improve my writing. I write too slowly, ponderously. Too much overthinking. Over the next year I want to change that. By writing and publishing something every day for the next year I’m pushing myself to become better.
So, over the next year content will torture me but I’ll feed that smirking bastard.
Recently, I re-read an article about a man named Caballo and the Tarahumara people of Mexico. The Tarahumara are incredible long distance runners, running marathon distances with ease. They wear sandals, don’t have a training regime to speak of, and don’t pick up the types of injuries that plague most runners. Caballo decided he wanted to run like them.
Caballo jumped in, putting himself in a situation where he would either pick it up or fail trying. Bothered by ankle problems for years, Caballo abandoned his running shoes and took to the mountain trails in sandals, like the Tarahumara. In the end he was running a trail, which took horse riders three days, between two canyon towns – in seven hours.
Safe is comfortable and easy. The risky stuff is unpleasant and tough. But much more exciting.
I’ve wanted to start a blog for a number of years. I had no idea what the blog should be about so I didn’t. Taking action makes more sense than worrying about it.
Caballo got where he wanted by jumping in. Monday, I took the plunge.