121: Don't Worry About the First Draft - You Can Always Edit

As a writer, my life revolves around the careful and strategic crafting of words.

The first draft always starts with a blank page where a blinking cursor awaits my first move on the keyboard.

I've grown to love the first draft phase of writing, not because it's worth reading but because I know, from experience, it requires editing.

Experienced writers know that first drafts are typically "crap."

And that's okay.

Editing is where the real work and art of writing comes into play.

Every good piece of writing begins in the crap-phase.

To stay the course as a writer you must be comfortable with first draft crap or you'll lose your mojo.

There's a an art to writing much like there's an art to living.

Like writing, personal growth and longevity has a perpetual first draft phase and the more comfortable you become with the editing process the better your aging journey will be

Edits are where your story takes shape - where you erase, evolve, and engage.

Erase whatever is weighing you down

Much of editing is about deleting unnecessary words from a sentence, a paragraph, or a chapter.

Words carry weight and those that tip the scales without relevance, clarity, or value need to be eliminated.

It's equally important to keep an eraser handy as you edit your life.

Life requires the occasional edit as you deal with the consequences of your choices.

Aging carries part of the weight as you're more capable of letting yourself off-the-hook for youthful mistakes.

However you confront past, present, or future challenges or missteps keep an editor's mindset and erase what weighs heavy upon you.

Evolve without overthinking

Stories often evolve out of chaos.

Much of your life's drama revolves around the occasionally chaotic circumstance.

A personal evolution occurs when you edit out the blame and self-defeating thought patterns.

Overthinking a written narrative to protect yourself from first-draft-crap does nothing to advance the story.

Life evolves when you give your personal narrative room to change, grow, and expand - in fact, longevity relies on the free-flow evolution of your attitude about aging.

The evolutionary aspect of editing your life gives you hope when you're tempted to stay stuck in overthinking your next era of life.

You're evolving, let the story you're writing carry you to the next chapter without a second and potentially limiting thought.

Engage with clearer perspective

Good writing connects with the reader.

Engaging the reader relies on knowing what to edit out and what to keep.

Much like erasing the irrelevant, engagement sharpens perspective about your life story.

We each own our story, but we engage with others when we let them into our lives.

Aging can cause you to circle-the-wagons and lock-down out of an abundance of caution regarding fear, scarcity, or the fog of having lived what you consider to be an unfulfilling life.

As long as you're alive you have the ability to edit your life and engage the future - so start "writing" the next chapter.

Learn to love the first draft of whatever you create in life because you could be one "edit" away from something more compelling.

Press on...

Eddie