5 Important Life Skills I’ve Learned in a Year of Writing
365 days of writing every day
Last year, I decided to try something new. I decided to pick up the pen and start writing articles.
I wrote articles every day for a week in preparation and published my first official article on October 13. It’s a day for the history books.
One year later and I’ve written over 250 articles and gained almost one thousand followers. It’s been a humbling experience and it’s taught me a lot.
Perseverance
A full 365 days later and I’m still going. I’ve written almost every single day for a year, only missing a few here and there. My output is more than 100k words.
I’ve written over 250+ articles and gained almost 1k followers. I never doubted my ability to do it, but I had no clue what to expect.
I didn’t expect the output I did. I didn’t expect to gain friends and mentors. I didn’t expect to write a book.
If there’s anything I learned, it’s that you can do whatever you put your mind to. I decided to write for a year and I did it. It took pushing out articles and constant writing.
Quality is the test of time. Quantity is the test of perseverance.
Discipline
I started out writing for 20 minutes every day. It was the right amount of time because it was all I could manage.
With my newfound job, I spent most of my time at work. Meaning I had to make time to write every day. I only had a period of a couple of hours and I had to fit in the time.
I showed up at the same time each morning before work and did my writing. I learned that was the only way to get it done.
You have to be willing to set aside the time and sit down and do the work. Otherwise, your efforts will be futile.
Creativity
The more I wrote, the more clear-headed I felt. Writing reorganized and prioritized my thoughts. I spent most of my days thinking about writing and all the ideas I had.
My ideas got stronger and my thought process streamlined. As I came up with material, more material would come out of it. I would go on tangents in the middle of an article, and I removed them to create new articles.
Creativity is a muscle. If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. But if you do use it, it’ll reward you with infinite creativity.
Confidence
I’m a quiet person. I’ve never been one to talk much and writing gave me a voice. When I felt like the world couldn’t hear me, it was an outlet. I had so much I wanted to say. I found a platform where I could speak without interruption.
When I let myself loose, I grew stronger in my convictions. I stopped being wishy-washy. I learned to stand up for myself and my beliefs.
My writing voice transferred into my daily life. I threw out the phrases, “I think,” and “I believe.” I didn’t have to qualify what I was saying. I used to tremble at the idea of being social.
Writing gave me the confidence that I could. Also, it was a great conversation starter.
Systems
James Clear went famous for his book, Atomic Habits. In his book, he discussed the importance of systems. As he said,
“You do not rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.”
It was great for me to have writing goals. They kept me motivated to keep going. But they weren’t enough on their own. I had to learn to build systems that allowed me to write better.
Learning systems meant setting time aside for research, mindmaps, outlines, and editing. Without systems, I was a slave to my whims. Systems allowed me to develop good habits.
Final Thoughts
I didn’t just learn about writing this year. I learned about myself too. I learned skills that’ll benefit me for the rest of my life.
I learned to:
Keep persevering in the face of adversity
Be disciplined in my pursuits
Allow my creativity to flourish
Grow into my voice and be confident
Set up valuable systems to keep track of my goals and habits
When you challenge yourself to a pursuit like writing for a year you open the doors to new skills. You open the door to new opportunities. You open the door to a new life.
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