This is post 300
Today is the 300th post on this site.
With no plan in mind, last year I felt powerfully drawn to writing again after a long break. Not only this, I decided to commit to posting daily.
I’ll tell the story, then reflect on some unexpected serendipities that directly link to this that show the power of following our intention and without overthinking what it could lead to!
(In the image above, Deepak Chopra talks of synchronicities. I talk of serendipity (as in the post “Create Serendipity“. He says tomayto, I say tomahto ?)
So, back to the start, my first post was in October 2017. Knowing I have been inspired by the writing of Seth Godin, who I had followed with his resolutely daily posts for many years. I was therefore amused when, around a month into my daily posts, Seth’s daily post one day in November was:
The secret to writing a daily blog is to write every day. And to queue it up and blog it. There is no other secret.
The blog contains more than 2,700,000 words, delivering the equivalent of more than thirty full-length books. The blog doesn’t exist to get you to buy a book… sometimes I think I write the books to get people to read the blog.
I haven’t missed a day in many, many years–the discipline of sharing something daily is priceless. Sometimes there are typos. I hope that they’re rare and I try to fix them.
Over time, the blog adds up. People remember a blog post a year after I wrote it. Or they begin a practice, take an action, make a connection, something that grows over time. The blog resonates with people in so many fields, it’s thrilling to see how it can provoke positive action.
It’s true that I’d write this blog even if no one read it, but I want to thank you for reading it, for being here day after day. It’s more fun that way. There are more than a million subscribers, and, best I can tell, people read this in nearly every country in the world.
I too write almost every day and queue up my posts to publish daily. The secret to writing is simple. Just write. I am inspired daily by life and synthesise ideas together.
I too would also write even if nobody read my writing. As Nilofer Merchant talks about, I write from my place of my “onlyness“, “that spot in the world only you stand in, a function of your distinct history and experiences, visions and hopes.”
I’d like to thank all of you who have read any of my posts, and particularly for those who took time to share where this has made an impact for you. It is really meaningful to know any of my work reaches and touches others.
Now, I do continue to write daily, it is part of who I am now (the habit is deeply ingrained now!), and should you like to subscribe, please do so from the “My Writing” page or the home page. Subscribers receive a digest of posts twice per week to dive into at your leisure.
That is the story so far, and thank you for being with me on this. I do hope I’ve had some impact on you, small or large, and would love to hear from you.
Now, to a few of the serendipities that have emerged from me focussing on daily writing only 300 posts in (all of which I’ve written about in earlier posts, so readily searchable here, and today I simply list them as serendipities from my writing journey !) :
- In the early days of my daily writing, one article I wrote, “Leadership lessons from a swim referee” has been seen more than any other, as it was republished and shared on websites and newsletters across the community of swim referees around the world. I am passionate about supporting swimming as a referee and this was wonderful to see I could add some new value to that world through my writing.
- Late last year, over a decade of following his thought leadership and writing, I met Chip Conley through tweeting out one of my articles.
- That lead to an invitation to the beta of the Modern Elder Academy in April this year. An astonishing experience and has lead to a bond with our cohort of thirteen that we call “Sweet Corazon”.
- From that, experience, two of our cohort are the amazing partnership of Alison Macondray and Matt Clark, who, as I wrote about yesterday, I invested in to have them do a “deep dive” on me, my purpose, intention and work. I’m ecstatic to have just updated this site to reflect me so much more.
- In addition to Chip Conley, over this period I’ve met for the first time several thought leaders and writers who I respect and admire. To name but a few, Rachel Botsman, Kim Scott, Nilofer Merchant (again written more than once about each of them on this site).
- Now, perhaps most surprisingly, out of all of this, I’ve realised I have a book in me and have now started the process of interviewing leaders around the world for this. To go full circle, this writing journey started unexpectedly. I had been booked in 2016 to run a workshop in Edinburgh in September 2017 on leading in these disruptive times. As I planned for it, I somehow popped up the beginnings of a new leadership model for #unthinkable times, calling it #openleadership. After a few articles on LinkedIn, this stalled for me. I got stuck. I then started daily posting here in a less structured way. Several hundred posts later, I suddenly (thanks to the genius of the catalytic listening and reflection of Matt Clark!) realised I will take all of those thoughts, and using a familiar leadership archetypes model as a frame, write my first book!
So, the Power of Intention is amazing. Listen to your intention. Follow it without always having to know where it will lead. You will create serendipities. Amazing things can and will happen!