I was listening to a podcast where Seth Godin was talking about some powerful writing advice he learned from Isaac Asimov the famous science fiction writer.
I’m paraphrasing but it went like this.
Isaac Asimov wrote from dawn to noon every day without fail.
By doing this, Isaac said that your subconscious realises “No matter what I’m going to be writing so I might as well write something good”.
I think we can all learn something from this.
Some practical takeaways I’m implementing into my own life.
- Get started and continue without fail, eventually, success will follow you precisely because you forgot to think about it.
- Let the subconscious do its thing. When we get started with any habit it usually takes a momentous effort to get started but once you get the wheels in motion the habit takes care of itself. It takes on a life of its own, it becomes autonomic.
- There’s power in starting. The more effort you put into something the better you’ll get at it and the more likely you’ll succeed.
- Don’t rely on motivation to get started. Get started and the motivation will come.
- Authenticity in writing only comes from writing consistently. You find your voice by writing. Authenticity is found in the work.
Isaac Asimov Was A Fan Of Habits
Isaac Asimov wrote over 500 books. This type of output simply doesn’t happen without habits.
His pioneering work on science fiction shows how powerful habits can be.
Choose What You Want To Get Better At
Focus on getting better at it one day at a time. These small improvements will compound to create extraordinary results.
The Bottom Line
If we want to get better at anything in life we need to commit to getting better at it one day at a time. If you want to get better at writing write one blog post and publish it every day. If you want to get good on the guitar play it every day. This line of thinking works for anything you want to get good at. Even if you can’t do x task every day ( for example, weightlifting you can’t do it every day it’s too hard to recover from three to five times per week is the sweet spot) commit to get better at it every week.
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