Walk slowly

In one of the chapters of 'Atomic habits' the author James Clear shares another valuable lesson: Walk slowly, but never backwards. It sounds like a simple advice. When it comes to implementation, I realised, it is more than an advice but a motivation to keep going.

In my case (or journey) it was much needed. I was someone who used to participate in a lot of creative writing activities in school and college. Not just that I used to win awards. After a gap of several years, I was finding it difficult to get back on the track. Lack of inspiration was one part but somewhere I felt that I had lost my creative flair. I was unable to express my thoughts and ideas on my blog. And this was one of the major road blocks for me. A couple of times when I felt that I was unable to express my thoughts while writing I was very close to giving up on my dream. Thankfully this is when I stumbled upon 'Atomic habits' and implemented the lesson of walking slowly.

For me walking slowly was taking baby steps. Taking baby steps for me meant that I should start slowly. It also meant that keeping my expectations low. I decided to write short blogs. I made a habit that if I had difficulty in a writing I would write at least one short paragraph on the topic. It was not much but it was doable. It was not a big achievement but it meant a steady start.

When I started writing regularly, I was unable to write a 500 worded article. Yet managing a blog of 100 words was achievable. Initial few shorts blogs, got me started. Later, the blogs started becoming elaborated. Without me realising the blogs had become 200 worded. Later the ideas and thoughts started taking shapes and within next few months, I wrote full blown articles and personal stories (without using AI or any technology). In this journey, I had one specific objective: I would write whatever I could but I am going to keep writing without worrying about the word limit, quality, or depth.

I took a couple of online courses too to improve and polish my writing skills. They did help. Then an idea struck me. I decided to create a series in my blogs. This gave me more time and more blogs to elaborate my ideas instead of cramming them down in a single blog. This idea became a hit among my readers too. They enjoyed reading the stories in increments. Then I added scientific topics. I added new research and my thoughts about it, risks and benefits. This type of blogs became popular among my fellow medical and paramedical communities.

Slowly the ideas were taking shape and so my blogs were becoming consistent and diverse. I was enjoying the whole research, writing, and reviewing process. Each week I was keeping my eyes open for new topics to be added to my blogs. Without realising my dream had started transforming into a goal of life.

After reaching this far, I was determined to keep going and growing. There was no way that I was going to step back. My passion had taken the front seat and it was driving me to go uphill.