@keenencharles had a recent post that inspired me to write more than a few sentences for a reply. He makes the point that he’s done a lot of writing (almost 500 posts on this site alone) and is ready for the next step or evolution. 

Coincidentally, over the past few weeks, I’ve grappled with the same thoughts and would like to share my conclusions.

I view some exercise as good for the sake of doing it without some larger purpose. I ride my bike a few times a week or take a walk or do some stretches because I know it’s good for my body. I’m not riding my bike to eventually enter an Iron Man competition. I’m not increasing my flexibility to enter a gymnastic competition. I view my daily writing here similarly as exercise. 

Then again, I did decide to double down on the skill of writing for other purposes. So, what’s next? What is the evolution and payoff for all this exercise of writing?

I have @keni to thank when she announced the 100 days to the new year challenge. That got me thinking about what I could do to take things to the next level. 

At the end of September, I had an epiphany about an idea for a target audience that would best be served through an email newsletter. The goal is not to create funnels or start selling things. The goal is to tighten my focus on one topic and grow an audience. Who knows what that will lead to. Some people want the destination in mind before they pull out of the driveway. I’m fine getting just getting started and seeing where the road takes me.

Prior to daily writing, I wrote some articles on Medium. I found that these articles took weeks and months for me to craft. After all this writing exercise, I have discovered that I can write these Medium-style articles for my newsletter and publish one a week. And perhaps the most important discovery is that I enjoy the process. I can pretty much guarantee that no one else is providing a newsletter like mine in the health and wellness space. 

It seems evolution for me is narrowing down to a specific topic/audience and crafting longer, more refined articles. 

In summary, my plan is to continue to write daily on this site (unless Baz pulls the plug) in my usual style of variety and save the health and wellness topics for the newsletter.