I started this daily challenge the same day another friend did and it’s a daily reminder that I skipped a few days. It’s a great opportunity to practice grace with myself, by reminding myself, that in everything I do, the best I can do is my best. What always helps is to get present to what I’m learning, now—three weeks in.
- Writing is a way of being public. And as and introvert/extrovert, that is a person who sometimes gets energized in a crowd and other times needs solitude, being public ever day is not easy. I had some trauma connected to being visible, at the center of attention, so posting everyday is most challenging on the days I’m drawn to solitude and silence. Noticing the days I actually skipped gives me a hint about how often I need those days, versus how many of them I actually take.
- Routine is everything. The most prolific writers will say this, make an appointment with writing the same day, everyday and it will flow. The first two weeks the routine was the morning fireplace. Now that I’m back in the US and that routine is gone, re-establishing one takes commitment and creativity.
- Morning and evening writing are different. When I write in the morning I’m drawn to stories, narrative, length. When I write in the evening I’m more drawn to poetry, brief sentences and insights. My evening writing tends toward brief insights into my day, my life, and where I’m going. I’m reflective and pensive at night and my writing reflects that. Essays instead take longer all together, they are never written in a day—they take a first draft and reflection over time.
- I write a lot. I write every day, whether blogs, articles, reports, or business writing. Sometimes, I’m too tired to write a blog, and I judge myself, when actually, I’ve written a lot throughout the day and have run out of steam.
- The challenge is a challenge. Ah-ha, a tautology. I could easily ride through this challenge by proposing old writing, things from the annals of begun –but unfinished articles I’ve accumulated over the years. I have a cool process around unfinished work, so it’s quite well-organized. Yet, it somehow feels like cheating. As I see it, a 100-day blog challenge is a challenge to write alive, in the moment, and blogs in general are less filtered than articles, they are snippets of life. Proposing old writing then is a way for me to hide—which I already mentioned, on many days—I rather do. So I’m leaning into not recycling old writing—and will let my readers know if I do. The challenge of being public in the write/right now is real. It requires me to be enough in what I’m experiencing right now. My self-critic often tells me that there is no value in the raw, right now and that I must polish my learning before sharing.
Learning helps me have grace with myself. And the only way I can really discover if what I have to share is valuable, is by sharing. Curious to know if this was insightful for you….