#172 The pursuit of failure

When the going gets tough
When I bite the dust
Trust I must

Trust I must
That the purpose I feel inside
The calling from which I can no longer hide
Is a reliable guide

Trust I must
That the vision I hold dear
Is enough to conquer my fear
and persevere

Trust I must
That the words I say
The actions I take every day
Won’t lead me astray

Trust I must
That I am not alone
And that this calling
Will bring me home

Trust I must
Every day
That this is the path
This is my way

You don’t need a better system, a habit, or even motivation to write today day.

If deep down you now you want to be a writer, you just need to show up and write today.

If you do that often enough, the habit, the system, and the motivation will come.

Here’s a question Tim Ferris asks startup founders (and himself) when deciding to invest time and money into a new project:

“If, in one (or two, or three) years from now, this whole project has failed miserably… Which assumptions you hold today were proven wrong?”

Tim Ferris

Answering the question first requires defining failure and success.

For my project of publishing a daily insight on this blog success looks like this:

Write & publish.

Edit.

Write & publish.

Edit.

Then write & publish some more.

Good, bad, well-received or not, received or read by anyone at all, it doesn’t matter.

Because first of all, writing is a creative outlet for me.

Second: long as I write & publish consistently, I trust I will get better at writing and publishing.

Finally: I trust that from all that sculpting away, day by day, will come better and better insights.

A pretty low bar for success – which, counterintuitively, often leads to more progress long-term.

Now we have established that:

What are the assumptions that could be wrong if next year, it turns out I failed to write & publish every day?

Here are some I can think of:

• Writing and publishing every day is going to be a long-term fulfilling activity for me
• I am truly fine with writing and publishing without anyone ever reading it
• I am fine spending considerable time on starting a new project that I might never monetize
• Writing & publishing every day really leads to better writing skills and interesting insights (although even if this assumption is false, it wouldn’t necessarily stop me from writing.)

Will these assumptions be proven wrong?

Only time will tell.

Until then… I write & publish… then write & publish some more.