Today is the beginning of the rest of my life…. Again! The difference is that today is Day 1 of my starting to be serious about my writing and determined to take baby steps by being diligent every morning in writing a little, until this becomes a pleasurable habit. They say that if you do something for 21 days it does exactly that, so for me today’s the day!
My surroundings are far from perfect, with mundane noises – some necessary, like traffic and neighbourly living in a block and some completely excessive and extreme, like the daily Chinese poppers and fireworks they set off randomly right underneath my apartment. They are always in celebration of some wedding or other memorable event for which they gather at the restaurant on the ground floor of my block. When this happens, I have the extra uncalled-for noise of a few cars’ alarm system getting set off in the process, left to stop on its own.
You should see my agility in shutting all the windows, putting my earplugs in and my headphones on, with calming music at max on my computer. I learnt how to use my adrenaline generated by my jump at the unexpected shock, when my heart pumps out tons of energy. In the meanwhile, my mind accumulates the shock and frustration of all the interruptions, the only antidote so far being the thought that my next residence will be in a quiet and serene place, an extra bonus being a location by some running water and surrounded by nature.
Nevertheless, today I am pledging to spend at least one complete hour every day writing at 6am, with added time, depending on my working schedule. I am extremely lucky, having found my new job as from September 2013, which will allow me to enjoy all my mornings at leisure. The added advantage here is that, even when I need to do preparation for my work during my mornings, this can be done by writing and sourcing interesting materials for my classes, so it can be equally creative and enjoyable.
A couple of don’ts for this daily work: email writing is not part of it, however creating it may be and no other interruptions are allowed, apart from nature calls and making a new tea.
I expect the quality of my writing to improve slowly in time. This is new to me and I must be very kind to myself, like the only good supporting friend that I have sitting here with me in the process, instead of allowing my almost terrorising mind to take over and steer my emotions the self-inflicted guilt road, more like a highway to me…
In order to achieve this, I shall concentrate mainly on the content for now, my primary goal being output, for the first week. This will ensure that my morning schedule stretches comfortably to allow for my writing sessions and I can enjoy the result both in terms of written text as well as the internal alchemy of contentment for having achieved a set goal.
In a little while, when this goal is attained regularly, I shall then add my second primary goal – attention to detail by starting to polish expressions used so far, in an attempt to improve my writing until it becomes pleasing to the reader.
This is the point when I shall finally consider that I am actually writing, not before. I imagine that by this time I will have formed a good habit for my daily writing routine and that my mind will start to flow, allowing my thoughts to be dressed in adequate forms of speech and … from here, the sky’s the limit!
This is what I could fit into my first hour of my first day of the rest of my life and, I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for my breakfast now. Blessings to all of us!