7 years

It has now been 7 years since I wrote the first post on this blog on May 11, 2008. That was 3,452 posts ago. In that post, I wrote – “Hopefully, I will be able to keep up writing one a day.”

It was really a statement full of hope. There was no evidence I possessed the discipline to do anything with any amount of consistency – let alone every day. And, while I definitely missed a few days in that first year as I built the habit muscle, I’ve largely been able to keep at it.

I spoke with a member of this community a few days ago about this blog and the blogging habit. She asked if I had a process and I just shared that I made sure I wrote as a part of my morning routine. (That’s a guideline – on some days, like this one, I write the previous night) She then asked if I had a social media or promotion strategy for this blog – I explained to her that I had none. So, she said – “So, you just focus on showing up every day.”

She got that exactly right.

I didn’t believe I had the discipline to show up every day when I started writing here. I do now. In some ways, a lot of what I’ve learnt from writing these notes every day is that we regularly underestimate how much we’re capable of. We respond to this in a variety of ways – either we attempt to be content with low expectations or we respond by talking a lot more than we actually do.

I’ve learnt that, if we choose to apply ourselves, we can do a lot more than we think, learn more than we think possible and be better than we ever imagined we could be.

But, first, we must learn to show up.

Thank you for your support through this journey. Your support is a privilege.. and one I’m very grateful for.