Journaling: day one

I screwed up. I didn’t send out my newsletter last time around. Since November last year, I’ve been writing and sending my newsletter every 2 weeks and I broke the chain for the first time.

I could make excuses. I was too busy. Life got in the way. I had writer’s block. But those are just that, excuses. The truth is I didn’t prioritise my writing.

I’d sit down and stare at the blank canvas that was my screen and wonder what to write. Sometimes I’d write a sentence or two, other times I wouldn’t even get that far.

That might sound like “writer’s block” but it wasn’t. I wasn’t putting myself in the right environment to be creative. I wanted something to magically appear, my fingers to automatically type out the perfect newsletter.

Writing, or any creative endeavour, isn’t magic. It’s hard work. And you need to create the right conditions for that hard work to take place.

When I don’t write for a while, a few things happen:

1. I lose confidence in my writing and The Fear sets in. Does anyone care about what I write? Does my writing suck?
2. I have less ideas. The less I create, the less creative I am.
3. The longer I leave it, the harder it becomes to start.
4. It becomes easier not to write at all.

I’ve talked about the benefits of writing before and it’s something I truly believe: writing makes you better at what you do.

My aim is get back into the habit of writing and to do that this blog is going to become my journal. Most entries will be a few hundred words, and I hope to publish something most days.

I want the blank canvas to be enticing and full of opportunity again.