Train Yourself To Write Like An Athlete

Don’t wear yourself out every session!

Writing should be fun, not something you dread like going to the gym. It should be a pleasurable experience. It’s something you should look forward to. Like a stroll on the beach or catching up with good friends…

“three men and one woman sitting on beach lounge in front fire pit near seashore” by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

If writing to you feels like going to the gym when you’re tired or would much rather be doing anything else, just STOP! Seriously…

What are you doing?

You’re not doing yourself ANY favours and if anything, you’re slowing down progress. Let me explain by continuing with the gym analogy…

Training

Let’s imagine a world where exercising was the most pleasurable thing you could do…

“two smiling women doing yoga pose” by bruce mars on Unsplash

We’d all be fit and healthy! We’d have rock-hard abs and look like the Unsplash models above!

But that’s not the world we live in. Exercise is hard work. Dieting is next to torture. It’s the opposite of an enjoyable experience!!!

“woman in white tube top lying on court covering her face” by Kendal James on Unsplash

The average person avoids the gym like the plague. If they do sign up as a member, it doesn’t last very long. The motivation isn’t there, they quit when things get hard.

The problem is how they’ve been trained to view the gym experience. They think more sweat equals more results. The heavier the weight, the more gains. This is true in part, but it’s this mindset that sets them up for…

Failure

More sets does not equal better results, if it means you’re burning yourself out in every session. If you push yourself to the limit in EVERY training session, you’re not going to want to come back the next day for more…

“topless man doing exercise” by Gustavo Scafeli on Unsplash

Athletes become good at what they do, not by burning themselves out everyday. They get better by training everyday! They train all the time and if it was a dreaded thing to do, they wouldn’t keep coming back to it…

Make writing an enjoyable experience.

Something that you keep looking forward to. That way, it becomes addictive. If you push too hard, you’ll keep finding excuses NOT to write…

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Mastery

In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell claims it takes 10,000 hours of “deliberate practice” to master a skill…

“skateboarding girl” by emily reider on Unsplash

We ALL want to get better at writing, don’t we? You won’t achieve mastery if you don’t clock up those hours of deliberate practice and you won’t get those hours if you burn yourself out every time you write…

Consistency leads to mastery.

Now off you go, do some writing and keep putting those hours in. Just don’t forget to make it fun while you’re doing it…

“surfer surfing on tidal wave” by Johannes Andersson on Unsplash

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