It’s 3 days after Christmas.

I’m sitting at a corner table in Bonjour Cafe.

I’ve finished 2 mega bowls of seafood stews.

Because I’m still somewhat drunk.

Okay, please hear me out.

Last night was the first time I went to a party after having a baby.

The Christmas spirit was still there. So I felt jolly (maybe too jolly...)

I had one-and-a-quarter glasses of red wine - and this morning I woke up hungover.

The kind of hungover that makes you desperately want to break up with your to-do list.

But I saw “Write the 2nd article of the series” penned down in my Google calendar.

So here I am.

Drunk and bloated.

Pen in my hand.

The article is supposed to be about: “How to be consistent with your writing (even when you don’t feel like writing)”

Great! "Don't feel like writing" pretty much sums up the totality of my feeling at the moment.

Speaking of being consistent with your writing...

I had interviewed dozens of new and aspiring coaches who wanted to grow their brand and audience through content writing.

90% told me they needed more discipline.

If only they have the willpower to show up every day at the chosen time and write!

They will create amazingly inspiring stuff. Readers will comment on and share their writing.

They'll build reputation, get invited to speak at events (or event TEDx!), be featured on TV, be offered book deals, and ideal clients will come knocking on their door.

But of course, they don’t.

Instead, they procrastinate, and before they know it 3 months have passed since they wrote a single thing.

So they blame their weak willpower.

I heard this story so many times.

It pains me to see good people keep making mistakes and hitting dead ends.

So let me drop this truth bomb on you real quick:

“I need more discipline” makes sense. Except that it doesn’t work.

Trust me. I know a thing or two about this.

I’ve been blogging for 7 years.

I’ve written 2 books, working on the 2nd one when I was still nursing a 5-month-old baby.

While this may sound impressive, I never see myself in the word “discipline.”

Discipline isn’t what you need.

You need 4 other things: a very low standard, a calendar, and clear why, and a little help.

Think of them as four strong legs of a writing desk on which you can write with ease.

THE 4 PRACTICAL TIPS TO KEEP YOUR WRITING CONSISTENT

1

A very low standard

When you sit down to write - like I did this morning - allow yourself to write the cosmos’s worst junk.

The first draft is the hardest. Once you have the first draft, improving on it is always easier.

That’s why I call my first draft “Shitty First Draft”, borrowing what Anne Lamott said in her book Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

But Milena, don’t we want to write inspiring content that can touch our audience’s hearts?

Yes, we do.

That’s why we need to keep our standards low and our expectations non-existent, so as not to alert our inner perfectionists.

We don’t procrastinate because we’re lazy. We procrastinate because we’re afraid.

Afraid to venture into the blank page’s great unknown. Afraid of failing our expectations. Afraid of disappointing ourselves.

So when we show up without expectation or standard.

Our inner perfectionists will interfere less with our writing. Ironically, that’s how the most brilliant writing happens.

We write best not when we try to be perfect. We create the best writing when we allow ourselves to write the worst.

2

A calendar

Do you use a calendar to schedule what’s important to you? I hope you do. But if you don’t, it’s never too late to start.

A calendar isn’t only used to schedule appointments.

A calendar can be a potent tool to devote time and attention to what’s important to you.

Once you’ve determined that writing is important for your soul, your long-term impact, and your success.

Schedule. It. In.

This sounds incredibly simple but you’d be surprised to find out how many people don’t do this.

If you want to publish one blog article a week, schedule time for those “shitty first drafts” each week. Over the long run, this strategy may not work because this is real life, and shit happens.

A more advanced strategy is to schedule a time to batch-write all the articles in your most creative time of the month.

I’ll be sharing a lot more about this strategy in my upcoming writing course Inspiring Writers Society, launching in February 2022.

3

A clear why

This one is a biggie. Why do you want to write?

Go deeper and more specific than “I write because it’s my creative expression.” “I write because it makes me feel good.”

How does writing help you achieve your business, personal, and lifestyle goals?

Get even bolder: How does writing help you change the world?

Writing is never “urgent.”

If you go for 1 week, or even 10 weeks without writing any content, no one will call you and say “Hey, where’s the article you wanted to write 3 weeks ago?”

Eisenhower Matrix, the classic time management principle, categorizes tasks into 4 groups: Important & Urgent, Important & Not Urgent, Not Important & Urgent, Not Important & Not Urgent.

Writing is, guess what, always in the Important & Not Urgent group. This is the easiest to procrastinate on.

But here’s one interesting thing about the Eisenhower Matrix that few people talk about:

Important & Not Urgent tasks, when not taken care of long enough, become Important & Urgent - a crisis.

If we don’t prioritize exercise, sooner or later, we’ll have to deal with a health crisis.

If new coaches don’t prioritize content writing, sooner or later, they struggle to enroll quality clients into their coaching programs.

I’ve been leading a thriving coaching business for 5 years, with my best month generating more than 30,000 USD in revenue. With zero ads, zero aggressive marketing, zero burnout.

(Pinch me! It feels crazy to write this out. A part of me is still surprised that this is my reality.)

That’s because most of my clients have been my readers for months, if not years. Through my content, I’ve had the chance to nurture my relationships with them.

When they inquire about my coaching, most of them already made up my mind that they want my help, I never have to sell.

Back to you.

Maybe this gives you a clear idea of how writing can help you achieve your goals.

To go even deeper, I have a great exercise to help you get crystal clear about your Why in my Step-by-Step Guide to Starting a Blog, (or Any Writing Project) and Not Give Up On It.

My gift to you. Grab it right here:

4

A little (or a lot of) help

It was May 2021, my baby turned 5 months old and I was about to turn 31. I had a story burning in me, the story of my death and rebirth the year before I met my baby’s daddy.

The story has been calling to me louder and louder.

I knew it must be written. And I also knew I must not do it alone.

This knowing didn’t from a place of defeat and lack of self-trust.

It came from humility, wisdom, and self-kindness.

I didn’t have to do it alone.

As a birthday gift to myself, I hired a book coach.

Linda was intuitive, loving, and blazing with honesty. Because of her support, I showed up at 7 am almost every morning for one whole month to write.

We worked on the book, chapter by chapter. Linda held space for me to tell my stories - some of them were raw to the touch, some were still throbbing like an open wound.

After finishing the manuscript, I feel an incredible aliveness.

When you give yourself the support you need to channel creative life force, you become one with the life force itself.

I plan to revisit the manuscript at the end of 2022 and launch it to a wider audience. This time, I’ll assemble an even bigger Success Team.

It isn’t cool to be a lone wolf. The lone wolf dies.

Who do you want on your writing Success Team?

Your answer to this question can change everything.

Can you find a writing mentor, writing coach, writing community, or at minimum a writing buddy?

Writing happens individually but writers are meant to thrive in a community.

That’s exactly why I’m so passionate about creating Inspiring Writers Society, a writing program and community for coaches and changemakers.

If this resonates, you can become an IWS Insider (and be the first to know when our door is open!). You’ll also get a gift: a 5-Part Story-Telling Structure Guidebook to touch your reader’s hearts and inspire them to take action. Simply sign up here:

It’s 4:59 pm.

Between the seafood stew moment this morning and now, I’ve gone to the dentist, had a cream cheese sandwich, visited the bathroom twice, and watched 5 Britain’s Got Talent auditions.

But as you see, this article is complete.

Not because I’m disciplined.

Just because I allow myself to write the cosmos’s worst junk, follow my calendar, have a clear why and I got help.

If a hungover mom of a 1-year-old can do it. Maybe you can, too.

Outside my window, the December Kuala Lumpur sun is coating the red brick roof with a glow. Inside my heart, I’m also feeling a glow. A unique glow I only feel when I write.

That glow is inside you too.

A creative expression yearning to be shared.

A story beckoning to be written.

P.S: Want me and hundreds of other like-minded coaches on your success team?

After 2 years of nurturing, I’m so proud to launch an online writing course Inspiring Writers Society™ (yes, the inspiration was from the movie “Dead Poets Society”).

Inspiring Writers Society is a 5-week digital course that’ll help you go from fear and procrastination to confidence and being in-creative-flow as you implement the soulful methods to consistently write and share story-based content.

So you can start growing an authentic personal brand and a loving audience who supports your work.

Doors to Inspiring Writers Society are open for 10 days only between Feb 15th to Feb 25th.

If you want to be a part of our writer community, make sure to subscribe to my mailing list.

You can do that, and get my free guidebook “Fill-In-The-Blank 5-Part Story Structure” here. Download below.