Let’s talk about 3 things.
- Our ongoing writing project
- The graphic design course
- Our vision
Punctuality is a big problem with Nigerians but I allow for just 10 minutes. Again it’s easy to feel discouraged when you don’t have the numbers for an event but I long learned to keep pushing with what you have. That’s exactly what my essay on the plurality myth talked about. If you keep waiting for the right moment or numbers then progress or even starting at all will remain elusive. So at 17:10hrs, we started the meeting with 2 members in the room but we were later joined by others.
A BOOK IN A YEAR: I know some of us may not have started writing while some would have written for a month. Life is like that and we may well have valid reasons for lagging behind but no time is late. I also didn’t start immediately because I fell ill and did some training for a new job when I felt better. But I have started and believe me I’m flying. So you can start now and still finish before everyone. The most important thing like every other thing in life is to start.
Having said that let me begin with my own project. I am doing a series on self-development which I publish as The Success Journey. I initially started writing it based on eternal principles with real-life examples to make it more relatable. Along the line, I read Attention Span by Gloria Mark which offered a different perspective on digital distraction and productivity. I reckoned I should adapt my writing to reflect the internet world we live in. So I am now interrogating more resources on digital productivity, books, podcasts, stories etc. I also started following people that talk about related topics to fill my cognitive resources. In the end, I will sort what I have produced, develop it more and arrange it into chapters and bang I have a draft!
I write daily now but of course, I can’t publish everything. However, I try to publish at least 2 stories each week. Even though I have deleted all my drafts on politics I still have over 20 left. Some 50 and some 400 words. This is even with my workload which is now clocking about 40hrs. As a matter of fact, by the end of today, I would have done 48hrs for the week. Yet, in between I still find time to oversee my businesses in Nigeria.
My hack is this: I wake up by 5:15 am and do deep work for over 2 hrs before I start the day. If you know you really don’t own the rest of the day and that you must work to earn then 2 hours daily is certainly more than enough to keep building towards goals and objectives that will define your lifetime.
Faith Oyadiran is working on a project he described as a kind of hybrid between fiction and non-fiction. I encouraged him to keep up his writing practice by trying out other topics every now and then. Life is not linear and even though you are writing a book there are still many other issues to discuss.
Emmanuel Enaku has about 10000 words in a story where he is trying out a character that isn’t Messidinho. I believe he can create as many characters as he likes because we all know he has a knack for creative fiction. He also has over 5000 words in another native story that will require more work and research.
It was delightful to hear about these huge strides. Surely we will have more published authors after 365 days.
On the reward process, I think we are yet to make enough progress, after the 2nd month we can discuss that. Already we have ideas like book reviews noted down from our previous meetings and I am also searching for a practicable weekly short contest that will replace my defunct Twitter #SundayPuzzle
GRAPHIC DESIGN COURSE: I have shared that I got the same price as last year for the training and that is great news considering the rate of inflation and the worsening economic hardship. If my friends don’t come through with their pledges I will fund the training. It is not a big deal after all only 4 people wrote in and I can decide to fund those 4 if my pocket is feeling choked.
VISION: You may have come across the paraphrases in my writings but here is where we are headed in a nutshell.
To be the leading platform for FREE and AFFORDABLE digital skill acquisition.
Starting with writing we will keep acquiring complementary digital skills that are vital for improved productivity in our world today. We are still a long way but we are on the right path. They say two good heads are better than one and that is why I encourage contributions. We are building something that will exceed our expectations. A tribe that will collectively add greater value to our society than we can do individually.
However, achieving this will depend largely on two major factors I sing about daily and please pay particular attention to them.
(i) Consistency: If you are working towards a target try not to lose focus till it’s achieved. One way you can achieve this is by being consistent. If you decide to write daily then write daily. I have already written on this and you can peruse it here.
(ii) Platform: Get your own domain, I can’t say this enough and I also wrote about growing your Platform. Read, like, share and engage texts, ideas, resources, and publications. Take advantage of this community and other networks to grow by supporting each other. Be deliberate about this because all the hard work will amount to nothing if you have no platform that will serve as your launch pad as well as a support system. Patrick Collison said; “Make friends over the internet with people who are great at things you’re interested in. The internet is one of the biggest advantages you have over prior generations. Leverage it!”.
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Thanks for reading.
