What 60 days of daily podcasting has taught me.

[00:00:00] You are listening to the Daily Five, an experimental podcast by Aurooba, where I talk about something for five minutes. So let's get to it, shall we? This is the 61st episode of The Daily Five. I've released an episode, no matter what, every single day for the last two months. And every single one has been 4 minutes and 59 seconds or so, never going over the five minute mark, but remaining just at or right under.

[00:00:41] That means if you listened to every episode, including the trailer, you'd be listening to just over five hours of content.

[00:00:53] Wow. So what have I learned over the last 60 days about doing something consistently? [00:01:00] I've learned that the ideas ebb and flow, that it almost never gets easier, but it does get more valuable. That sometimes you create for an audience and sometimes you create for the sake of creating. That sometimes you say what you need to hear and sometimes you say what someone else needs to hear.

[00:01:22] And all the time you hope that the person listening is getting some value from it. I've learned that where you think you'll end up isn't necessarily where you do end up, but the destination is always fascinating. I've learned that the creative block is mostly just fear, and that as Nemo and Dory found out the best way is the way through or in more practical terms:

[00:01:50] You think you have nothing to say, but really you think what you have to say is garbage. Say it anyway. Get through. You think [00:02:00] you're alone in thinking something, but I can now affirmatively tell you that is never, ever true. So don't be afraid to say the thing.

It's okay to be vulnerable. It's even okay if you don't always show up in the best light. [00:02:15] I've learned as I am always now saying that we have to be excellent to each other. We have to be excellent to ourselves. And that can mean something very different every day for every person. I've learned that I can default to kindness, but I will always need a safe space to express my feelings in their rawest form first, and that no matter what, all of us are allowed to have the need to process.

[00:02:42] I've learned that doing something every day is pretty hard and not every day feels rewarding. But showing up every day, sometimes even dragging myself out of bed after having gone to bed just to spend 20 to 30 minutes recording and publishing a five minute episode sounds [00:03:00] insane, but damn am I proud of myself for sticking with it.

[00:03:06] I've learned that focus begets focus, and sitting down and opening my recording software is now a trigger for me to enter a different kind of mindset, and that mindset gets easier to slip into every day, even if the ideation never gets easier. I've also learned that consistency is the opposite of balance, and inconsistency is also the opposite of balance.

[00:03:31] Because balance is something in the middle, a little bit like the concept of infinity inn calculus, you can reach for it forever, but you'll never actually get there. And in fact, getting there was maybe never the point anyway. So forget balance. Balance is overrated.

I've learned that when you embark on a long project, sometimes you can forget the point of it when you're in the thick of things, sometimes you look back and think, "what was I [00:04:00] thinking? Why am I even doing this?" But if you keep plugging away, you find the reason again, or maybe you find another one. Either way is good.

My thoughts today are like the tada emoji, which is probably one of my favorite, most used emojis, and maybe the best thing I've got for you today is that, it's okay to relish your accomplishments.

[00:04:29] It's okay to recognize when you have done something cool, but just don't get too big a head about it. You know?

[00:04:41] So, yeah, that's what I've been thinking today. Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.