If you dream of getting something done, do it every day.

A year ago, I was lucky enough to attend a reading by the author Shehan Karunatilaka, who won the Booker Prize in 2022 (one of the biggest writing awards out there).  

At the end of the night, I bought his brilliant book, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, and asked him to write something on the inside cover that might encourage me as an author. He thought about it for a moment, started a sentence that he scratched out, and then wrote this: 

Read every day. 

Write every day.

Stay sane.

Blessings, Shehan

Spurred on by that encouragement, for the last 151 days, I’ve woken up at 5:00am and worked on my book. Some mornings, I’ve felt creative, and the words have flowed. Others, well, it has been an absolute chore.

But yesterday, I finished it and sent it off to the editors. Of course, they’ll have opinions and changes, and I’ll have to do another round of improvements soon, but right now, the book is as good as I can get it, all 91,987 words.

This morning, rather than being at my writing desk at 5:00 a.m., I went for a walk and watched the sunrise. I felt happy and proud, and I felt like I had accomplished something. But I also know that the draft wouldn't be finished if I hadn’t worked on the book every day for the last 151. 

So, I’ve learned two things: 

1. That if you dream of getting something done, do it every day. If you want to be a good runner, run every day. If you dream of being a painter, you need to paint every day. Nick Cave referred to it as ‘the necessity of constant daily work’ in his brilliant Red Hand Files.

2. If you are doing that one thing every day, you’ll have to sacrifice other things. I haven’t surfed in months and was suddenly jealous of the surfers I watched this morning. I’m not fit right now, and I was huffing and puffing on my walk. I also haven’t been very social; writing is a particularly lonely endeavor. But I’ve read every day, I’ve written every day, I’ve stayed sane (just), and I’ve appreciated those blessings, Shehan. 

If you dream of getting something done, can you start working towards it every day, from today? 

Or if you are already doing just that, blessings. 

Aaron