How To Write Something New Every Day Without Losing Your Mind
Could you eat ice cream every day?
“What kind of a dumb question is that, Tom?”
Of course we could. Why? Because it’s enjoyable.
It’s addicting. Nobody in their right mind wants less ice cream. Go ahead, challenge me on that. We could eat it every day.
What if writing was the same way?
What if we enjoyed writing just as much as we enjoyed eating a gallon of ice cream in one sitting?
It’s possible. Let me tell you how.
How To Punch Writing Burnout In The Face
Just recently I got burned out making videos for Facebook.
My Facebook videos account for half of my income, mind you. And because of that, I felt it was just a numbers game..
Pump out X amount of videos, Tom makes money (so he doesn’t go homeless), and everybody is happy.
Wrong.
I got really unhappy.
12–13 videos later I was burned out. I didn’t want to do it anymore. I was making videos I thought would get shared — not videos that actually meant something to me.
And it made me want to vomit. And the videos didn’t get shared (surprise!).
I drew the weird conclusion that I was burned out from making videos, which also happened to be dead wrong.
I wasn’t burned out from making videos — I was burned out from my motivation behind making videos.
And this is an INCREDIBLY important distinction to make.
In a really crappy job, many people think they need a break from WORK. They need a vacation. And many times they do, but there are times as well when they really need to just quit and do more meaningful work.
What if they stopped doing data entry and started painting — something they really wanted to do?
Would they still want that vacation? They’d probably wake up the next day completely energized for work and go to town.
It is in this same breath that I say people don’t get burned out from writing — they get burned out from their motivation behind writing.
Money is a classic one. If they don’t make enough money, they quit.
Views is another. If their motivation was views, then they’ll burn out pretty quickly as well.
But what if their motivation was to just have something to look back on?
It would be like journaling.
And it would be
A. Loads more enjoyable, and
B. Much more sustainable
Now we’re talking.
Oh, and quick FB video update, I made my first video in 2 weeks yesterday because I wanted to and it has blown the metrics of every other video I’ve ever done out of the water.
Motivation is powerful.
You Have To Make Writing More Enjoyable
Writing shouldn’t be a chore.
It’s therapy.
And sometimes driving to therapy can be a little bit of a hassle, but once we get there and get settled we never regret the drive.
Because therapy is good.
Writing is the same way. It won’t always be fun — I’m not that delusional, but if you can make MOST days fun, then the days where you have to “tough it out” won’t be as hard to get through.
I write/make videos because sometimes I can’t go about my day without getting something off my chest.
Same with you. So here are 5 tips on how to write something new every day without going crazy…
Don’t make it perfect. It doesn’t matter that much if there are spelling errors. I don’t want perfection, I want you to DO.
Make it short. Cut your brain off at 300–400 words, then press publish. This makes it easier to lasso a bunch of consecutive days together. Then you won’t want to quit because you’re proud of your “streak.”
Write it for someone else. A reader. A family member. That guy/girl that cut you off on the highway.
Write it for YOU. This is a snapshot of your brain on this day. You’ll be able to look back on this a year from now — pretty cool, right? Enjoy it.
Don’t compare your blogs to others. DON’T DO IT. You will learn what works and what doesn’t eventually. The best way to sharpen skills is by DOING, and that’s what you’re DOING already. Don’t worry about others.
In other words, don’t write for anybody other than yourself.
Writing is an inherently valuable thing. There shouldn’t be any more motivation that you need. Money, views, email subscribers… that should all be the icing on the cake.
This mindset is what should help you to write something new every day without losing your mind.
I like your idea of comparing eating ice cream every day with writing, but it got me thinking...we can, in fact, eat too much of it to the point it’s gonna be sickening for us to even look at it. I guess the same might apply to writing or any creative pursuit...do it, but watch your motivation and don‘t overwork :)
All words I needed to hear today to rev up my engines to write, Tom! Thank you for your great words of inspiration! I get to write today like I'm eating my favorite ice cream flavor chocolate peanut butter!!