dawn at Lake Ella

12/3/2021 – Friday, oh Friday

It’s Friday, so for working stiff’s like me it’s the end of the workweek. I really wanted to stay in bed but I was awake at our regular hour so Keely and I headed out for our walk.

…in an unusual move, I wrote out this post then deleted most of it and started over. There are a lot of things going on right now that are giving me existential angst and I can keep writing about them over and over and over but that’s the equivalent of screaming into the void.

Instead, I’m sharing something I emailed to some friends and posted on twitter a few days ago, which is an excerpt from Seth Godin’s new book The Practice:

181. A Roundup of Tips and Tricks for Creators  Build streaks. Do the work every single day. Blog daily. Write daily. Ship daily. Show up daily. Find your streak and maintain it. Talk about your streaks to keep honest. Seek the smallest viable audience. Make it for someone, not everyone. Avoid shortcuts. Seek the most direct path instead. Find and embrace genre. Seek out desirable difficulty. Don't talk about your dreams with people who want to protect you from heartache.

The reason I’m sharing it here is to remember what I’m focusing on right now. I can’t solve the world’s problems, but I can try to solve my own as much as society allows me too. Consistency is my greatest hurdle, but I also need to remember to aim for the target of “smallest viable audience”. I’m working on developing multiple revenue streams (writing, online courses, digital products) and my most immediate goal is to pay off my student loans.

But the most important lesson for me today is to remember that life is about more than mere survival. I’m VERY GOOD at surviving, it’s my default state, but never once has survival brought me happiness or personal fulfillment. It’s easy for me to hide deep under the banner of “I’m surviving!!!!” and ignore everything else.

Hiding has never done me much good, tbh, so I’m going to live by that other maxim of Godin’s: SHIP THE WORK.