I recently started writing professionally, but the learning curve was much steeper than I thought.
There were a lot of new rules I had to learn and most importantly, unlearn.
"Good is the enemy of great writing. But great is the enemy of good writing." - Schrödinger's Writing Advice (Don't get it? Between us, I still don't either.)
It was disappointing seeing articles I put my time and effort into riddled with so many edits.
I hated feeling like an impostor and the idea that my identity as a writer was tearing apart.
TL;DR Sucking at something I thought I was good at… sucked.
So like the well-oiled machine I am, I immediately started implementing the feedback from the articles and took my writing to a whole new level.
To be honest, I had a couple of mid-life crises, binged pizza at Mexican all-you-can-eat buffets (well-oiled?), and convinced myself I was a failure.
Until I saw this video by Alex Hormozi.
In it, he discusses the growth mindset and urges those learning something new to ask themselves an important question.
"Would it be reasonable for me to be good at this skill given my investment in it?"
For instance, is it reasonable for someone who's dribbled a basketball once to be disappointed they don't have handles like Allen Iverson?
Is it reasonable for Michael B. Jordan to be disappointed he doesn't have my good looks? (Sorry, Michael, it's a high bar - no shame in missing it)
Then I asked myself the same thing.
"Would it be reasonable for me to expect to be good at writing SEO-optimized articles, given I only have a couple under my belt?"
Despite the bruise to my ego, I admitted the answer was a no.
Then I thought of ways to get more practice in.
Using code, I created a random article generator (directing me to Vox and FiveThirtyEight's News Pages).
I decided to select an article from these pages and create a research-based piece on its subject.
And to keep myself accountable, I’m publishing this here.
Every Monday, I will publish an original article based on the results of my random article generator.
I hate when I’m not good at something, but what I hate even more is not doing anything about it.
I’m not sure where this’ll take me, but constantly pushing my creative boundaries is how I fell in love with writing.
The only way to lose is to quit.