I recently completed a major writing project. Something I have never done before.
It took a lot of me. In more ways than I had expected.
Here is what I lost in the process:
- I had an epilepsy attack during the process. Because I woke up at 1o’clock to meet some mid-way timelines.
- My days were screwed up. Because I did not schedule the writing process.
- O wait. I did. First thing in the morning upon waking up. Because of which I continued losing the shine of my face as well as my productivity. Thus, the fits attack had to happen.
- After that, I just could not sleep less than 7 hours. Thus, face’s lustre came back. But it made me reflect as to how much of the previous sacrifice was actually worth it.
- More than the schedule, something that happened a lot in the process was a lot of my mood swings. I questioned myself if I should have picked this project up in the first place. I questioned myself if I had put a price tag to my soul by dealing with so much loneliness. I did not have an answer to why I picked up this project in the first place.
While I did deal with a lot in the journey of this project, I felt the happiest when I used to actually write.
That said, here are the good things that came out of the project:
- I really felt good on shipping the project. Not because I wouldn’t be working on it anymore. I would. Rather because I would not have to deal with so many heartbreaking mood swings I used to have because of writing that project.
- That said, I have now come to realise that creating content on social media is not going to get me where I want to get to. I have to think of other ways. Social media content is shallow. At least for the creativity I want to get to. I don’t mean it in a bad way, especially since I work with an influencer so social media technically pays my bills. However, deep work happens when you spend 23 hours and 45 minutes of the day away from social media.
- The work is hard. Practice is all you need. But it is the daily grind that will eventually make you what you want to be – a great writer.
Everything else, EVERYTHING else is a distraction. Everything. Including the work you do. It may pay you to keep you busy. But to find your happiness in your work, you have to do the hard work that will still seem hard despite you making 7-8 figures.
Go do the hard work that is easiest to ignore. Run behind those 30 minutes of daily writing. You will make more than what you think. And it ain’t only money.