Writing every day for 365 days, I’ve learned that I feel like it doesn’t mean much to me as soon as I achieve a goal.

I’ve experienced the hedonic adaptation phenomenon.

We tend to get back to an everyday mood despite peaks of negative or positive feelings. We adapt quickly to a new situation after a rise in happiness. That’s why the exhilaration of happy moments doesn’t last long.

If I stop to reflect, I realize that the journey I go through while writing every day is much more meaningful to me.

That can be found in many wise words by smart people. You tend not to believe it until you experience it.

It grew on me an expectation of uncontainable happiness and fulfillment if I ever reached my writing goal for one year. But when I’ve started to approach the end of the challenge, I’ve begun asking myself: and then? How will I feel when I will have written for one year, every day?

And it went even worst on the last day. I was planning on celebrating and making a party and writing how I felt about it. But the excitement was not there. It felt empty and shallow. I wrote half a million words, and so what?

A lot happened. And it will take time for me to realize it.

We should aim at following the process rather than being fixated with the goals.

This is Essay 1 of 30 in the my challenge One Year Writing: 30 Lessons Learned in 30 Days

1. The Journey is the Purpose (16 Nov 2020)
2. Writing is Thinking (17 Nov 2020)
3. Write a Lot to Write Well (18 Nov 2020)
4. Creative Loneliness (19 Nov 2020)
5. Be Less Ambitious, Be More Consistent (20 Nov 2020)
6. Writing builds your networks (21 Nov 2020)
7. Connect ideas now (22 Nov 2020)
8. Writing improves your memory (23 Nov 2020)
9. Writing makes you a better observer (24 Nov 2020)
10. Writing sets the focus on yourself (25 Nov 2020)
11. Dissolve your distractions (26 Nov 2020)
12. Writing reduces your jargon and slang (27 Nov 2020)
13. Walking generates ideas (28 Nov 2020)
14. Writing is like drinking coffee (29 Nov 2020)
15. Creativity makes you happy (30 Nov 2020)
16. Be smart, let it go (1 Dec 2020)
17. Writing is a process (2 Dec 2020)
18. Automate repetitive tasks (3 Dec 2020)
19. Publish text as digital text, not images (4 Dec 2020)
20. Why asking questions? (5 Dec 2020)
21. Facilitate growth by tracking habits (6 Dec 2020)
22. Type more, type faster, type better (7 Dec 2020)
23. Transcribe your thoughts to become an effective communicator (8 Dec 2020)
24. Write daily to become a better manager (9 Dec 2020)
25. Do it small to do it better (10 Dec 2020)
26. Don’t lose your mind. Back it up (11 Dec 2020)
27. Write daily to enhance your reality (12 Dec 2020)
28. If only I could be ten, again (13 Dec 2020)
29. Writing compounds despite everything (14 Dec 2020)
30. The habit of building habits (15 Dec 2020)