Wow, I haven’t written in 2 years! Only a few weeks ago I was doing my 2020 planning (I don’t really do “resolutions”, although there’s nothing wrong with doing them) and I had so many things written down. All the existing things I’d like to grow in, new things I’d like to start and new challenges to take on. I had all those things in mind and just like an unexpected wave, a tsunami of challenges came right after the other. I’ve been to the police station twice in a span of just 2 weeks (that’s a story for another day, but no, I did not get into trouble with the law. Lol) , had some unexpected changes in my original plans for 2020,etc. And now it’s the end of January.
Point is, I spend a lot of my time PLANNING. Sometimes a bit too much time spent planning than executing them plans. I guess there are plenty of reasons for it. For me, it could be because I want to do well in what I set my mind to, or just plain ol’ fear of failure. That’s probably why I tend to procrastinate (other than pure laziness). But sometimes, that overused tag line from Nike pops up - “Just Do It”. I realised however cheesy it may sound, sometimes the best way to start something is to just...DO IT!
One of the plans I had for this year was to write more often, among plenty of other things. I wanted to find more ways to impact and inspire, and writing was one of those ways. So naturally, I was thinking of which was the best platform for me to write on. Many of my friends suggested Medium, some said Blogger, while others just told me to start my own website. Before I knew it, I realised I was spending so much of my time thinking about where I should write, instead of actually writing. Then, I finally remembered that I was writing here on Steemit a couple of years back before I lost the discipline to keep writing. Why not use a platform I already have available to me, especially one with a community this supportive? (If you have any other writing platforms in mind, feel free to suggest too) So, here I am, back again and ready to commit to my decision of writing more consistently. I hope that through this consistency, I’ll be able to create more impact as I go along.
I am not advocating for anyone to go into something without planning or thinking through it. I personally am a planner. I usually like to have a rather good idea on how I’d go about achieving what I’ve planned. I had friends who esssentially don’t plan for anything because planning for something and not fulfilling it means that they’ve failed. I believe in having a strong commitment to fulfilling a vision, and an adaptability to make it happen despite changes along the way.
I heard this phrase from a renowned former FBI hostage negotiator, Chris Voss, recently - “YES is nothing without HOW”. That is something I resonate with deeply. At the same time, I believe we can hold ourselves back by being stuck with the HOW and never get to the actual process of doing it. The YES and the HOW should not be that far apart from each other.
So right now, I’d like to commit to writing at least ONCE every 2 WEEKS! It’s scary to say this, but I’d like to be accountable to all of you in this journey and finally start making my plans happen. There still so much for me to learn.
I started here on Steemit 2 years ago as a total newbie and I stopped as a newbie too. Now, I’m starting over again pretty much where I left off. Still very clueless to SBD, SP, how to use tags effectively or even how to earn money on this platform, but that’s not the most important thing now. I’m sure I can learn all these along the way. I’ve seen how supporting this community is and I’m excited to learn as much as I can from you all.
So, if you’re like me - always planning but somehow find yourself stuck too long at the “how”, why not commit yourself to just do it? Say YES and make the HOW happen!