Writing Challenge - Day 1

Over dinner tonight and after quite a lot of discussion of new, not-so-expected beginnings, a new friend challenged me to make a daily habit of writing -- 250 words per day.  It's a small enough goal that only the regularity of it makes it a challenge.  Routine, repetition, consistency and deliberate formation of habit all feel like a de-motivational grind to me.  But being that it's an easily manageable size and and is likely to be of benefit to me, I've decided to give it a go.

For as much as I can find myself wistfully wishing I will someday do things like write a book or participate in NaNoWriMo (http://nanowrimo.org/), I simply don't write enough for it to be anything more than a pleasant thought.  Writers write.  That's a truth that's not so fun for me to face.  So, I'm going to write, regularly, for as long as I can keep it up, and keep an eye on how it's feeling for me.  Will I be just bearing it for the sake of meeting the challenge; simply getting the writing done?  At times perhaps I will, but if that's the norm I suspect this experiment will end before I've developed any sort of writing habit.  Will it inspire more writing?  Will it make writing flow more freely from me?  I hope so, on both accounts.

I'm sure I'll be unlikely to keep up with the challenge if my motivation is based more on a desire to merely meet the challenge than anything deeper, but it's interesting to reflect on how much I've changed in that regard.  I can remember a time when I was easily motivated by challenges; when the drive for a sense of accomplishment was, by itself, enough to motivate me to achieve.  What happened between then and now?  Did I run out of people to impress?  Did I stop caring about impressing others?  (Yeah, surely some of this, I think.)  Was I ever really achieving and attaining goals just for the recognition or approval of others?  Has the importance or nature of self-recognition or self-approval changed?

These questions about my relationship to goals and achievement are starting to seem like a good topic for Day 2!