A Journey to 100,000 Words
I’ve opened my big mouth: I’m writing a book!
Telling people—a lot of people—is something I firmly believe you should do when you identify a BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL you’re going to pursue.
Why?
Cuz it makes things get real sweaty…real quick.
With each message I received last week…
“Yahhh!!! Can’t wait to read your book Reed!!”
“I am so proud of you!!!!”
“Congratulations Reed, that is so exciting!!”
…I was more than ready for a new shirt by the end of the day.
Sweat leads to change.
From Constipated to Flowing
And, it’s changed how I write.
Well, maybe that’s not completely true.
What is true, though, is that through this process I’ve tapped into a new way of writing simply because I’ve committed to this goal. Up until a few weeks ago, writing was a constipated process.
(Oh, the images I’m already imagining I could find if this were the last sentence of this section.)
I remember celebrating at the end of 2022 when I reviewed all the newsletters I had written over the year and discovered I had published approximately 23,000 words. That was—and is—a lot of words.
However, my process of writing newsletters is laborious:
Write a section.
Go back to the start of the section.
Read and edit the section.
Cautiously move on while constantly going back to the top to make sure the flow is working.
Re-read and edit.
Type some more.
Re-read and edit.
You get the idea.
As Marshall Goldsmith says, “what got you here won’t get you there.”
Going into the book-writing process, I knew that the same approach wasn’t going to work. Well, it could work—it would just take a really long time…like a grab-the-full-newspaper-type-of-session long time.
That was going to make for a painful process.
In approaching this book, what was once constipated writing now just flows—daily.
Because I’ve Found the Key: Be a Beginner
I don’t know the first thing about writing and publishing a book—and I’m reveling in it.
A few weeks ago we went down to Naples, FL for a little family vacation. I remember turning to Julie on the plane and saying something along the lines of, “I’m going to use our time in FL to make some real progress on this book.”
And, surprisingly, I did: 30,000 words of progress.
Each morning, around 4:30am, I’d sit with a cup of coffee outside and select a topic—a chapter—to just free write on. As the days passed, the words accumulated: 5,000 became 10,000 became 15,000 etc.
At some point, randomly, I looked up the number of words that Herman Melville’s Moby Dick has. And I have no clue why—I’ve never read the book.
Moby Dick: Over 200,000 words.
Again, for no apparent reason, based on that number I decided I was going to target 100,000 words. My mind was set and that has become my target.
And, it’s been exhilarating because I have no clue what I’m in store for. Remember, I have no clue about the book writing and publishing process.
I’m terrified what this is going to look like to edit.
I’m terrified that what I’m getting down on paper may be junk.
I’m terrified that I keep saying the same thing over and over and over.
I’m terrified.
I’m terrified.
I’m terrified.
Throw Caution to the Wind
And then I just smile because I don’t have to know any of that stuff right now—I’m just a beginner.
I get to make mistakes.
I get to try things.
I get to see what works and what doesn’t.
I get to just be free to see how it all plays out.
And, in doing so, I’m already thinking strategy. As I’ve said before, the knowledge is gained in the doing—not in the thinking about.
I’m already thinking about how I’m going to tackle editing the 100,000 words.
I’m already thinking about how I want to structure the book.
I’m already thinking about how I want to put the pieces together.
I never would have gotten to this point of thinking without the doing.
And, I never would have got to the doing without allowing myself to be a complete beginner.
Taking a beginner’s mindset is a key to freedom—it’s a key to act in a world where we’re paralyzed by the expectation to be experts.
This week, just try it:
Take that BIG thing you’ve always wanted to do…
…take that SCARY goal you’ve always wanted to approach…
…take that HAIRY process you’ve always been curious about…
…and just be a beginner.
Set yourself free to act—which is the only shortcut to that story you’ve always wanted to tell—by approaching your BIG, SCARY, HAIRY GOAL not knowing a thing.
Ignorance is bliss.
