I started a challenge yesterday. From the outside, I am torn. Part of the challenge seems really straight forward, and somewhat easy. But it also seems very daunting at the same time. Writing is something that I have enjoyed for a long time, but I just never seemed to develop enough discipline, writing on a regular basis. That is what this challenge is all about. Brandon Kelley, the author of Crucified to Life that I wrote about yesterday is the one that introduced me to this challenge.
What is it? It is a challenge from an author by the name of Jeff Goins. The name is “My 500 Word Challenge”. Basically, I have committed to writing at least 500 words every day for the next 31 days. The challenge started for me yesterday in my review of Crucified to Life, but I wanted to publicly announce my decision to pursue this challenge today.
Over the next month, I am committing to writing at least 500 words daily. This is on top of any writing I do for sermons. Most of what I write will be posted here as Thoughts from a Crosseyed Jesus Freak, but there may be some times that I work on something that will not be ready for public consumption right away. What do I mean by that?
The whole reason I am taking this challenge, other than my love of writing here on my blog, is that I am wanting to become more disciplined in my writing so that I can accomplish something that I have wanted to do for a long time. In other words, I am starting the process of attempting to write my first book. So there may be days that my 500 words are part of that book, and if that is the case, then obviously that will not be posted on the blog.
This is somewhat of a scary process. 500 words is not that much, but when you commit to write that much daily for a month, it can seem daunting as I stated earlier. But it is going to make me a better writer, and it is going to help me develop a habit of writing so that I can write a book, possibly more.
As part of this process, I am going to attempt another major life style change. I am naturally a night owl, meaning I stay up late, and only wake up right before I need to be somewhere the next day. The problem with that is I do not have the energy or brain power in the evenings once the work day is over to write (or read, which I want to do more of that as well). So, starting next week, I am going to try to turn myself into a morning person, as nasty as that sounds to someone like me. I am going to start getting up around 6:00 AM in an effort to write before I have to be in the office.
Why am I writing this post today? It is simple really. By putting this out publicly, I am hoping that you will help keep me accountable in my commitment to writing, and to getting up in the mornings. Believe me, I am going to need all the help I can get in both. If you have not seen a blog post in a few days, reach out and ask me. It may be that I have written, but just not anything that I can post yet, or it may be that I got distracted. If you see #My500Words on anything in the next 31 days, that is part of this challenge!
Oh, and if you want, jump in and take the challenge with me. You can sign up here!
Thoughts From a Crosseyed Jesus Freak
Thoughts from a Crosseyed Jesus Freak 