What happens if I handcuff the perfectionist in me?
What happens if I turn the dial on my kitchen egg timer to 20-minutes.
What happens if I tell myself, “Chris, you have that much time to write your email today?”
Well I can tell you… the anxiety levels rise a notch or two. 😅
But, funnily enough, not as much as they would’ve a month or two back.
The thought does pop into my head though, “Will my readers think I’m just wasting their time with another meta email-about-email-writing thing?”
Then that thought fades just as quickly… as I’m going to be continuing on no matter what.
And I now have an inkling of where I’m headed.
So the inner monologue is veering more in the direction of, “No worries, Chris. I’m sure it’ll come together into something that’s worth reading.”
Hmmm… that voice is sounding more positive than what I’d often have echoing around between my ears last year.
And the thing that still gives me a little trepidation is that I like to edit my emails. Usually a lot. And I might not get much of a chance for that today.
But as I scan quickly back up over the words I’ve written. I notice something.
And it’s not always been there. But the sentences are kinda making sense. And kinda taking shape in the kind of way I often edit them.
And the transition point for this email now comes to me…
Something I think might be encouraging for you as well…
It’s simple that… I’m seeing the results of repetition coming to fruition before my eyes.
I mean… the words come easier. My relaxedness (is that even a word?) about this email is greater. And my anxiety about it is actually now fading.
Even though I see 8-ish minutes left on the timer now. (I guess we won’t be doing more than a 30 second edit today then).
So just plugging away at something like daily email has helped me grow in many ways over these last 9 or so months of doing it.
And whether it’s daily email, or some other writing or activity, I bet you’ll notice similar signs of progress from just sticking at it. Ideally learning, growing, developing skills day-by-day.
It’s a good feeling to realize this progress. And I feel excited about what the future holds.
If I can write this email in 20-minutes now. How long will it be before it’s 10-minutes. Or even 5?
And in these last 5-minutes the anxiety is jumping up a little. As I have to find a subject line and transition to the finish. So here goes…
There’s plenty of places we might feel anxiety in our businesses. But booking discovery calls with clients doesn’t have to be one of them.
That’s why I use SavvyCal to take all the pain out of the process. And set up Zoom links. Even take payments.
All the details are here if it sounds like something you need to check out:
https://milham.me/savvycal
Catch you tomorrow… hopefully with a bit more editing!
P.S. Truth be told… I stopped my fleeting editing pass at about 20- minutes 30-seconds. But what’s 30-seconds between friends, eh?
Ready to build your email list? Go here…
EmailForTheWin.com
Chris Milham