100 Day Project
The first time I ever impressed myself was when I once wrote a perfect number nine. I was so excited how pristine I had written the numeral, but I eventually had to turn the piece of paper in and leave behind the crowning achievement of my 8 year long life. The second time I ever impressed myself was when I actually followed through with something I said I wanted to do, writing a hundred blog posts in a hundred days to become a better writer and to have a strong creative outlet. This was my first 100 day project.
The thing about this project, and the ones that I’ve done that followed is that it was the first time I was able to commit to something out of nothing more than a dedication to myself. There weren’t external expectations telling me that I needed to do it, but for once I just did it for myself. It was at this point that I really felt like I started to build up my own identity, changing from being someone who just consumed to becoming someone who created as well. Looking back, everything I made was hot garbage, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t important — in the moment, I didn’t like most of it either, but the resulting content was just a byproduct of my learning.
I’m rewatching my favorite show, BoJack Horseman and the end of the season ends with a baboon explaining to the main character, “It gets easier. Every day it gets a little easier. But you got to do it every day. That's the hard part. But it does get easier.” And it truly does. Forcing yourself to make something every single day is often super annoying and frustrating and some days you just don’t do it, but at some point, you begin to realize how this small, annoying action has given you an enormous amount of agency in your own life. We always hear about how each of us has the power to control our lives by controlling our time and all of that standard self-help babble. But, when you have an opportunity to actually do it, you start to realize that all of those really annoying people who brag on LinkedIn about not having work/life balance have some semblance of a point.
I don’t want to be preachy or anything, but I feel like everyone who has some free time could benefit from participating in a 100 day project. It started this past Tuesday, but it’s not hard to catch up on a couple of days or just create your own timeline. If you don’t know what to do, there’s tons of inspiration out there, just looking at the hashtag on Instagram. My past three were writing, photography, illustration and this year I’m doing 3D! You can follow along on my Instagram and roast me whenever I inevitably fall behind.
Drops of the Week
where I *drop* recommendations of cool things this week
Playlist
march 18 - March just ended. I listened to a lot of variety this past month, and it was definitely a great month for music discovery. I hope that I have the only playlist to have Sam Cooke, My Morning Jacket, and Lil Xan together.
Cool Design
Cool Old Packaging - I love looking at old packaging because it just looks sooooo different from what we think should be standard these days.
Blog Post
"The Benefits of Meditating Badly” by Sara Benincasa - I like this article a lot because it reminds us that doing things that are good for us “perfectly” isn’t necessary for our lives to improve.
Thanks so much for reading! If you have any comments/concerns or fan/hate mail for me, you know how to reach me (links below). Feel free to forward this newsletter to your friends too! You can also hit this link to subscribe if you're not subscribed already!
:~)
Love,
Nikhil