Shitty First Draft

by | Dec 13, 2017 | Blog

Like I shared with you guys in yesterday’s blog, while I’m away on vacation I’m working on specific targets for my first book including a comprehensive draft of the outline and a draft of the first chapter.

When I woke up yesterday, I set out to write for an hour. At the top of the page I typed, Goal: shitty first draft.

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It’s a notion that many writing experts espouse: just put down a shitty first draft.

Instead of trying to craft the perfect paragraph, don’t worry about if what you’re writing is good, just get it out on paper.

It can be paralyzing to hem & haw over the beautiful arrangement of the right words. But that’s not the goal. The goal is a shitty first draft.

It’s a heck of a lot easier to improve a shitty first draft than to craft a first draft you feel great about.

Plus, the target of writing a first shitty draft feels way more managable than writing something that’s amazing on the first try.

I think that’s a great approach to any task or target. Shitty first draft can be an operating system for life in general!

How often do we not eat well because we can’t eat perfectly?

Since we already had a donut for breakfast, we might as well have fries at lunch.

Or since we have to go out to dinner, why bother trying to make good choices?

We hold ourselves back when we strive for perfection.

We remove tons of opportunities for practice when we dismiss all imperfect scenarios.

There is another option.

How can you apply this idea of “shitty first draft” to your life?

You can go to the gym with the goal to get in a slow, easy workout instead of an intense or long workout.

You can enjoy one alcoholic drink instead of three.

You can choose a fat loss friendly dinner after overeating at lunch.

You can turn off the TV in the middle of a Netflix binge instead of staying up super late.

You can apologize to your partner instead of pouting and going to bed angry to prove a point.

The shitty first draft approach is about taking action now instead of wating for the perfect conditions.

It’s about doing what you can do instead of delaying because it’s not ideal.

How can you take imperfect action today?

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