On Finding My Writing Styles

As someone who always wanted to become a writer (writer as an identity), I always had a huge push from my inner self to produce more writing here.

But, if you noticed in the recent past, in terms of the amount of “journals” that I have produced, I am definitely not that productive.

The Problems

If I were to be able to guess, the problem is “simple”, I just broke the habits of writing. Instead of breaking countless of bad habits of mine, I am breaking a good one here.

Well, if the problem is so obvious, then the solutions are pretty much also an obvious one, isn’t it?

Well, yes. All I need to do is just keep writing, and keep doing it until I reach a point where I can’t live without it. But, here entails a problem: “I don’t like my writing”.

The Cult of Done

I never realised that I am so “perfectioninst” in my own writings up until recently. My definite goal of writing is to have a clear understanding idea of what my thoughts are. But, I was never able to do that.

Not because I can’t express it in words, but because the words that I expressed are so “not good”. Not because I’m afraid that I will write something wrong, but because it doesn’t live up to my standards of writing.

To combat this, I’ve stumbled upon one approach, an interesting one surely, the cult of done.

The core idea here is pretty simple, just don’t overthink it.

The Manifesto

The manifesto consists of 13 points. But for this case, I have highlighted some of the most important ones that resemble the problems that I’ve been facing.

The whole point of this manifesto is even exists is as simple as getting things done, getting things delivered, and getting things out there.

2 Everything is a Draft

Just get it DONE. Nothing in this world is perfect.

If you achieve your initial goals, you’re pretty much done. If your goal is big divide it into smaller ones (see next rules below).

3 No Editing Stage

So, you don’t like it? Smash it and start again.

While this “rule” might sound counterintuitive to the basic premise of the manifesto itself, it actually the opposite. If smashing it and starting it all over again is too expensive and prompts you to spend more time on it, then you’re working on something that’s too big.

This rule serves as a guideline to make sure that we’re splitting our work properly. And it prompts us to work on something on a small chunk

10 Failures Count as Done. So do More Mistakes

If you made a mistake, if you failed, great! You’re done!

It might be hurt. But, let’s keep moving, let’s learn from it, improve, and move on. We have some things to retry.

13 Done is Engine for More

In the early sections of Dr Jordan Peterson’s book, 12 Rules for Life, Dr Peterson tells a “story” of a Lobster. A strong, winner, dominant lobster gets the food, habitats, and all of the resources that it takes to survive. All of the resources to keep it and to keep winning more of it.

While you might find this lobster’s story a bit weird, it teaches that in order to win more and achieve more, we need to win first.

Win, in this case, is as simple as DONE. If you want to get more things done, to accomplish more, get more things done.

The Realization

Up until I am writing this, I still definitely do not need to learn more. But, I am done realizing my current problem. Are there still more problems? Yes. But, I am done with this chunk of the problem.

And thus, this journal is done.