It was a terrible Tuesday.
The time was 9.15 am or so. I was teaching writing to a group of 6 people. We were in a – “A Deep Writing session.” During these sessions, we get together virtually on Zoom, switch off all distractions, turn on our webcams, and write.
Honestly, this was a wonderful setup for all the students to build a writing habit.
If you want to build a writing habit, this is a perfect setup.
Or so I thought.
Around the 11-minute mark, I felt myself going red. On the screen, I saw that one of the participants(let’s call him Ajay. Also, no, he is not present in the above picture) yawned. And then he yawned again. Three more times. And then, he couldn’t stop yawning.
“Writing is such a fascinating craft. How could this guy be bored?” I thought to myself, frowning.
I knew I had to motivate him
The next day, after my anger had subsided, I called Rohan and asked him to pull up his socks. Persuaded and cajoled him to try harder. “Be more accountable. Keep a goal for your writing, and your yawning will automatically stop”.
My approach was simple – Create an environment where Rohan is forced to write.
Did it work?
Despite my pushing him, the yawning continued. Days turned into weeks, and he could never build a writing habit. All the accountability, the discipline, and the systems didn’t make him fall in love with the writing process.
Is discipline the only key ingredient to build a writing habit?
We want to write consistently. We all want to write, share ideas, and help our audience. Whether you are an entrepreneur, freelancer, solopreneur, or even a baker, writing provides tremendous benefits.
Writing, I realized, doesn’t have to be like pushing a heavy boulder up the mountain. Continuous self-judgment is unhelpful. Brute force is a short-term strategy.
But our strategy is – “Be hard on yourself. Create a tracker. Set an alarm for 5 am.”
And when it doesn’t work, we beat ourselves up. Not a sustainable strategy if we are playing the long game.
Discipline is an essential ingredient. But not the only ingredient.
The goal is to become a writer who enjoys writing every day.
Throughout my career, I have worked with clients like Ankur Warikoo, Vaibhav Sisinty, Swastik Nandkumar, and many more. And all of it happened because I inherently love the process of writing.
I have also helped Creators build their unique brand story and help them become consistent with their writing.
(One example is Kunaal Naik, one of the best data engineers I know, who has consistently started publishing on Linkedin and his email list. You can check out Kunaal’s work here.)
I have been publishing daily, and it’s not the discipline that has helped me. It’s love.
Writing with Love
Writing with Love is not a course about getting up at 5 a.m., meditating for 30 minutes, and then writing for 2 hours. Instead, this free course is about creating a writing habit by falling in love with the process.
The free course covers 3 main components –
- Anger is your best friend
- Forget about your niche (and do this instead)
- Don’t be an expert
Sign up here for the free course:
Also, there’s a chance that my emails might land up in the promotions (or spam) folder. So be mindful of that. 🙂