It’s the 4th Tuesday of the month and that means it’s time to join up with Carolyn and share how I’m doing with my 2021 One Little Word: Create.
The prompt from Ali Edward’s for this month was to pick something . . . anything . . . and set out to do it for 31 days in a row. I thought a lot about what I would do. I considered taking a photo every day but I’d already started that for the 100 day project. I thought of knitting every day but I mostly do that already and I wanted this to be something that would be a little stretch for me. I had other ideas that I contemplated and discarded and eventually I sat myself down and thought long and hard about what I wanted and also what felt do-able. In the end, it was this:
I committed to writing for 10 minutes every day.
I set up some rules about this writing exercise . . . blog posts don’t count, reports for work don’t count, journal entries don’t count. I gave myself permission to write about anything that came to mind but had to be 10 minutes at the computer.
This photo shows my progress:
I started out strong with 11 days in a row. Then I missed a day and then a few more. But each time I missed I went back to it. There was a time when I would have given up after missing one day. I would have decided I didn’t have the fortitude and that was the end of the project. I didn’t let myself off the hook this time, though. I persevered and, assuming I write today and tomorrow, I will have met my goal 24 times.
I wrote about all sorts of things. Sometimes, I followed creative writing prompts. Sometimes, I wrote about stuff from my childhood. Sometimes, I wrote about things I am struggling with right now in my personal life. Some of it is very private but some of it has potential for the blog. All of it is great because I exercised my writing muscles. I set myself up with a practice that will serve me well and that I fully intend to continue.
I created words on a page from thoughts in my head. I created a writing habit.
Your writing goal sounds great on several fronts – exercising your mind, blog potential, just getting it out, and creating a habit. And the best part is that you didn’t quit after you missed a day. Way to go, Carole!
I think that like anything else, writing gets easier if you do it every day and it becomes a habit. I think you should be very proud of yourself for sticking with it and doing it more days than not (many more days than not)!
Good for you!
Anne Lamott talks about one of the most important skills in writing is just sitting down and doing it. To not do that one more thing before you start, but start and keep at it until you’ve met your daily goal. Good for you for working on that.
Good for you, Carole! I love how you did not give up! It is so easy to do that, but so hard to just keep going! Good for you!!
I love this! I think the most important part of this “exercise” is the being OKAY with missing a day (or 2 or 3) and coming back to it again! We don’t have to do things EVERY DAY for them to “count”. XO
I think research says that it takes about 60 days to develop a new habit, and we all know how difficult it is. Congratulations on your ability to stick to it! I hope you enjoy your new habit, and that it brings lots of new things to your life as a result.
I’ve always struggled with ‘every single day’ expectations. For me, they’re in a similar camp as New Years Resolutions, and then I end up just feeling bad or frustrated with the whole thing. Instead, I’m good with ‘most days.’ I write ‘most days.’ I exercise ‘most days.’ I eat well ‘most of the time.’ It just sets me up to be a happier person versus always measuring. I say yay to 24 days of ANYTHING!
Congratulations on your new habit! And for letting the missed days go by. I’m in a work @#$%show right now and my exercising has gone out the window…but I know I’ll get back to it. Life happens right?
That’s wonderful and so freeing!
What a great exercise and a way to flex a not-so-used muscle. I’m guessing you probably spend a lot of your time writing, and not much of it feels like you’re creating. Are you going to continue the habit?