I love to write. I am by far not a great writer. In fact, by any standard, I am admittedly an amateur.
Sometimes I feel like a fake or a fraud, we all do. I think we can find some solace in knowing that many people struggle with this mentality, especially writers.
But I’m guilty because I love to do it regardless of my fear of sharing my work, and the shame from my perceived lack of skills. What I do appreciate about my writing is the freedom of honesty and truth. I like to be as honest as possible and I feel the most free when I write. I can say I do have the strong faith in myself that there may be some potential to get better, IF I just practice or develop the right habits. I think one of my biggest challenges is that I do not have good writing habits, which prevents me from finishing or polishing potentially good compositions.
As I have begun my blog this year, and have taken a couple different online blogging courses, I have decided to take up Jeff Goins’ 500 words challenge. The goal is to write 500 words a day for 31 days.
I aim to develop the discipline in order to achieve the “portfolio life” (Goins, Art of Work) i’m after. I have many passions and you don’t have to be good at one thing. But you need to be able to gain daily habits that will help you to love the process and the nuts and bolts of what you want to do, just as much or even more than the desired outcome. Love the journey, as success is the journey, and everything we do that leads to our goal is part and parcel to that success.
Part of developing the good habits must be to substitute the bad habits with the good ones. One of my guilty pleasures that has become a barrier and a terrible habit is binge watching tv shows on netflix or amazon or youtube videos, feeling overwhelmed with the other more productive tasks. The sudden urge to watch comes not only throughout the day, but also when I get up, and when I go to sleep, especially on off days and especially because of my flexible schedule that requires a great amount of discipline and time management.
Another issue that comes with this bad habit is what I noticed recently. I tend to eat a lot of different kinds of sweets and fatty foods more so while watching tv. I eat less when I write and when I am in the zone of writing. Part of the reason why I have refrained from writing sometimes is also because of a bad case of carpal tunnel, preventing me to be as consistent as I want to be, which in turns makes watching television an easier and more comforting alternative. It will be a challenge indeed but I intend on approaching the challenge like a true warrior.
Managing time and developing discipline is difficult, but I hope to use this 500 word challenge to post a blog daily and perhaps come up with some ideas or lines/scenes for my novel that has been a work in progress for 7 years now. I’m more than ready to make some substantial progress on stuff I am truly passionate about. Looking forward to developing the right habits to finally feel like a writer.
As the summer is coming to an end, I can actually say for once that it has been a productive summer for me overall. I was able to achieve two major milestones in my doctorate studies, one on my personal health, which I talked a little about here, and some progress on my creative writing projects this summer, and at the same time, be able to spend some real quality time with family, all praises to God.
I’m looking forward to what’s next.
How about you? What are your bad habits, and what good habits can you embrace to erase the ones stopping you for living your dreams?
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