Short 0: Give yourself permission
I recently began following Alex’s effort to write daily. I’ve been quite enjoying his writing and I got envious.
I enjoy writing myself and would like to do more of it. However, my priorities or plain old procrastination generally get in the way. Since a while ago, I’ve been trying to force myself to write. Just as an exercise, I gently tell myself. You’ll never get good at what you don’t practice enough. Just a quick knack at a time. Like reposting a video or commenting on something you’ve thought of and liked.
It hasn’t quite worked, and you can see in the archives. However, when I read Alex’s about page, I immediately liked how he tailored the way he communicated his self commitment to himself.
It’s:
- Unambitious
Just write, god dammit! Worry about being good after being something. - Low effort
Don’t think too much about what to write. Just grab a topic from some RSS entry or write about some train of thought you had and was vivid and relevant enough for you to still remember. - Allow yourself to fail
Like many others have said before me, not tolerating failure is not allowing progress.
Whatever you do, you have to let yourself do it. This is something that I have already learned lots of times in my life and, after I’ve read his about page, I want to learn once more.
So, there you have it. This is an homage to Alex’s effort that I hijacked and turned into my own daily writing effort.