750Words – Philip Dodson

I am now a flying squirrel

Wow, here I am day 1,000 of my daily writing journal on 750words.com and now I have got here and completed this continuous streak (well not yet), I feel that rather than my usual badly spelt and no doubt grammatically incorrect brain ramblings that I privately punch out here every day, I could choose to write something of note and break my privacy and share this one with the world.

So, sorry if you are used to reading my short, sharp daily blogs, this one is going to be at least 750 words in order to get the tick in the box for day 1,000.

Interestingly, the thing I love most about my daily writing journal is the privacy and the fact the I can swear like shit and not have to correct spelling or care about what anyone else thinks, or if it makes sense, reads well, etc etc. Now that I have chosen to share this one, the writing is not flowing as well and I am feeling the pressure and that is odd as I blog and share with the world on a daily basis.

Writing daily is a huge thing for me and I have my great mates Bernie and Seth Godin to thank for that, well I just read Seth’s books and blogs, so not really a mate. They have both met for tea and chat once, well according to Bernie, if you’ve met Bernie you’ll certainly know the story. I am now an email buddy with Seth but can’t claim to have met him, although one day…

So Bernie introduced me to 750 Words back in August 2014, he was an early adopter as always and I took the plunge on 1st September 2014 and had a longest continuous streak of 171 days and then woke up on day 173 with a startled panic that I had forgotten to do my words on day 172 and when I logged on my heart sunk, back to 0. I was aiming for the 200-day badge which is ‘The Pterodactyl’. Badges and ticks in the box each day are what helps to keep me going, the gamification of it appeals and some kind of reward or level of prestige is a great motivational tool and something to brag about to others, even if they don’t give a shit about my badges, at least I feel good.

So missing that day and going back to 0 was hard and I vowed to start again and to never miss another day and I was determined to get that 200-day badge. I also had read about the comedian Seinfeld who set himself the task of writing a new joke every day and he put up a calendar on the wall and crossed off each day and said that he would ‘never break the chain’.

I have written many blogs about the small daily steps, daily rituals, habits, the compound effect and now I know how that all works. I have written about 1.2 million words and completed over 1,200 entries in total in 4 years and if someone said to me do that, I would have laughed and believed it not to be true. I know realise as the world champion of procrastination that if you make it small, not a burden to do and it forms a regular habit that over time it makes a big difference. Patience, something that wasn’t a strong point too, is required.

Our moments of greatness are not on the 1,000th day when I earn my flying squirrel badge, it’s all about the badges really, it was the day I decided to start. As we all know it is the starting that is the hardest thing in life but that is the moment of greatness and each day that you do it the habit builds.

I only have 114 words to go, OK Philip, this is not your acceptance speech at the smug writers’ award ceremony. I just want to hopefully inspire others to take up writing of any kind, private or publically, as I have seen what a difference it has made to my life over the last 4 years. It has helped me to solve problems better, have better relationships, connect with others, share with others, it has helped me to write better, be more creative, not be depressed, by more inspired…it has changed my life for the good.

We all have something to say, a story to tell, knowledge and experiences to share with the world. We do not have to be on TV or own a newspaper to share with the world, we can blog, make a video, do a podcast, post on social media and so on. The only thing that holds us back is ourselves. Please, make your contribution to the story of the human race, before you leave this rock, make a difference.

Ok so that was over 750 words and I am now a flying squirrel.

Making a change in our lives often seems daunting, it seems to be big a task.

In September 2014 I signed up to 750words.com, an online daily writing journal, where you have to write a minimum of 750 words each day. I was inspired to do so by my mate Bernie. My commitment was great to start with, as so often I have been in life at the beginning. I was really wanting to deal with my lack of commitment to things.

I had read the brilliant book ‘The Compound Effect’ by Darren Hardy, where he talks all about taking action, small steps, on a day-to-day basis and how eventually it builds momentum and accelerated results over time. Also, I always cherished the words of Brain Tracy’s equally brilliant ‘Eat that frog’ that I had read many years before.

However, I started to miss days on 750 Words and as had often been a repeating pattern in my life, the commitment started to go.

I learnt about daily rituals, especially from my friend and coach Debbie and again started off with huge enthusiasm, armed with a long list of daily habits. Only to find it hard to sustain 30 + different repetitive daily tasks.

I am a huge fan of Seth Godin’s, as well as Simon Sinek and the one and only Brene Brown. It was one of Seth’s interviews with Chase Jarvis, where Seth talks about how important daily blogging is, and it was one of the few things I did each day, read his blog.

He also pointed out that don’t expect to be an overnight success, I had often looked on with some envy at the 1/2 million subscribers to his blog and thought how on earth do I get to more than just my Mum reading my blog.

He added that it had taken him 10 years. Shit!! it’s that commitment demon I have to face again, arghhhhhh.

However, without really realising it, I was slowly but surely on the right path in life, I was nearly two years into giving up alcohol, I had lost 7 stone in weight slowly but surely over 4 years of daily commitment, I was by May 2015 right back on my daily writing journal and in August 2015 I was starting to blog more regularly.

On 1st September 2015, I set myself the challenge to write and publish a blog every single day for a year and to continue to do the same with my 750 words, which was a different set of writing, very private thoughts, a brain gym, that was definitely not for public consumption.

Well the 750 Words I had started a continuous writing streak a little earlier than 1st September and I have now completed 435 out of the last 436, a little annoyingly forgetting to do it on a day in December last year, thus resetting the counter to zero. But I am now on a new streak of 264 days and I am certain I will now hit the unbroken year there and earn my Pegasus badge.

Today, with this post I am hitting the magical year of blogging every single day, pop open the champagne. Well, I don’t drink, so I’ll pop open some sparkling apple juice instead.

Anyway that was an overly long preamble to today’s post and this wasn’t to say ‘oooh look at me’ – well maybe a bit but we are all human. Today’s post was to share what I have learnt and what I have got out of a year of posting to the world every day.

1. The commitment ‘muscle’ has really built and despite many failed attempts to do so, it is now there. It is enabling me to accelerate other habits, the good old ‘compound effect’.

2. I have got much better at writing. I also realise there is no such thing as writers block.

3. More people read my blog, a more than trebling of readers.

4. More comments, likes, views and visitors. More exposure for my ‘art’ as Seth would say.

5. It has helped me to improve my art and photography, as for almost all (see a selection in the gallery below) the posts, I have tried to do my own art, drawing, painting or use an original picture that I have taken. Art is another passion of mine, reignited by my mate Doug.

Cabaret Sauvage, Paris – OuiShare Fest 16 by Philip Dodson

Bernie working out loud on our new website

Margate Harbour by Philip Dodson age 49 & 1 day

6. I have improved my sepllnig and grammar.

7. I can write faster, more concisely. This helps with all the content I produce, not just this blog.

8. It has helped me think out loud and problem solve.

9. It has helped me advise myself and share thoughts.

10. I know that it has helped many others with challenges and I have received some great feedback, it has changed how some people do things and certainly has for me.

11. It has been a daily focus, a moment shut away from the world each day. It has helped me concentrate more and I am now reading ‘Deep Work’ by Cal Newport, which I believe this year has been the foundation for the next step away from shallow work, where I am like a magpie, easily distracted by anything shiny that passes by.

12. It has created content for my first book that I plan to now put together with the best posts from the 365.

13. It has helped me develop a commitment to my other daily success rituals of which I now have 40 and that does not include brushing my teeth, getting dressed or eating. I have learnt how to develop habits step by step, day by day.

14. It has given me more self-confidence.

15. It has made stop over-thinking things, especially what to write. When you have to come up with a post every day, I find now I just go, start typing.

16. I now have stopped worrying what others think and rarely look at the stats for an individual post, previously modifying what I wrote because of them.

17. I write simply because I love doing it.

18. It has helped me move away from instant gratification things.

19. It has helped me continue my belief that you can change anything in your life and you can do whatever you choose to do.

Life is a series of small steps taken regularly, it is a continuous stream of choices, it is all about doing things that bring joy and happiness.

Thanks to everyone who has inspired me, you know who you are, thanks for reading this and I am looking forward to writing tomorrow’s post the first step on the next stage of another year of writing every day.

One step is all we have to take to start a different life.

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A selection of acknowledgements from today's post

About a little thing called 750 Words

★ What is this site about? I’ve long been inspired by an idea I first learned about in The Artist’s Way called morning pages. Morning pages are three pages of writing done every day,…

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