My last Ship 30 for 30 essay - THANK GOD

Today is my last Ship 30 for 30 essay. Over the last 30 days, I wrote and published an essay each day.

I don’t think it’s possible to overstate how happy I am to be done with this challenge.

Don’t get me wrong: I think Ship 30 for 30 is a great program. But I’m tired, folks. I’m ready to move on.

I’ve learnt a few things over these last 30 days. The challenge has definitely helped me tighten up my writing. I love the idea of using the headline (though I am still bad at writing those) to focus my writing. It has gotten easier to publish things without worrying as much about perfection (but I still don’t like it).

Mostly though, I think the two biggest benefits to doing Ship 30 for 30 for me has been the awesome people I’ve met through it, and learning that I could get it done, even if it didn’t go as I had planned.

I had this idea that I’d write at a specific time of the day, that it would fit into a particular bucket of my life, nice and tidy.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, I wrote at different times, in different places, wherever I could fit it in. On some days it took over, on other days I barely spent any time. It was inconsistent and messy.

But I made it work. And that’s a big win for me. Even without a consistent habit, even without a good system in place, even though nothing really went according to plan – I still shipped 30 essays in 30 days.

Like many of us, my life is messy and inconsistent. Too often I give that fact too much power, use it as an excuse for why things don’t get done and why I don’t make as much progress towards my goals as I’d like.

With Ship 30 for 30 I’ve proven to myself that I can get shit done, as long as I accept imperfection and messiness. So three cheers to myself and my fellow shippers – we did it!