This morning I caught myself practicing frustration.
I was literally envisioning my enraged facial expressions, body language, and word choice if the shirts I ordered came in late, didn’t fit, or were poorly made…
…What a waste of time.
When I first started writing daily, I felt a strong inclination to share pictures with each post.
I knew that images grab attention and might hook along more readers.
I also knew that images can add a level of communication for the visually inclined learners that words alone might not provide.
But, what I also knew was finding the right image added steps to my daily process… it took time to thoroughly search, download, reformat, resize, upload, caption, add metadata, etc.
…Sometimes, this process even took me longer than writing the words themselves!
Which is why, in spite of the obvious benefits of having images associated with my writing, I decided against using them.
It’s important to remember that when you set out to do something, you don’t have to do it in the absolute best way you know how. Sometimes (oftentimes), it’s best to just keep it simple and cut out anything and everything that doesn’t have to do with the core of the work itself.
A single step back from complicated is worth a dozen steps forward (or more) in simplicity.
I live around the corner from a large church.
Every now and again I’ll turn the corner in my car—usually lost in thought thinking about my “problems” and how I might solve them—and see a hearse parked in front with a few people dressed in suits and black dresses surrounding it.
It’s a jolting reminder that, regardless of where you are on your journey, it’s not over.
As hard as things might be, as scary as the future might appear, as painful as the past might feel… so long as there is still breath and beat in your body… let there, too, be life.
And by life I don’t mean existence… I mean life. Time spent doing all of the things the person in that hearse maybe wish they were able to do in the final few days of their life.
…It’s now or never, y’all.
Let’s journey each day like we mean it.
I got an email from a writer I follow online titled: How to create 1,000 content ideas in 11 minutes.
With the first line revealing the secret as: “…look no further than ChatGPT.”
And while I have no doubt that this is possible and true… the thought of 1,000 content ideas produced in a matter of minutes for me to then process gives me ANXIETY.
Sure, I know I don’t have to read through and process them all—but, why create them then?
If there’s anything I’ve learned from writing 1,200+ days in a row now… it’s that we don’t need 1,200 ideas to write about right now. Or in 11 minutes for that matter.
What we need is just one idea to focus on just for today.
And the best way, from my experience, to come up with that idea isn’t to default to ChatGPT—it’s to look within and spend a good chunk of time in uncomfortable quietness / boredom.
While it’s true that ChatGPT gets better the more we use it (and we at understanding how to use it), what also gets better the more we use it is… get this… our imagination.
…And imagination seems to be in a proportional decline as ChatGPT usage continues to spike.
But, it doesn’t have to be that way for us.