Why Writing A Book Is Like Going To The Gym
Everyone knows that the hardest part about working out, is arriving at the gym.
Honesty, the same is true of writing a book. The hardest part isn’t getting past the blank page, but simply sitting at the keyboard.
So… how does one get to the chair?
The way I wrote 20+ books started with changing the way I viewed success. Many people set milestones such as, “I’ll write 500 words per day!” or “I’ll work to complete 1 chapter per day!”
Both of these goals are unrealistic. Mostly because you haven’t built any sort of habit that will allow you to reach these goals. After 10 years of writing, I still can’t accomplish either of these on a daily, or sometimes even a weekly basis.
So how did I manage to co-author 20 books?
Well… I set very small goals that produced compounded results over a long period of time. I guess you could call this, “the inch worm method.”
For example, with my chess books. A successful day of writing ends with jotting down at least 1 word on a page.
One word?
Yes… one word.
The reason why this methodology of success is so powerful, is because writing a single word creates very little mental resistance. It’s basically the equivalent of driving all the way to the gym, going inside, doing a quarter of a pull-up, and going back home.
In America, we want big results in the shortest timeframe possible. This is silly…
The best way to gain big results on an individual level, is through tiny gains over the course of months and years.
For example, currently I’m working on a cybersecurity book. Something of which requires a lot of time, effort, and extensive research. Currently, I’ve written about 11 pages over the course of 1 year. This sounds like barely anything, however, in the next two years, it’ll most likely be complete. Also, even if I fail to finish the book, I’ve become a better writer. The knowledge I’d gain from the projects failure, will propel me into the next project with more insight and objectivity than I had prior to starting it in the first place. Therefore from my perspective, nothing is lost.
When it comes to writing, you also have to be willing to lose. I’ve scrapped at least 10 books for various reasons over the years. Some of which I’ve finished, and simply didn’t publish because I thought they were crap.
When it comes to the, “one word goal.” The beauty of it is that since you’ve already made it to the chair. You’ll most likely end up writing far more than one word. However, if you’re having a bad day, you’re super tired from work, or you’re just not feeling it… You’ve had a successful day just by jotting something down.
Where did I get this mentality?
Well, it actually came from two places. The first was through reading the book “The Kaizan Way,” By Robert Maurer. As a kid, I picked it up because I had a lot of trouble sticking with one thing. It basically taught me that if you make incremental improvements in any area of study, you can become an expert in the field over time.
The second place was through riding a motorcycle year round for six years. There was a YouTuber that I used to watch for close to a decade who taught me about motorcycle safety. His mantra was, “a successful ride, is coming back home alive.”
So… I kinda took that philosophy, and shifted it over towards the art of writing. “A successful day of writing consists of getting at least one word down on paper.”
Heck, sometimes I’m so tired after work that a successful day of writing comes down to sitting in the chair, and staring at the scrivener document before getting up and leaving.
“Small goals equate to big results over an extended period of time.”
Hello! We’re D.J. Hoskins
We are Davena and Jason Hoskins, co-authors of 30+ books and siblings who write under the pseudonym D.J. Hoskins. Three years apart and in our twenties, we have been fascinated by stories from a young age. Davena is a student attending Princeton University, and Jason attends Georgetown University.
