No, this isn’t some witty post tying some obscure Seinfeld episode to my daily life. Nor is it some great philosophy gleaned from the musings of latex salesman, puffy shirts or Keith Hernandez.
Although, now that I think about it, I should probably look into those.
This post is about a simple technique I read about on lifehacker. A fellow once asked Jerry Seinfeld how to become a better comedian. He replied that the way to be a better comedian was to write better jokes. The way to write better jokes was to write every day.
Jokes aside (huh huh), that’s good advice for doing anything.
That’s easy, you say. Just do more of what you want to be doing. I’ve said similar things myself. Do ‘x’ more and more and you’ll become better at ‘x’. And here I sit with a blog that started October something or other and it’s taken this long to get out a second post.
The key to Seinfeld’s technique was how he motivated himself to write everyday.
First, get a big wall calendar that has the whole year on one page and hang it on a wall. Second, get a red magic marker. Everyday you write (or do ‘x’), put a big X on the day. Write (or do ‘x’) for a couple of days in a row and you’ll have a chain. Keep going and the chain gets longer and longer. Pretty soon, you’ll need to keep it going.
It sounds simple because it is.
Everything I’m good at, I am because of consistent practice. Math science, artistic ventures, whatever, they all take commitment and practice. It’s easy to skip a few days here and there when there is no visible reminder of what you should be doing. Those days might turn into weeks or months or heaven forbid, never.
So why should blogging, or anything really, be any different?
I know what I’m looking for this holiday season, I just hope I get that red marker with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time.
