I love to write.

Writing is one of the few places where I think my propensity to over-think has some value. While hypnotized behind the glare of a computer screen, as my fingers involuntarily work the keyboard, for a few glorious moments I am immune to the opinion of others. Writing is the curtain I peek behind when I want to see what it feels like to be confident. It is the towel that my mom used to clothespin around my neck when I wanted to imagine I was a super-hero.

I was told that if I wanted to be a good writer, I need to practice. I even took a class on writing. The class was taught by Joshua Milburn of The Minimalists. In this class, we were instructed to write every day. While I love writing each day, there is one problem, often times my writing sucks.

Professor Milburn explained that having days of crappy writing is the only true way of knowing that you have good days of it. Days of bad writing are part of the process. He used this analogy to explain, and I believe it to pertain to many things outside of writing:

If you have a friend to help you check the functions of your vehicle before taking it through inspection, you ask them to stand in front or behind your car and tell you when the different components are working or not working. As you flip the various switches to initiate each function, the test would probably be similar to this:

Headlights?

“Working”

Bright lights?

“Working”

Brake lights?

“Working”

Reverse Lights?

“Working”

Blinker?

“Working…not working…working…not working…working….not working…”

The point being, writing, and many different skills which require practice, are like blinkers. The only way to truly know if it’s working is to see what it looks like when it is not working. In order to understand how the blinkers function, it is important to see all aspects of it. In order to understand what it feels like to produce good writing, I need to see what it looks like to manufacture the bad.

The key is to keep working.

Keep flashing moments of greatness combined with a certain degree of garbage which is produced along with every product which requires growth and improvement. The immediate appearance of failure is an investment into future levels of success.

Keep working.

Peace, Love, and all things Beef related,

Beefcake