Morning all!
I’m going to try something very different today.
I started writing a blog post before and stopped only 10% of the way through because well – it’s the same title as this blog post.
I didn’t feel like writing lol.
Even the thought of putting in my standard 20 minutes felt challenging.
Upon reflection is was less the time that scared me off but more that I wasn’t inspired to pick a particular subject.
The topic I did choose was ‘How long does it take to write a novel’ which I found via a keyword search in Ahrefs and then decided it would make for good reading.
Whilst that is probably true….minus the inspiration – it’s just damn difficult to write anything of real value.
Although that implies that this will be that ‘THING’ of real value.
In fact no (and yes) 😛
What I’m ‘trying now’ that I’ve never tried before it pushing down that ‘20 minute threshold’ even further.
I went for ‘5 minutes’ worth of writing today because I thought well…5 minutes is better than zero minutes so that’s that.
And to see where it takes me in terms of writing.
It is taking a leaf out of what my coach Valentina shared with me – the minimum consistent dose or MCD concept.
This is basically when you’re starting a new habit or trying to continue with one – then doing the bare minimum is better than doing nothing at all.
I.e it’s better to write for 5 minutes Deepak than to not write at all.
I mean I’ve all kinds of things this morning and I can tell that much of it was to avoid writing – but then I really wanted to get something written.
So – I guess…
Herein lies the lesson of what I’m hoping to communicate to you this morning.
That even in those moments where your motivation wanes – by applying the minimum consistent dose – i.e ‘just do SOMETHING’ – you’re much more likely to succeed.
The point of the exercise is it’s that your consistency over time is far more important than your performance on any one given day.
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It’s amazing if you can produce a whole novel’s worth of content in one week….but then if you don’t write again for the next 3 months well….the result is a net loss.
So I guess that’s the idea behind what I’m writing about now.
But let’s take the MCD one step further.
I’m also using the medium (of writing) as a vehicle to express my complaint.
I.e I didn’t feel like writing – so what got me passionate enough to even write today was to talk about that very frustration.
So counter-intuitively – you can use the negative energy you have to channel it into an output that can function as performance.
I think in a way this has applications across the board.
If you don’t feel like doing your accounts – just do the parts you enjoy doing to begin with and see what happens from there.
If you don’t feel like running then express your anger by sprinting for 60 seconds….and see what happens from there
This is exactly the same thing I’ve done this morning with writing.
I wanted to take 5 minutes to complain about the monotony of writing and how much I feel like I want a break from it.
And somehow, in the end, this MCD has been cathartic for me.
And I’ve ended up writing for 12 minutes now rather than 5 🙂
I got to zero and now the countdown clock is ticking upwards!
Catch you, tomorrow folks.
My minimum consistent dose is done!
