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A Beautiful, Lifelong Task · The Daily Writer

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer, where we share a lesson each day to help you cultivate the habits for creative success.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the writing life feels like a set of never-ending tasks.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: There's that next blog post to write, that book chapter to revise, that client work to email, that sermon to write.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: But this is not a bad thing.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's a beautiful thing.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: It means that we have work to do, that people value us, that we have readers.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Most of all, it means that we're doing the daily work.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be careful not to get trapped into destination thinking.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: This type of thinking happens whenever we see the writing life as a series of tasks to be finished before we move on to the next thing.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: This kind of thinking makes us worn out, tired, and cynical.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: A much healthier approach is journey thinking.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Journey thinking is a mindset where we look at the writing life as a lifelong journey where we're constantly starting, finishing, and learning.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Every project, big or small, is a chance to improve our craft and bring ever increasing value to our readers.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: One example of journey thinking is the great Winston Churchill.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: In addition to his great accomplishments leading Britain to victory in World War II, he was also a prolific writer.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: He once said, Perfecting and selling your writing is a lifelong task.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, this comes as no surprise since he was also famous for saying, never, never, never, never give up.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is this easy?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Of course not.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: But is it essential?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Like every other active writer who's doing the work, you probably have an endless set of tasks and projects sitting there in front of you.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: But don't let that distract you from this beautiful lifelong task of calling yourself a writer.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.