I’m back on the wagon and to my first love. Blogspot. It has been a while since I did any blogging as i have been wallowing in my pity party. (And yes, I was the sole celebrant and attendee) All that’s in the past now though and I’m proud to say that I’m re-launching this blog. I’ll be posting observations, opinion pieces and short stories here.
For a long time, I struggled with my writing. It certainly didn’t help that I was versed in the fine art of prcastination. Yes, that very indulgent granny that tells you to relax. It can be done later. To be honest, procrastination was only half the problem. Being dishonest with myself and what I was feeling at the time helped to stop my flow. Either way, after all this time being out, I learnt several things which I will proceed to share.
· Fear is the enemy of progress:
Wether it was fear of the unknown, of failure, or just plain intimidation. It only served to waste my time and make me unproductive
· Honesty:
Until recently, I thought that writing was about imagining a situation and describing it in words. But that’s only half the work. The real work is to put it in such a way that people can read and relate to it and to do so I had to write about what I had experienced or, at the very least, understood. Writing exposes the personality of the writer and there’s very little that can be done but it is left to me to embrace that exposure and not run away from it.
· I’m never going to be as good as I want to be:
No, this is not a defeatist statement. Just fact. There’ll always be something I think I can do better. A better word I can employ. But now, I can embrace all that with the knowledge that it is my path to improvement. I mean, who wants to peak in their twenties?
· The ten thousand hour theory.
I first read about it in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers. I was recently reminded about it by a friend during an IM chat. It states basically that, to achieve proficiency in any field, you need to spend at least ten thousand hours practicing. I can only hope my blog helps me there.
Of course, we learn many lessons along the way but it’s up to me to see that I apply them. Let’s just see how that goes.
Please comment and let me know if you have tried for something and learned something that deeply impressed you.
Have a great day.
