10 Things I've Learned This Year

Earlier this week I woke up to frost-covered rooftops. It’s colder than usual. While I’m learning how to wear thermal underwear again, I’m thrilled to see some white for the holiday season. I’m not saying I miss the minus-forty-plus-windchill kind of cold I grew up with. But the holidays have always felt odd without snow.

I’m getting ready to wrap things up for the year. So before I leave you with the last post of 2022, I just wanted to say thank you.

Thank you for signing up for my newsletter, and for reading (or pretending to read) what I’ve written. Thank you to those who’ve taken the time to like my posts or tell me they’ve enjoyed the things I’ve shared.

Things I’ve Learned was born out of the necessity to get comfortable sharing my work publicly. This idea terrified me; it still does.

For years, I attempted and failed to keep a blog. I’ve started many, but TIL is the one I’ve maintained the longest and most consistently. I don’t know why. Maybe the timing was wrong before, or the intentions weren’t right. While it’s only been five months, I’m celebrating this as a win.

This is the year I finally committed to my writing, despite how overwhelmingly SCARY it felt. I suppressed this side of me for too long. Looking back, it’s embarrassing to see the number of times it tried to make an appearance, and how quickly I’d squash it out of fear that… I would mostly disappoint myself? But my calling wouldn’t have it anymore.

Calling is a strong word.

I’ve always felt that I lacked one. Perhaps because I denied mine for so long. I’m only getting comfortable with the idea now.

Regardless, it found other ways to get to me by making me very unhappy when I ignored it. Luckily it’s stronger than my Resistance, but only by a smidgen. A very tiny smidgen.

And while I’ve contemplated quitting a thousand times (and I often still do), the decision to commit has taught me many things.

I know for a fact that I’ve written over a hundred thousand words this year. Nobody will ever read most of them. But it doesn’t matter.

Writing isn’t about quantity. It’s about assembling the best possible combination of a select number of words. Repeatedly. However, to do this successfully, most of us must write many words first. It’s inevitable. I will take it as a win; it means I’ve been practicing the craft.

Practicing the craft also means working on reading, editing, submitting, and getting comfortable with rejection. It’s still a work in progress. I suspect it will be for quite some time.

While I’ve learned a lot this year, here’s a highlight of the things that have stood out most for me. I’ve written them as a listicle for you because, in this digital age, who doesn’t like a nice digestible list? And to be honest, who has time to read much more?? Ha!

(Thanks for making it this far.)

10 Things I’ve learned this year:

1. When you persevere with your creative pursuits, you discover things you couldn’t have known before. It’s like when you unlock a level in a game. You don’t know what will happen till you get there. So get there.

2. Writing and doing creative work give meaning to life and need to be non-negotiable in my day-to-day (and probably yours too, if you’re reading this).

3. Take it one step at a time and review progress regularly. Celebrate the wins and the rejections.

4. Rejection and failure = progress. Like Dorie Clark says, “If you’ve learned something, then you haven’t failed.”

5. Habit makes it harder to succumb to Resistance. If you simply task yourself with showing up every day, no matter the quantity or quality, your Resistance can’t say much. It’s easier to ignore a voice that says, “You’re showing up, again?” than one that says, “Yeah, you SUCK with your 103-word output. LAME!”

6. There’s a lot of poorly written stuff out there, mine included. The good news is there is room for better stuff.

7. This needs to be a long-term commitment.

8. I’m the biggest roadblock to my success.

9. Filling the well (i.e., reading, watching movies, going to the museum, seeing shows, etc.) is a vital part of being a creative. It’s not being indulgent, it’s part of the job. (I have a lot of difficulty with this one, it still feels incredibly indulgent.)

10. Like everything else in life, it’s all about mindset.

That’s it.

Easy-peasy.

Bahahahaha!

If only.

Thank you for being a witness to my experimentation. As you can probably tell, I don’t have it all figured out (yet). I appreciate whatever inbox or brain space you’ve allocated to it.

Writers are delicate creatures. Your support has been invaluable, more than you know. I hope that in exchange, I may have delighted, informed, assured, or inspired you.

Or, at the very least, shown you what NOT to do with all the mistakes I’ve made. :D

Happy holidays, and see you in January!

G.G. Law

What have you liked or enjoyed (less) about Things I’ve Learned. Let me know! If you appreciate this post, please ❤️ or share. Thanks!