Talked with a friend today who told of his struggle to blog consistently. Granted, this guy has more than one absolutely legitimate reasons… not excuses, but genuine reasons… why he has not been able to blog like he wants to. And I love that he’s bold enough to say he wants to keep going for it.
But he asked me… as have a few others… what my key to blogging six days per week for the past year has been. And truth be told, this really applies to more than blogging. It’s really what it takes to be consistent with anything in life. If I could narrow it down to the three biggest contributing factors, they would be:
1) Make it about something bigger than the action itself. For me, writing the blog daily was originally about all the people I could encourage, and about me learning to write daily so that I could author books. Find a cause that gives you a bigger motivation to stay committed day after day.
2) Make yourself accountable. When I launched my blog, I told a crowd of leaders at a leadership event that I had started a blog and would be writing it six days per week. And when I started the blog, I announced it to all those who read it that I would write it six days per week. Now that all those people had heard me say it, I had to be a man of my word and maintain my integrity. Sometimes, I would be busy and realize at 11:30 at night that I had not blogged yet that day. I would determine that I would write quickly and post by 11:59 because I committed to write six days per week. Knowing that someone might call me on it has kept me writing.
3) Just do it today. There have been times I haven’t had anything to write for an entire week, but I would just try to find something to write for that day, and not worry about the days ahead. All I have to do is check today off the list. Little by little, a little becomes a lot. Tomorrow, I will write my 300th blog since starting. That didn’t happen all at once. It happened one day at a time.
It’s about consistency, but cut yourself a little slack. Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t always succeed. Just put one foot in front of the other, and take that next step in the right direction.
One last suggestion… ask God to help you do what you’ve committed to do. He wants you to succeed. And He knows how to help you.
Now, having kept my commitment today, I’m going to bed… but I’ll be sure to write again tomorrow with the Lord’s help!
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