When I write, I cover the word count until I hit publish.
My exercise, in writing, has nothing to do with the quantity of words I dedicate to a single post. No. What is important, rather, is how far I “dig into my mind.” The workout is not typing more. I type a lot already and honestly I wish I typed less. If I could say more with less words, surely I would.
The workout is reaching further into my mind and pulling out thought provoking material. It is toiling through my mind and collecting things.
This is the challenge.
And this is what I did not get when I first started writing. I started and thought that longer posts would give me a higher return. This, I have found, not to be true (for me).
For me, the best workouts are taking on the most challenging ideas. The repetition is helpful, doing it every day, but it is for nothing if I do not put in serious reps.
“Serious reps,” though, does not mean longer posts. I repeat, a good workout does not mean writing more words. It really does not even mean writing “better words.”
You will have bad days at the gym. Days where you will not want to lift weights or run a mile at the end.
A successful day at the gym should be irrelevant of how you feel after, though.
A successful day is the execution. You doing something. You training your mind to come to the gym and actually complete a set. That is my goal.
Do something. Accomplish something.
And then begin to seriously question that something.
What happens then? Over time, that something becomes really refined. It becomes more accurate and prettier and easier to look at. It becomes something you can be proud of.
That something is what I think about in the shower and that something is what motivates me to hit publish.
I figure out that something and do my best to brain dump it on the page. The hustle is finding the something -> and then using my brain to put it onto paper.
The “somethings have” probably improved over time, but, again, that is not my goal. Rather, I strive to just practice searching every day.