1,800 Posts in 1,800 Days

It just keeps getting better.

I suppose I might be a tad more determined than most.

But when you do something and it just keeps getting better, there is little reason to stop. No, sorry, there is no reason to stop. There’s no reason to slow down. There’s only reason to keep going and in fact, it’s time to double down and put the pedal to the metal.

I’ve been writing Every Single Day for the past 1,800 days in a row. In case you missed it, here’s how it began: Write Every Day.

The image included with this post is part of one of the many covers designed for the upcoming book “Every Single Day.” I love it and I don’t like it at the same time.

I thought about the pill as a way to pique the interest of people who are looking for a fix, a change, even just a temporary relief from their daily selves. What I like about it is that people can relate to it: they have a headache? They take a pill. They want stronger bones, they might take a calcium pill.

The thing is, I’m not such a huge fan of pills of any kind. I’m a bit stubborn this way in that I believe that our bodies can produce pretty much anything our bodies need with the right care and nutrition. Don’t get me wrong, I take ibuprofen occasionally, but this is about how we change as people, how we improve, advance, evolve.

That’s a bit of a different topic — and it isn’t.

Deeper is that the book I’m writing isn’t for people who are looking for a quick fix. That’s the dilemma of the pill on the cover. It might attract those looking for a quick change, but that’s the joke — and maybe it’s just not very funny.

The pill is an external stimulus. I believe it can help maybe trigger an internal source of energy or repair so that the body can do what it needs to do. But true change comes from within.

The book is for people who want true, lasting change. Not a quick headache fix. It’s about slow, daily, real change and having the passion, the perseverance, and the patience to make it happen.

I have also come to realize that this book is certainly not for everyone. I still don’t quite comprehend this, but there are people who don’t want to improve their lives or make changes or explore what they do not yet know. I’m trying to be open and let them be.

But looking back, it seems like such a small sacrifice to get to where I am today. To go from someone who was full of fear, skeptical, and cautious of change to someone who is fearless, confident, sure, and carefree. How could anyone not want that?

I have become something of a minimalist after 1,800 days of writing. A keyboard and a blank screen and the world awaits. I’m living through my new characters (Charlie Holiday, Li & Lu, even Rick) and I have found a flow that most people probably think is drug induced. But back to the pills: it’s no pill. Or if you’d like to call it a pill, call it a pill. Writing is my drug of choice. 

One of my biggest challenges these days is:

How can I help the people who are where I was on Day One?

I have come so far, it’s so great, transformation, blah blah blah. I don’t need you to slap me on the back or shake my hand. I don’t quite know how to express this, but what I truly want is for you to take that first step, to go from Day Zero to Day One.

In many ways, I feel that at 1,800 days, I’m so far away that I can no longer relate. Through the Every Single Day book, I hope to bring you through from Day One to Day One Hundred — or even to Day Two would be a huge leap for some.

I want to let you in on the secret, show you the hidden path, take you on a journey that could possibly transform your life.

There’s simple and there’s easy. It’s rarely both.

This is simple and, after a while, it’s easy. In the beginning, it might be neither.

1,800 days. As I sit here looking out onto the forests of our Dutch town, I pinch myself as more dreams have come true in the past short few years than I even had. The math guy in me says “Whoa. What?” But that’s just it. Say I had three dreams a few years ago. Not only have those come true but, I don’t know, seven dreams have come true since then. Dreams that I couldn’t have imagined on Day One. Dreams that I didn’t know were possible or existed or were in any way, shape or form possible for me.

Yet my dreams have come true.

I work at them how often? Wait, listen for the answer. I swear it’s easy. How often do I take a step towards the unknown and in the direction of dreams that I don’t even know exist? Yep, you got it:

Every Single Day

If I had had a pill back on Day One, I would have taken it. I probably would have shelled out cold hard cash for it and bought it on the street corner from some shady character pumping dreams into my head. But there was no pill. There was only a challenge. I chose to accept it. I had no idea where it would lead — but if you had told me on Day One that on Day 1,800 that I would be where I am today, I would have spit out that pill and spent my money on something useful — because I wouldn’t have believed it.

I don’t want to take back a single day from the past 1,800. Each one has built to this moment and there is simply no turning back. To add a little bit of perspective, back on Day One I wasn’t writing. Like, uh, at all. Nada. Maybe wrote out my address on a car insurance form. Now I heard in a fiction writers’ group talk of how “at 20 books under your belt, you’ve crossed the point of no return and, if you have great books, the revenue will only grow.”

In the past, I would have thought there were talking about space aliens. “20 books!?” Today the only thing holding me back is, wait, there’s nothing holding me back.

Here’s a link to book number six. Help me help you. It’s called Every Single Day and it’s there for you if you’re truly willing to take that first step towards change.

P.S. If you really, really want to help, what I need are reviews on Amazon. Buy the book and write an honest review. If you’d like a copy of the book pre release, let me know.

• Possible: think about action
• Impossible: have acted already
• Repossible: act