I read an article on the internet. It was about a man who
set himself the challenge of writing 1000 words a day. He is making a living
from being a blogger with a difference. Looking at the way people follow their
dreams, how they change their lives and move on. He was unfulfilled by his life and decided
every job he’d done he hated. There was only one thing to do and it meant
finding or making his own job, his own career.
The web he runs has ongoing interviews with successful people. Just as
he has become, he asks them about what made them change their lives, go for
their dream. I listened to about ten
minutes of an interview with a woman who had changed career several times, she
he just re-invented herself, time and again. The thing was she had been
successful in her original career working for a credit card company. She was
able to travel the world, see the sights and at some point she got fed up with
it and moved on to do something else. I found it odd how he interviewed someone
who was already a success and had just moved from one career to another. Why
could he of not picked on someone who’d come from a more deprived background I
thought. It was like the converted
talking to the converted. Nothing was gained from it. However, this is untrue,
for she must have had some quality of character to be successful time after
time. She knew what it was she was doing, and it seemed to be on self marketing
and knowing the area she wanted to impress upon. Maybe there was an arrogance
about her, maybe there was something which didn’t quiet sound right to me, but
I couldn’t continue with listening to the interview so didn’t. Whether it was my own discontent coming
through, or whether there was something I picked up from the woman being
interviewed I can’t say. What I do know though is the 1000 word challenge
sounds appealing, it sounds difficult, it sounds like a challenge. One which
would be challenging to anyone.
The guy wrote writing every day was not just a discipline,
it meant doing it even when he was not in the mood or could not even think of a
thing to write. As if inspiration would come out of the air. Many times it just
didn’t, but still he sat down in front of his computer and began hitting those
keys. Putting in the graft. Before he knew it, it had become a habit.
I’m sure I could do it, and it would be difficult,
especially when a certain level of concentration is required. There would be
times when distraction could be a barrier and of course writers block. As if
there is such a thing. I once read a cure for writers block was just to
concentrate on the little thing, such as a brick in a wall and then write about
it. Then go on to the next brick in the
wall, but it doesn’t take too long and before you know it there they are 1000
words. I sit here with a towel on my head waiting for the 15 year old wax
conditioner I decided to put on to kick in and do something. I half expect when
this towel is removed it will take half my scalp with it because it’s dried up. Then the conditioner has really done it’s
work. If you got no hair then you never have to worry about conditioning your
scalp. Or going to the hairdressers. I’m
doing my best to continue with these words as they flow from somewhere, to hit
this magic target then I can remove the towel.
Feck I sure hope I don’t get writers block now.
The man who set this challenge went on to describe it as
being self revealing. How he had to be true to himself, reflect on things and
open up. He published his writings in
his blog and then went on to start his own business. Again writing being
involved in it but it didn’t mean he stopped his habit. Now he had to fit in the 1000 words more than
ever. There were times he noted when sitting down for the first part of his
writing it would be a load of junk. But he just kept banging away at the
keyboard and before he knew it there would be a gold nugget there. I wonder if
this goes on a similar premise if you filled a room full of chimpanzees and
keyboards they would eventually write the full bibliography of Shakespeare.
Though personally I don’t think this is possible. Funny how from nowhere a
saying pops up as if it should change the entire world, as if it is just common
sense. Well, this saying isn’t. What he was getting across though was there are
always barriers even those in yourself, which prevent you from doing something
and you just have to jump over them.
Like a horse, or maybe a gazelle.
Or to take it to an extreme a hippopotamus, of course the hippo would
have to be jumping over a fence in it’s own environment, the bottom of a river
bed certainly not the same fence a horse would jump over. Which would be silly
now.
Yesterday I began writing to this challenge, yet I cheated a
bit and decided to count the words I’d already written while at work. Emails and shit. This attempt should really be discarded. For
the juxt of this challenge is to write the 1000 words in a single sitting. No
matter how long it takes. Just put them down in black and white, even if it
means you sit there with a towel on your head while it begins to superglue to
your scalp. Then it could be called the
challenge of a 1000 words versus the loss of 1000 hairs. I sure hope this test will mean I’m bald
tomorrow. Yet there could be worse
things to moan about, male pattern baldness is just another item to add to the
list of an aging fat man. Well the
target has been hit. Better run to the sink and see what I’ve lost.
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