How 45 Days of Daily Writing Changed Me: 4 Lessons Inspired by Seth Godin

I spent the past 45 days writing daily, inspired by Seth Godin's daily blog he's kept up for >20yrs. Here's the 4 life lessons this experiment taught me.

Less than 10 years ago, I would've dreaded writing anything longer than a text message.

I was embarrassed my writing, leaning more toward my strength in Math than in English.

But writing well is a foundational skill -- "a gift we gift ourselves" -- that leads to other skills we'll never attain without it.

Inspired at Seth Godin's home earlier this year, I embarked on my own daily writing challenge after hearing he'd written daily for decades.

Here's what 45 days of daily writing and Seth have taught me about writing well.

1) Writing well is hard. It always will be, but it gets better.

I've always had to go back and edit my writing, and probably always will. Most likely I'm doing it right now as you're reading this post.

Acknowledging that it is hard to write well generally, separates the natural process from your judgement or capabilities.

Over time you will get better; there will be less errors; and writing well will come easier.

2) Shipping it when it done, not when it's perfect.

One of Seth Godin's principles is that he will ship pieces of writing when they're done, not perfect.

He has good and bad writing days, but regardless he posts something. He finds self-judgement holds us back more than it should.

Readers can probably tell but they won't care as much as you care. So just ship it.

3) Concision. There are always shorter, simpler ways to express yourself.

We live in an age where our attention is already limited.

When we can express something clearly & concisely our audiences will thank us for it.

I've applied Seth's principle that if I ever have the urge to go back through a piece of writing, I can but I must make it shorter & simpler.

4) Better writing, leads to thinking and communicating better.

If anyone has followed Amazon's organizational practices, they may know that they preferred 'written memos' over 'slide decks.'

The concept holds true, where writing clearly requires you to think and communicate more clearly than a set of visual slides.

After building up my writing muscle, I've found it less difficult to get writing done - whether emails, documents, reports, explanations.

Yes, I can hear some readers thinking, why not use AI tools to help with writing?

I personally use AI, but more as a creative & supporting tool, not a tool to replace my foundational skill of writing well.

If we don't put in the work ourselves, we will limit our capabilities to use our gifts to their fullest potential and for the greatest good.

What has been your relationship with writing? Have you wanted to start writing more, but something has stopped you?

I'm happy to share my experiences, and learn from yours.

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Where to from now? I'm actually going to take a little break from daily writing, and shift to a more manageable ~5-6 days a week of writing

For me personally, I've found this to be the sweet spot for me in this season life, to write sustainably and on topics I care about

I like the idea of taking one day in a week for rest and reflection, which helps me to write better. Plus I appreciate the day off!