New Year’s Resolutions

Which New Year?

One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to write more articles. I just checked my output for the year, and it would appear I haven’t started yet.

Maybe I’m waiting until December to start, since I’d still have time to write something this year? Perhaps I was conducting an experiment on inertia, and I couldn’t write until the results were in? Actually, the “new year” I was talking about was the Zoroastrian New Year, which begins March 19.

If you believe in the multiverse, all those things are true somewhere. Bur for this universe, it’s just hard for me to come up with topics.

My problem is starting articles, not finishing them. So I had a massively creative idea and came up with a topic about…my failed attempts to write more this year.

Cause & Effect

I’ve already detailed 50 reasons I haven’t written more, but I left out a few.

• It’s hard for me to generate topics (but easy for me to repeat things).
• I read that, ideally, a blog post should be 500 words. I assumed that was a lot of words without checking.
• I’m a perfectionist. I put off writing to avoid the pain of writing imperfectly and the possibility of other people reading my imperfections.

The causes of the above problems are obvious:

• I spend approximately 0 minutes a week generating topics.
• I forgot about the word count function in the word processor I use (brand names won’t be used without compensation).
• I fell into the trap of listening to that guy in my mind that criticizes everything I do. My life goes better when I don’t listen to that guy.

The solutions to the above causes are similarly obvious:

• Spend > 0 minutes a week generating topics. Deposit those topics in a “bank” and withdraw one when needed.
• Find out how long 500 words is…I just did. 500 words is about 1.5 single-spaced pages, including subheadings. Not exactly the Odyssey.
• The brain can only do one thing at a time. If I’m writing I’m not listening, so this problem solves itself. (It doesn’t always pay to be a better listener.)

Alchemy

The best way to write more is… to write more. This article is me writing more to write more (my next article will be on tautologies).

The ancient art/science/fraud of alchemy was concerned with turning lesser metals into valuable ones (e.g., lead into gold). Writing resembles non-fraudulent alchemy—it actually does turn something of lesser value into something of greater value.

Alchemical writing turns disparate electrical impulses in the brain (lesser value) into a communicable message (greater value). It is theoretically possible to communicate a written message to every person on Earth, and even to people who will be born in the future.

My problem is that I hesitate to write unless I think other people will find my writing valuable (i.e., “interesting”). However, this is a results-based measure of value—the outcome is not controlled by me.

A better measure is process-based—where I control the results. I am in control of whether I write or not. If my measure of value is that I spent time creating something and did the best I could do, anything I write is inherently valuable.

I posted an article! Let’s see if I can post another one soon—2 in a row officially counts as a win streak in my book.