#400 3 lessons from 400 consecutive days of writing (and a request)

ByLukas

Today marks day 400 of the Daily Insight newsletter – which calls for a longer post and a question for you.

Let’s start with three lessons I learned from publishing daily.

Lesson 1: Writing when not you’re not inspired IS the point

I wasn’t inspired every day in the past 400 days – but many days I was.

And I wouldn’t have had the inspiring days without the uninspired days.

Maybe writing when you’re not inspired is the whole point.

Because showing up for the bad moments makes it possible to be there for the good moments, too.

Lesson 2: You don’t have to be ready to get started – you get started to become ready

In the past, I just couldn’t get myself to write, not even if I really wanted to.

Now, I just write.

Doing something new always goes against your current beliefs and always comes with resistance – otherwise, you would already be doing it.

But seeing how tiny daily actions can normalize a behavior that in the past seemed unattainable was incredibly empowering.

You don’t have to be ready to get started. You get started to become ready.

Lesson 3: It doesn’t matter what you do as long as it’s meaningful to you

For the longest time, I felt like I always gave up on things that were important to me. I just couldn’t persevere.

So, I chose to start writing daily. But I could’ve also decided to run every day. Or knit.

In the end, the activity itself doesn’t matter. You can choose any desire you feel resistance towards…

And start using it as a symbol of your defiance against your limiting beliefs.

In its essence, such “Tiny Trust Builder” actions, as I came to call them, are symbolic.

Pick one. Attach meaning to it. Use it to prove to yourself that your aspirations are not just pipe dreams. And see how your life changes.

What’s next?

Maybe it didn’t have to take 400 days to prove to myself that I could write every day – or maybe it did.

Either way, I did it. And now the question arises: what’s next?

To answer that question, I need your help.

Why are you subscribed to this newsletter? What do you get out of it?

Could I do anything to make the newsletter more interesting to you?

Let me know by replying to this email so we can shape the next 400 newsletters together.

Thanks for being along for the journey!

  • Lukas

Similar Posts

  • #6 Brevity

    ByLukas

    As I gain more expertise in a certain field, I expect my posts on that topic to get shorter.

    Because raw material starts with a lot of fluff, and only through sculpting away, day by day do I get closer to the essence.

    So…

    If my posts on a topic I’m familiar with are getting longer on average, I’m off-track.

    If they become more abstract, I’m getting off-track.

    In other words…

    When I don’t yet have so much to say
    I can’t stop talking
    Until I sculpt away
    Realize
    Some words matter more than others
    And what’s left is
    Enough

  • #320 Before it can be about the content, it must be about the consistency.

    ByLukas

    Before it can be about good writing, it must be about consistent writing.

    Before it can be about running PRs, it must be about running consistently.

    Before it can be about , it must be about being in that yoga pose in the first place.

    Before it can be about fulfilment, it must be about doing something that fulfills you in the first place.

    Before it can be about the content, it must be about the consistency.

  • | |

    #90 Envision, want, choose

    ByLukas

    First I envision a future me. Who do I want to be?

    Then every single day, every single moment, I choose to take actions that turn me into that person I want to be.

    If I don’t consciously choose my actions in the present moment that contribute to my vision, and I’m led by old unconscious patterns, beliefs, and habits instead, my visions will remain imaginary.

    And if I never take the time to envision who I want to be, how do I know which actions to choose?

    First envision what you want. Then choose to make it happen.

  • | |

    #45 The tragedy of the spoken word

    ByLukas

    Language helps us describe the world we perceive. Yet in doing so, it closes our eyes, our ears, our touch, and our heart to the parts of the world we don’t have words for.

    Every language is a lens on a felt reality within and around us – both clarifying and categorizing the world, and limiting it by the words it has available.

    Learning more languages gives you new lenses – and a richer sense of reality.

    But just like the structure of our ears limit the sounds we can hear, and the structure of our eyes limit colors we can see, the structure of any language somehow limits our felt experience of the world.

    How do we re-access memories, emotions, hidden away in a long-forgotten language?

    How do we re-learn to listen to the voices of the wordless world speaking to our animal self… the voices that once upon a time, before verbal language emerged, were all we had?

    there’s an eternal song
    drowned out by the confines of my mother tongue
    a wordless melody that once made sense
    until our brain started blurring it with a lens
    narrowing it down
    neglecting its nuances through verbs and nouns

    with all its might language wants us to abide
    but the wordless world it tries to hide
    will forever be inside

    Lukas Van Vyve

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *