This 31 day writing project has been a bit of a challenge for me. Perhaps that is the point.
It normally takes me a good week to go through the process of publishing a post – from brainstorming, to writing, to editing, to clicking the publish button. Just a couple of weeks ago, I told a friend that I had no idea how bloggers could publish daily posts. Now here I am, attempting to do just that.
It was a rather split second decision, which is fairly out of character for me. I had never heard of this challenge before, and it sounded intriguing. I was coming back from feeling burned out, figuring out why, and had a good measure of new energy and purpose swelling within me.
So I decided to jump on board.
I wanted to get out of my head and write from my heart, and I thought daily posts would help me to do that.
One thing that I am learning is that I simply must keep my eyes on my own paper if I am going to write from my heart.
At this point, I am still finding my voice – the one that is not influenced by what others are writing, thinking, or wanting from me. When I start to look around, I get distracted and lose my focus. I start to compare my work to the work of others, at which point I begin to question whether I am doing this whole thing right, and whether my voice really matters at all.
Right now I am using all of my energy to listen to the words in my heart and write them down just as they are – without analyzing them or comparing them to anybody else’s words.
Aside from reading the work of a few of my good friends in the blogging world, I have stopped reading other blogs altogether, at least for now. I need to focus like never before, lest my newfound energy and purpose get muddied by the dirty water of comparison that is bound to weasel its way into my heart if I allow it to do so.
As Theodore Roosevelt said:
If you, like me, are looking for more joy and purpose in your life, start by identifying the one thing that lends itself to the most comparison for you. It could be the amount of money that you make, the size of your home, the clothing that you wear, a talent that you wish you had, or a host of other things that would take forever to list.
Once you have identified the culprit, kick comparison to the curb by keeping your eyes on your own paper. Stop looking around at other people’s work and focus on doing the very best you can, regardless of what anybody else is doing. Find your own voice, your own expression, and your own authenticity, and, with it, the courage to be yourself.
Your contribution matters.
We can do this together.
This is part of a 31 day series about small and simple things. You can read the rest of the series here.
