5 Insights From Writing 100 Blogs In 100 Days
This is my 100th blog post in 100 days. On September 22nd, 2020, I announced that I was going to write and publish every single day for the rest of the year. Here we are. 100 posts in 100 days.
This experience has taught me a lot about creativity and consistency. Most of my posts have been on freelance, marketing, and productivity, but many have been self-referential, processing the experience of publishing every day.
I’m going to curate a set of ideas from previous posts that summarize what this experience has taught me. Hopefully from this, you can glean insights and inspiration to commit to your own creative disciplines.
#1 - Do What Doesn’t Make Sense
Here’s something that probably won’t make sense to you: I had an average of eight website visitors per day in 2020. Eight. Undertaking a 100-day relentless grind for only eight people each day seems a bit overkill, right? Is that really necessary?
My answer to both questions is yes. It is overkill, and it is completely necessary. Those who do what doesn’t make sense achieve more than the rest. Scroll down on the profiles of the digital creators you admire. You’ll see dozens if not hundreds of sub-par posts. Creating and posting is the only way to get better.
To grow an audience, you have to create great content for the few followers you have now. To get a promotion at work, you have to do a lot of tasks that aren’t technically your job. To build an online business, you have to invest nights, weekends, and paychecks back into it.
Success is not guaranteed, and it often doesn’t make sense to most people. But you have to do what doesn’t make sense. It’s the only way forward.
#2 - Make An Announcement
There is magic in making announcements. Many of our personal convictions and disciplines fall by the wayside when nobody knows about them.
In early September of this year, I was on my friend Bobby’s podcast, and I accidentally mentioned that I was thinking about writing 100 blogs in 100 days. I had a few consistent readers of my blog previously, so I knew that once I said it, I had to commit to it.
The lesson here is that for some people, especially social people like me, making a public announcement is a solid motivator. Even a small promise to a tiny reader base is still a promise. Look where it took me.
#3 - Do A Creative Sprint
I’m no stranger to committing to creative disciplines–and then quitting. In high school, I committed to playing guitar for two hours every day. That lasted a week. Then I committed to writing a song every day. That lasted for two days. There’s a problem with commitments like these. It lies in the words “every day.”
We fail to follow through on our commitments, not because we lack discipline (we do), but because we have no concept for what doing something every single day actually looks like. This is the magic of the creative sprint. It gives you a backstage pass into what the life you desire truly feels like.
A creative sprint is simply a short-term commitment to creating and publishing consistently. It could be for a month, a week, even three days. The frequency is up to you, but the most important thing is picking an end date. This helps you wrap your mind around the reality of what you’ve committed to without getting too discouraged.
When we start creative projects, we typically work hard for 2 weeks, see little traction online, get discouraged, and stop. Creative sprints hold us to our commitments. It doesn’t matter if we’re famous yet or not. The point is to discover whether the creative discipline is something we can commit to for the long haul. Because that’s what it takes.
Stop focusing on the noun and start focusing on the verb. Being a creative isn’t something you are because you know how to use the tools. Everyone can use the tools. Photoshop costs less than Netflix. Get over yourself. What makes you a creative is creating every day. You either are a creative today or you aren’t.
Once you complete your creative sprint, stop and reassess. Was it fun? Was it positive? Could you see yourself being this kind of creator now?
#4 - Develop an Online Persona
“Authenticity is overrated.”
–Seth Godin
This is one of my (many) favorite quotes from Seth Godin. He often makes the case that creators only want to publish things that are authentic to themselves. If the inspiration isn’t there, they have a cop out. It’s not authentic. It’s manufactured. But no other job is afforded this luxury. We don’t want our doctors, or our pilots, or even our baristas to be authentic. We depend on them to do their jobs with consistency no matter how they authentically feel.
But in the middle of your creative sprint, you’ll inevitably run into speed bumps. You’ll have interruptions, emergencies, depressions, anxieties, failures, sadnesses. So how do you show up and create with these things weighing over your head?
You have to develop an online persona.
An online persona isn’t a lie. It’s merely a strategic curation of what you choose to bring to the table. It ensures you can bring things to the table consistently. Think of your entire “self” as a pizza with many slices. There’s a slice for work, another for friendships, family, emotions, faith, mental heath, etc. Choose which slices you will share, and which slices you will protect. I never share about my family, my faith, or my friendships online. I’ve developed my online personal using my work slice, and my emotions slice, when it’s helpful for giving context. The rest I protect.
Every time I jump on Instagram stories to promote a new blog, I start by saying, “Hey everyone, great news!” This works as a mental trigger for me to positively promote whatever I’m working on, no matter how I’m feeling. Having this online persona to fall back on has been crucial in my 100-day publishing streak.
#5 - Publishing Is Meaningful
What if, after all this, you still only have a few followers each day? What if you do all this work, and almost no one finds it? Does that mean you suck? Does it render all your hard work meaningless? Of course not.
Think of the meal you would eat if it was your last meal. Think of the writing that touched you on the deepest level. Think of the time you laughed the hardest–I’m talking painful belly laughter. Do you have these moments in your mind? Ok, let me guess what they are. A parent’s cooking, a letter from a lover, and an inside joke with close friends (that wouldn’t be funny to anyone else).
We compare our work to capitalistic art rating systems. Of course you don’t sing like Alicia Keys. Of course you can’t cook like Gordon Ramsey. Of course you don’t write like Steinbeck, and you aren’t as funny as John Mulaney. But this does not mean your work isn’t meaningful.
In fact, the opposite is true. The most memorable, meaningful experiences are local. If we hide our work from our community because we don’t think it’s good enough, we rob the people closest to us the most meaningful experiences of their lives.
So, creator, I say this to you. Create. Publish your work. Share it with your friends and family. This simple act is so much more important than you could ever realize. And, in fact, on the way to growing an audience, this is the first step to getting there.
Closing
Thank you so much for reading. I want to thank the 871 readers I had in 2020. I want to thank my dad for teaching me to write. I want to thank my small, yet consistent, audience for inspiring me to show up every day.
That’s 100 posts in the books, my friends. If you’re wondering where I’ll be in 2021, I’ll be right here. I’m committing to publishing every single day in 2021. See you in the morning.
Happy new year. May 2021 be a happy and prosperous year for us all.
