Welcome to the first post in a blog that I plan to update every day for the next two years.
That's 730 posts in total.
I set myself the challenge to show up and post content here every day for two years after being inspired by seeing Sarah Arnold Hall achieving the feat recently.
Sarah is a high-performance coach who thrives on helping people to accomplish seemingly impossible goals. I discovered her work after reading about her father, the late Rob Hall (portrayed by Jason Clarke in the 2015 film Everest). She posts excellent content, so I recommend checking out her platforms.
Posting every day for two years might seem like an impossible commitment, but the prospect doesn't scare me. (Okay, it intimidates me a little.)
But why am I committing to posting every day for two years?
I know it's going to be very hard. But even with full knowledge of the difficulty that lies ahead, the idea excites me. That might sound hard to believe. But I love to write, and I've been doing it for as long as I can remember about writing. It's my favourite medium - it stirs something in the most inner reaches of my soul.
I also feel like it might be the antidote to the regret of past failures that haunts me to this day. I lost count of the number of times I didn't follow through on potentially life-changing opportunities my writing gave me.
One of those occasions was a provisional publishing deal for a science fiction novel I was writing in my teens. Unfortunately, as we all do, I made the mistake of listening to the opinions of people around me who didn't believe in my potential.
The novel would probably have sucked (I was only 14, after all). Whatever its potential quality, it never got finished, and the publishers withdrew the offer. But those opinions, and the consequences of listening to them, have subsequently fuelled a lifetime of suffering from imposter syndrome.
This blog isn't my first. My previous one, imaginatively called "Van Zandt's Splits & High Kicks Blog," covered many of the subjects I intend to write about here: flexibility, martial arts, biomechanics, strength and conditioning, injury rehabilitation, etc.
However, I eventually made that blog private because my inner critic wasn't satisfied with the quality of my writing. No one ever complained about my writing - it often received compliments - but I wasn't happy. And that was enough to shut down the blog indefinitely.
Something all writers understand is that creative quality fluctuates. Some days we produce the best prose of our life. Other days, it's downright mediocre. Unfortunately, Imposter syndrome forces us to focus on the days when our writing isn't perfect. As a result, we forget about the "good writing days," entire projects get canned, and we accuse our muses of abandoning us.
Publishing a blog post every day for two years will force me to accept the "bad writing days." I hope that in doing so, I will be able to temper my inner critic to the point I'm not tempted to abandon entire projects because they're not perfect.
I also hope that you will learn to accept the days when your writing is subpar by reading this blog. Or your speaking, singing, dancing, athletics, or whatever else it is you do that sets your soul on fire. But while reading this blog might inspire you (and I hope it does), the most effective thing you can do to cure your imposter syndrome is the exact thing it's stopping you from doing.
This will probably be one of the biggest challenges I've ever attempted.
I'm ready.
One down, 729 to go.