If you've followed this blog for a period of time, you probably have noticed that my writing has been - how shall I put it? - woefully infrequent in recent years. The line of demarcation was somewhere between 2017 and 2018. Late 2017 was when I had my epic mental health crisis, so I don't know if that's what flipped the switch or what, but I just have not been motivated to write as much in recent years. That's not to say that I haven't had a long list of things to write about rolling around in my head, though. I've had a note in my phone for years now of article titles, one-liners, random sentences and such, things I would mull over and think I should write about - and then just didn't. I think in some ways I just got lazy. I stopped putting forth the effort to create or do the hard work of thinking and crafting a story. Writing started to feel like a chore, something that I should do out of some sort of weird misplaced obligation. Obviously, no one is holding a gun to my head and insisting I write, but some part of me knows deep down it's what I need to be doing.
After I had mustered up the energy to submit a piece to Gospel-Centered Discipleship this past September, it led me down a rabbit trail to a Tim Challies* article called "Six Reasons For You to Consider Writing." I read it once, thought it had some good insights, and then moved on. But then for some reason, I came back to it again later, reading it more slowly the second time around.
And then this single line nearly jumped up and bit me: "Try to write something every day for a week or a month and just see what happens."
Write every day? For a month? Something in me sparked when I read that line. Like a match had been struck and finally that fire of motivation I had been lacking the last five years had been lit. It was the first time I had felt energized about the prospect of writing in such a long time. I think I had forgotten what that felt like.
So, here's my goal for the month of January**:
I'm going to write every day.
If I manage to do that (but let's manage expectations here, people), I will have written more in one month than I have in the last five years combined. The pieces won't be polished. They won't necessarily be all connected, coherent or cohesive. But that's not the point. The point is for me to exercise some discipline and finally give words to all the things that have rolled around in my head for years. It's a way of battling my own apathy and complacency.
So, Tim Challies, challenge accepted.
Wish me luck.
*Not that Tim Challies is ever going to read this blog, but I owe him a personal thank you. After we released my article on GCD, Tim got a hold of it and then shared it via his social media and his daily email newsletter. That share landed me #1 on this list. I might have mildly freaked out both when I first got notice that Tim shared my article, but also when I found out about The List. Tears may or may not have been involved. So, Tim, thanks for reading my work and thinking it was good enough to share with the masses. I'm still a little dumbfounded that anybody noticed it.
**I might regret this.
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