75 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
75 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
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title = "How to be invincible"
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description = "A beginners guide to the impossible"
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date = "2018-10-25"
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categories = ["life", "fiction"]
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creator = "Matt Atherton"
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license = "https://unsplash.com/license"
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Authors' note: I reckons that should say “Trust your gut, cuddle a cat and slam tequila” But that wasn’t on Unsplash…
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Three years ago, I never would have thought that I could write a novel. Let alone write on in **thirty days**.
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That’s right, it’s almost that time of year again! November is fast becoming one of my favourite months — not just because of Halloween and the fireworks, but the novelling. This year I’ve been particularly fierce in my quest to get people to join me on the mad journey — and have been met with reasonable success. This is another slab in that road.
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#### An impossible goal
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Pick something. Anything at all really. But preferably something completely insane.
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Something so far out your comfort zone it makes your heartbeat spike slightly just considering it.
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Forget exposure therapy, this is *shock* *therapy*.¹
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There is only one way to truly prove to yourself you are capable of your dreams, and that is to do the impossible. Like, for example — writing 50,000 words in a month.
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That’s 1667 words a day. For a whole month. Which to some — nay most — of you probably sounds like a lot. To me? Doesn’t sound like much. Because I’ve *done it*. Got the T shirt.²
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**Showing up**
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The most difficult part of doing the impossible is not starting — but finishing. And finishing entails making steps towards that deliberately far off goal *every damn day*.
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1667 words a day is pretty easy. Sorry³, but it is. It’s repeating that *pretty easy *1667 words every day for thirty days straight that’s hard. And it is *hard*. Showing up every day and writing a couple words is hard, let alone the best part of two thousand.
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It’s hard, but it is not impossible. 50,000 words in a month is impossible (or *sounds it*) but 1667 words a day for thirty days? That sounds a lot more manageable, doesn’t it?
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So show up. That’s all the ‘secret’ there is, to writing — and to doing anything else *im*possible.
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**Victory**
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If you commit to your goal, if you grind away at it every day for as long as it takes, you will succeed. I can’t tell you the secrets of how exactly to do that — because truth be told I don’t have a *damn clue* just yet — but I can promise you success if you do.
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Sure, talent helps. But it is a crutch, not a spine.
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Perseverance is a solid foundation on which to build anything. Anything at all, including the impossible. Figure that out, in whatever way works for you — and *you* can write a novel in a month.
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Do enough impossible things, and you’ll begin to believe that they aren’t so impossible. That there is no such thing *as* impossible.⁴
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That’s all there is to it. There is no secret sauce, and anyone who tries to sell you any can fuck off. The way to do things is just to *do *them. Sounds stupid when written like that maybe — but that’s all perseverance really means.
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It’s how I wrote a novel in a month, and it is how **you** can too. Or anything else insane you can set your mind to.
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Do enough impossible things and you will be invincible. Simple.⁵
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¹ Not the electrical kind, unless you have *really* odd aspirations…
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² Well no, I didn’t actually. Because I’m a cheap bastard…
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³ Am I ever.
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⁴ Bar, obviously, things that are impossible in physics etc. I’m talking about things that *seem *impossible to our minds and calling them such for effect. Obviously.
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⁵ That is what I promised you after all, isn’t it? How to be invincible? And if you can do the impossible, then you must be invincible…right?⁶
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⁶ Don’t tell me you were actually looking for *immortality.* Because if you were, fuck *right* off.⁷ You *actually thought* I’d publish the secret to that on *Medium*, for *free*?! Hah.
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⁷ But come right back if you find it somewhere else. *Please?*
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