A Year From NowI read that this morning in a book. And it struck me as quite a valuable saying. There are many times in my life when I should have started something long before I actually did.

Some examples that spring immediately to mind are:

  • A daily exercise regime
  • Stopping smoking
  • Reading something useful every day
  • Meditation
  • Planning
  • Using not to do lists

I don’t know about you, maybe it’s just because I’m getting old, but I’m beginning to realise that time is finite. There is a lot I want to do in the time I have here. For me to do that I have to strive to become a better person.

Today, this is my free writing exercise. I try and do this every Monday and the idea is to write until I finish at a minimum 500 words. I do not go back and edit until I finish.

I recently read a book talking about how to write faster. In it one of the suggestions was to use a dictation software. Two years ago I bought Dragon NaturallySpeaking and I used it for a while. It didn’t work as well as I originally thought so I stopped using it.

I recently upgraded to the latest version of Windows. And as my computer is working much better now I thought I would try Dragon again. It works almost flawlessly. In these first 200 words or so there have been no errors whatsoever.

It ties in to the central theme of today’s post. If I start to use Dragon going forward, then it will allow me to start developing and putting out far more content. So in one year from now when I look back at this blog I will be able to see how well it has grown.

I first started thinking about writing more content at the end of last year. I managed for 51 days to write consistently at least 500 words. If I had managed to do this every day, then the number of articles on this blog would have more than doubled. So in less than 1 year I would have done more than I had done in the previous six years.

It hasn’t been that hard for me to find the time to write and publish a post. The problem becomes when it stops being a priority. It then becomes all too easy to just put off for one more day. One more day soon becomes a month which soon becomes a year which soon becomes a decade.

It is that same principle that turned me from being a relatively fit schoolboy into an obese adult. I kept putting off exercise, until one day the truth finally hit me. If I didn’t change I would die young.

So my challenge to you with this blog post is for you to think about what it is you really want. Then to start doing it today. My life is changing because I’ve gone through this exercise. Indeed only yesterday I had a Skype call with someone who described me as being Justin 2.0. Now I want to see where 3.0 and beyond takes me. I hope you will join me on a similar path.

For you, like me, my hope is that a year from now you won’t look back and say I wish I started to do that a year ago. You will look back with pride at everything you accomplished over the past year. Looking back to one year ago what was it that you wish you had started then? Make a promise to yourself that you will start to do that now.

I would love to hear from you in the comments, or if you prefer by sending me a message.

Time spent writing: 15 minutes.
Time from start to finish: 15 minutes.
Time spent editing: 15 minutes.
How happy with the result: six.