TO BECOME SUPERHUMAN, WRITE FIRST, WRITE ALWAYS
If you’ve not read Henry Millers 11 Commandments of Writing, you’re in for some alignment and asskickery the likes of which perhaps not even I can bring! Or, maybe exactly as I bring and hence why they (the Commandments) speak such truth to ME.
I first came across them in 2011, shared on the blog of another writer, and it felt like a veritable punch in the guts to read them. Such absolute truth! Such power! Such IMPORT! How had I ever thought there was anything confusing or uncertain about how to be a successful writer, when all there was was THIS, but also –
How had I been KIDDING myself, that I WAS being a writer, when I was so stop-start, writing some days and not others, committed more to the idea of inspiration rather than the practice. Sure, I was 5 years in to consistently publishing content on the Internet, including a modestly successful blog, and that year was also the year I made $50,000 or so online – the first year I’d made what could reasonably be considered a full-time income, building the foundation of what was to become a multi-million dollar online business, and all just from sharing my message on the internet – but no.
I absolutely was not writing daily.
I also hadn’t even yet attempted to write a book, despite knowing my whole life I was meant to be an author.
I would not say I was ‘known’ for my writing, although for sure it was getting me paid. But most of all –
I was frustrated as heck at myself, day after day, for continually failing to just BE what and who I knew I was meant to be!
Have you ever felt that way? It’s THE most irritating and vile feeling in the world, I find … albeit quite useful.
The feeling of absolute DISCONTENT, disease, and a kind of internal grubbiness, a feeling which can’t be taken away by any amount of WORK, indeed you could be the most successful person in the world and still it would persist until you do the ONE thing which can cleanse it from you.
CREATE.
UNLEASH.
LET FREE.
What is inside of you.
In my case – WRITE baby, and then write some more.
Something in me shifted, when I read Henry Miller’s Commandments. My soul said an immediate YES. This is what’s missing. This makes SENSE. This is what you must do.
I don’t know if it was precisely that day, but it was within a few months of this that I committed – made a soul vow, really! – to DAILY writing, for a minimum of at least 25 minutes. No matter what. I committed that whether inspired, in the zone, feeling like it or no, I would sit my ass in the chair and I would do the damn WORK I knew I came here to do.
Every.
Single.
Day.
I reasoned to myself at the time that surely, following this schedule, I could finish a book within 6 months or so … and perhaps up my game in this online business thing-y which I was slowly but surely figuring out, paving my path with.
Fast forward 8 years from then (frick! We’re now 8 years from 2011?!) and I’ve published thousands of lengthy blog posts, indeed I write my ‘Daily Asskickery’ blog approximately 362 days a year (for real, just follow me, you’ll see!), published over 60 books, AND, as a result of showing up so consistently and thoroughly for my message, my art, the thing which was GIVEN to me and which I am responsible to allow THROUGH me, I own and run an all online business which generates millions of dollars per year. Consistently. For years now. And all from me just opening my heart, my soul, my mouth, putting pen to paper (so to speak), and letting what’s IN me out.
If you observe the way I show up and think it has anything to do with me having some kind of magical gift of continual inspiration, motivation, or access to the muse, THINK AGAIN. Unless by access to the muse you mean – I keep my ass in the damn chair, I make no excuses, I REFUSE to allow myself NOT to do my daily soul work, and the muse bloody well shows up!
Some days raw and vulnerable, moving, and deep.
Other days – meh!
Either way, words come out.
Messaging is done.
Content created.
A business continues to grow.
And my SOUL is able to breathe.
(You’ve noticed –
Haven’t you?
How hard it is to BREATHE,
When you don’t do your soul work?
And surely –
Don’t you think?!
This is worse than the dread you feel at sitting in the void, no message coming through, but yet refusing to move until it DOES?
Well then.)
When I look back, it’s astonishing to me that I achieved anything in my life before I began a daily habit of writing ‘no matter what’.
I suppose that’s because now, for years now, I am so well trained to not feel CAPABLE of doing anything much until I have written each day. It’s like I just can’t focus … or care … nor have the brain power or know-how for ANY of it, until the message has come out. I’ll think about things I need to do for my paid courses … or clients or friends who I want to respond to … projects in the business to work on … tidying up the kitchen … playing with my children … having ‘relax’ time for me … nup! I’m not available for any of it until I write.
I have conditioned myself to write first, write always, write before anything else. What I’ve done really, is conditioned myself to put SOUL first, and leant into the certain knowledge that when I do, I can trust all else will flow and DOES.
It’s funny, because typically what felt like a day full of SO MUCH STUFF WHICH HAD TO BE DONE, a heaviness, or a sense that it would be ‘hard’ or take a lot, it just kinda … sorts itself out, when I write first.
The writing serves as an unblocking, a way of me accessing the ability to then work FAST, with DEEP access to creativity and source and just to ‘know’ exactly what to do and how to do it.
My writing makes me superhuman.
You do know, yes, that when you engage with your soul gift you become superhuman?? I hope you know! And I hope you therefore prioritise DOING said soul work, before you try to 2D your way through the rest of your day! No wonder it all feels so much … so time consuming … if you’re not putting first things first!
Perhaps you think, as so many do, that you don’t have time to commit daily to ‘the thing’.
Well, you don’t have time NOT to.
It CREATES time –
Space –
Energy –
Motivation –
And flow –
To do your thing as the FIRST thing.
It PLUGS YOU IN.
It gives you LIFE.
It IS your life-force.
No wonder, also, you struggle to build the business you want, make the money you want, get it WORKING.
You’re a damn artist first, not an entrepreneur! PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST, it’s MORONIC to imagine it could work otherwise!
No wonder, also, you go to bed at night –
Exhausted
Drained
Spent
Emptied
And never
Filled up
Don’t you see?! Doing your soul work FREES you just as it FILLS you!
I sat down to work just now.
The day begun.
Hours looming ahead of me, the children taken care of just so I could dive in, to what needs to be done, in my business, my courses, my empire, my life.
I stared at the screen.
Took some coffee. (Strong, and bitter, and black!)
Inspiration did not strike.
My mind felt empty.
The time ahead seemed vast, hopeless, I felt a heaviness, like – ‘how can I possibly motivate myself through this! I don’t think I can do ANYTHING!’. Even though I have PLENTY which would like my attention.
‘I have nothing to write’, I said to myself.
Perhaps I’ll just make a little list first … of what I’d like to complete today.
And then my mind reminded me –
No. Write first. Write always. This is your discipline. This is your freedom. This is your life.
And now here we are.
And here I am, once again –
In flow.
Freed.
Connected to source.
And ready
To conquer the damn world.
JUST WATCH ME FLY.
If you think I got here because I did all the things, you have it backwards my dear.
I got here because of all the things I ignored 
And because I did the one thing, err’ day, until it unleashed all the other things.
I’d suggest you consider the same.
~ Henry Miller’s 11 Commandments of Writing ~
“1) Work on one thing at a time until finished.
2) Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.”
3) Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
4) Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
5) When you can’t create you can work.
6) Cement a little every day, rather than add new fertilisers.
7) Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.
8) Don’t be a draught-horse! Work with pleasure only.
9) Discard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.
10) Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.
11) Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.”
And now?
I can breathe again …
You?
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