I first came across Jeff Goins as a result of a Google search a couple of years ago. He and Michael Hyatt are the two people I have been religiously following since then.
There is a story that Jeff keeps telling of how he started taking writing seriously. A friend of his asked him once what his dream was and he replied that he hoped to be a writer someday. His friend looked at him and said, “Jeff, you don’t have to want to be a writer. You are a writer. You just need to write.”
The first time I read this, it stirred something in me. I started calling myself a writer and I tried to write as much as I could. I even made a visiting card which said, “Writer”. But old habits die hard. Though I really, really wanted to write, there was house work that never ended; I had to continue taking my classes as that was the only source of income and a million other reasons besides why I could not find the time to write.
But somewhere the seed was sown and I started looking for and finding small writing challenges that made me accountable. The Write Tribe had a writing challenge in October last year where we had to write nine posts in the month. I thought that was do able and I actually completed it.
Then I took part in the Nanowrimo and while I did not manage all 50000 words, I crossed 20000 and got a good part of my book written.
And just when I was looking for a new challenge, Jeff came up with his 500 words.
If you want to know more about this here is the link : https://goinswriter.com/500-words/
I have decided to do this. I am going to try and write 500 words every day for 31 days, starting today. No scratch that out. I am not going to try, I am going to write. That’s it.
What am I going to write about? I don’t know. May be I will blog more often or keep a couple of days a week to work on my book. Maybe I will write some book reviews. Or content for the life courses that I plan to conduct at SGS. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I will write.
I am also writing a blog post on my word for the year which I will post in some time. This is the first time that I have decided on a word for the year and my word is “Me”. When I think of me, I think of writing. I see myself sitting at my desk. (yes, I got one made!) I see my steaming hot cup of tea and my dog Muffin settled comfortably on my feet. (she seems to think that my feet are made to plonk herself on).
Then what happens to the house work and the classes? Well, the universe decided to help out and I got a couple of writing assignments out of the blue. So not only can I write, I am going to be paid to write as well and since this means I need not travel to work, I save on a couple of hours a day.
So here’s to a New Year filled with words!