It's a little bit hard to write properly now because I'm not really in a mood to write. However, writing daily is a system to me and it keeps me going when I'm in the muck. It allows me to look back at things retrospectively and realize it isn't that bad after all.
Today, I mostly worked on my full-time job and progress was slow. I made up for it by working after the usual office hours of 10.30 to 5pm plus. Interspersed between, I had some personal matters to settle. It can be quite taxing. I wished life could be simpler. That we were all more consciously in touch with our feelings and in more control of it. It would make interpersonal communications easier. This means less stress. Less stress means contentment. And contentment means being able to focus on the little joys of life.
But no, the ancient philosopher Lao Tzu knew this. As human beings, we love to create problems where there isn't one. The only way I could reasonably deal with this and stay sane is to just treat productivity as a mindset. I don't hold onto it as tightly. Just like how holding onto any object too firmly would end up tiring you out. In the worst case, you end up numbing or bruising your hands.
Productivity comes and goes, that's normal. All we can do is to treat it as a process that gets better over time with effort and tuning. Part of the process could include something like knowing what are our common distractions. Then, we can find ways to reduce them.
Regardless, I've also noticed that commitments help us to keep making progress. Even when shit hits the fan, we still get things done. I got my newsletter done. I got my work done. I got my building in public tweet done. I tweeted plenty today. I made progress, even if it's a mere 1%. It adds up.
Today's newsletter launch was great in many ways. I've actually published consistently for 4 weeks and it's very much a natural part of my life now. For the most part, I took in all the advice I could from readers and friends. In cultivating a habit of having a bias for action, I applied them quickly instead of deferring it to the next issue. Every progress made now is progress that compounds. I'm not going to squander that. The more I wait, the more I will cultivate the bad habit of waiting and never growing.
That's the one mindset I've noticed to work very well for me the past few months. I've grown a lot as a person and professionally. All these positive effects carried over to my friends in the form of positive influence – such as being an inspiration. Even strangers I have never met on the Internet started reading my blog. And they told me they're inspired to do the same.
I doubt it's the content I write. It's far from awesome. They're probably just remarking at my consistency. Seeing the results I've achieved professionally (revenue growth, community growth, audience growth etc), I'm sure they could see how consistency breeds progress.
To my readers reading this, start finding the simplest good habit you can build. Work on it today. Grow together with me.
Power through your bad days with good habits.
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