There were plenty of reasons to not write today and to keep pushing it off. But today is also the day I happened to get the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. And it’s a great book that talks about building good habits and letting go of bad ones.
According to James Clear (And his theory is backed with practical advice and scientific evidence), it’s not enough to just decide that your going to develop a habit, you also need to recalibrate your thinking and adapt it as part of your identity. Because habits aren’t temporary goals to be achieved and then let go of, they are a change in lifestyle so a change in mindset is significant. (I haven’t completed the book yet but this is what I’ve gotten so far)
For example, since I’ve recently started the writing habit… It’s not enough to just think that “I’m gonna try and write every day”, the habit is more likely to stick if I think along the lines of “I’m a writer/blogger and I write a daily blog”. And everytime I write and publish a blog post it reinforces the habit and validates the “I’m a person’s who writes everyday” way of thinking.
This makes sense on a practical level. I have yet to finish reading the book and I will update more on that here when I finish and write a review after I follow the techniques given.
As I’m still in the beginning stages of writing and I feel like I’m writing only for myself, I guess I’ll wander around topics and write about books I read and I read often, I might write about the shows I watch and probably review them or just make some observations about what I like and how it felt or I’ll write fiction. I don’t know. Lets not pigeonhole on topics since I’m just beginning, I’ll pick a niche later once I have a huge volume of work and can reflect on it. Or maybe I’ll stumble on it along the way.
Song of the moment: Hard Times by Paramore. (Stuck in my head somehow)
Quote (because it just feels really cool to include a quote although it can come off as trying too hard):
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear
(It sounds like something I’ve heard somewhere else but it’s there in the book so…)
Lancia's Laboratory 