Writing, self-dicipline and mastery
Writing can be surprisingly difficult if you are not in the right mood for it. What can I do in order to make it easier to write? I realized that I probably have to do it on schedule, to force myself to write. Learning and honing my writing skills was the reason why I started blogging in the first place.
I believe it can be a very useful and handy skill to possess. In business it is of course immensely useful due to various obvious reasons, such as handling clients, promote yourself et cetera. However, it may certainly also come in handy in your personal life. Keeping in contact with old friends, requires discipline in writing, it is however at such times not necessary to write like a master, but it is important to be able to pull yourself up from the laziness and just do it. I am a master at failing in this area. If any of my old friends are reading this, I am truly sorry for my stupidity and I apologize for it.
From here on I will initiate a schedule based form of blogging, at first I will set the bar at once a week, and when I get comfortable with such, I will consider to increase it. So here it is, my resolution for 2010, to pull myself together and write more.
This doesn’t only apply to my writing. My ability to get things done, regarding personal projects, is unfortunately not very high. In the job area it is however not very difficult to get things done. If I am working at a project for a client I have to do it, that’s it, and I cannot fail my client I tell myself, but in my mind it is not so bad to fail myself.
This thinking can turn out to be quite problematic. There are so many things I would like to learn and do, but my self-discipline is sadly not enough to get on with it. I’m in the middle of studying web design, and it is fine as long as I just read and study it, but when it comes to starting and practicing on personal projects my self-discipline drags me down. I need to practice the things I want to learn, not only shallowly touch the surface of everything I study.
You can never get really good at something, until you practice, practice, and finally practice it a lot more. According to Malcolm Gladwell’s best seller Outliers, nobody can become a master at what he do until he practices it for at least 10,000 hours. That means 3 hours every day for 10 years! I have long way to go in many areas!
It is time to get real, time to dig down and get dirty. This is my resolution and promise to myself.