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Transcript

Try to Hit a Single Every Day · The Daily Writer

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider, where we share a lesson each day to help you cultivate the habits for riding success.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Anybody who knows me well will be shocked at the content of this episode.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not really a big sports fan.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: However, I do live in St.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Louis, Missouri, and people here love the St.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Louis Cardinals baseball team.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: So it's impossible not to get at least a little bit sucked into baseball fever at times.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: So today I want to use an analogy from the world of baseball to help us understand the value of putting in their work every day.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest reputations that you can acquire as a baseball player is that of being a home run hitter.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, everybody loves a player who can reliably step up to the plate, they can crack the bat, and they can send the baseball flying into the stands.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody loves the guy who can do that.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And as writers, we all want to be a home run hitter as well.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We all love to hit home runs.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the world of writers, that can mean different things.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: It can mean being a New York Times bestselling author, it can mean having a popular blog, it can mean having a well-paying gig writing for a client, or it can mean having a large following on social media.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think oftentimes that's why we feel paralyzed whenever we create.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: We put all this pressure on ourselves to be perfect and to create the greatest writing the world has ever seen.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: But here's the problem: great writing and great creative work in general is never created in a single moment of glory.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's always preceded by a long series of small victories.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, to use an analogy from the world of art, do you know how long it took Michelangelo to sculpt his famous David statue from gleaming white marble?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it took him over two years.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Every day, the 26-year-old Renaissance artist showed up and he went chip chip chipping away at his masterpiece.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it didn't happen in a day.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: It happened over hundreds of days.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's go back to baseball for a minute.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I was curious about how many Major League Baseball hits were singles, doubles, triples, and home runs.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I came across a nifty graphic from a baseball stats website, and it showed the distribution by decade of the four types of hits over the history of baseball.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the distribution of these hits has changed over the decades, but one fact is absolutely clear.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Most hits that people get in baseball are singles.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a single means that you just get on first base.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And games are won mostly by singles.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Division titles are won mostly by singles.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: A World Series is won mostly by singles.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Legacies in baseball are created mostly by singles.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in general terms, a single just means a small victory.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what a single means for you personally, but here are some of my singles, quote unquote, when it comes to writing.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Writing and recording this podcast episode is a single.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Answering a client's email is a single.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Working on my next book for an hour is a single.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Getting on social media for 15 or 20 minutes a day and adding value to people by sharing posts or commenting on those posts is a single.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Posting something interesting in my daily writer community group is a single.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Revising a client book chapter is a single.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you get the picture.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: A single is one little slice of work that isn't going to move a mountain by itself, but the cumulative effect of a bunch of singles over a long stretch of time is massive.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Huge wins are made up of tiny singles.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So here's your daily question.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: What single do you need to hit today?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: I want to take a moment to let you know about our daily writer membership community.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, one of the very best ways to develop better habits and impact more people's lives with your writing is to spend time around other successful writers.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're tired of feeling isolated and chasing success on your own, then I know you're going to love the Daily Writer community.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: For years, I searched for the kind of writing community that I would want to join, but I could never find what I wanted, so I created my own.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the features include weekly writing sprints, monthly community calls, book discussions, calls with guest experts, and much more.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: For more info, you can visit dailywriterlife.comslash community.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.