Yodeller

"Why now", you may ask. I have been meaning to start writing for a while. I even went so far as to start this blog almost a year ago. But for some reason I just newer got the habit of keep up writing. I didn't actually know why. There was many reasons to start: I wanted to get my thoughts and ideas out, people were encouraging me to write, telling me they would like to read more of my writings. I got good feedback for whatever I wrote. A lot of reasons. But it apparently didn't help as I just didn't keep up writing.

Until last friday. We have all those nice perks at my work, but for me the latest one definitely trumps them all: we have personal coaching sessions! I told all this, I wanted to write, I like writing, I have been encouraged to write... And all I got was this simple question: why not?

"Why not?"

That changed everything. Yes I had all those reasons why, but I newer thought about the reasons why I don't write. It's much easier to overcome your obstacles when you can clearly identify those. Then you can analyze and resolve them. I didn't write because I didn't have a habit of writing. I didn't have certain clear goals to achieve. I was uncertain of my writing skills. I was anxious publishing my writings, my thoughts and ideas. Pretty easy to fix when you can list them. Just set goals, let go and start doing!

You might guess that there weren't that big of a reasons why not. This is already second post I'm writing today, and what I actually promised during that coaching sessions was that I'll start writing on monday. Couldn't wait anymore.

More tomorrow!

Wow, 2 days in a row. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it's my personal record. It's even twice the amount of previous record. Truly an arcievement! And tomorrow I'll make a new record again. Not as big but record still.

If I keep holding this streak I'll be doing new records every day. Over time the exitement might tone down quite a bit. The arcievement just doesn't feel that great anymore.

The streak... after the feeling of breaking the records slowly fades, hopefully the streak keeps me going. Made famous by Jerry Seinfeld and also known as the Seinfeld method keeping the streak is one of the popular productive methods. It's specially good when forming new habits. You just keep going without breaking your streak.

The problem with the streak is: eventually it will break. No matter how hard you try something might come up and prevent you from doing your thing for a day. It can feel devastating after a long streak.

But you shouldn't give up. Just start over, another streak. Great opportunity for a new record. Finally something worth working for. Can I beat my record this time?

Sure you can define conditions that allow you to skip days without breaking the streak: being sick, on vacation... you shouldn't be too hard on yourself. Just keep your dicipline, keep going. And if you break the streak get back up and aim for a new highscore!

When starting a new habit you can't just add that to your day. Like it or not you are already doing something for the whole 24 hours per day. You can't just decide to start writing 20 minutes every day. You don't magically get 24 hours and 20 minutes per day. You need to find the time. Find something you do that is not important, productive. You need to quit something.

There are no moment in your day when you don't do anything. There might be moments wen you do nothing. There is the difference. Doing nothing can be important. More important is to recognize the moments when you are doing something that is just a waste of time. Quit those!

Quiting can be as hard as starting. But they go well hand in hand. You need to find time to start something, you also need to fill the time if you are quitting something. If you have something you really want to stop doing this is a good opportunity. Otherwise you just need to prioritize what you want to do.

So how did I find time for my writing? What did I quit? I have a morning routine where I spent 20 minutes reading news while waiting my coffee cools down. Perfect moment for writing. I have plenty of time later to catch up with news anyway.

Writing in itself isn't that hard. Coming up ideas about what to write could be. Thinking about writing something everyday starts to sound scary again when I think that I have to come up with 365 new topics during the next year. And then another one again after that. Quite a lot of things.

I didn't worry about this when I started. I thought I have plenty of ideas, plenty to write about. Don't worry I still do. But more important than having a ready list of ideas is to keep thinking. I need to collect new ideas along the way. I don't think that'll be too hard either. This topic is already a good example of that. I didn't thing of writing about coming up topics when I was thinking about topics to write about.

I can always use that original list. Expand it as ideas come by. Or maybe I should start trying to come up the daily ideas every day. And I still have things from my list to be used as a backup if I can't think of anything for the day.

I have been writing pretty informative post so far. Maybe I should write something else every now and then. Opinions, thoughts, diary, fiction, poems. That's what this is about. I should challenge myself.

So for a change, tomorrow I will write a poem. It's about time.

From moment to moment, what goes between time?
Clock goes tick tock, a moment passes.
Time flies, passes by,
Or is it us that pass the time?

Before me the stream of time, all history, past of mine.
Memories clear and sound, but also shadows of things that could...
have beens, what ifs, mistakes, regret.
Can't return, not again, it is done, written. Learn, accept!

I turn back, to the future.
It's cloudy, the path is hidden, unsutured.
Visions of infinite possibilities, my hopes, my dreams... My fears.
I cant go there, i don't know the way. Not yet.

I look down, the path is clear.
I take a step, the road is here.
Another step, I can walk through time.
In this moment, forever, now.

Clock goes tick tock, a moment has passed.