So this yesterday morning, I saw a tweet about someone (a group of people actually) that sends regular emails to their subscribers and one of the recipients of the emails had sent that tweet. That appreciation tweet said something like “you do a great job”, “its become a daily habit to open the email”, “we become better when we read your emails”.
And like most times when I see a good idea, I tend to copy that? I HAD to copy this one as well! To me this looked like an opportunity to write everyday and improve.
So, I hereby promise that I will write one letter everyday. Here is the one for day.
Dear whoever is reading this,
So yesterday, I made a promise to myself that I will write a letter everyday to whoever may want to read it. Just that there is no agenda or nothing specific that I want to talk about in these daily letters. Just that I like it when I write, I get that peace of mind. Writing is my catharsis. It gives me some relief from the largely dreary and dreamy life that I lead. And more importantly, most times I write, it teaches me new things. For example, I did not even know the meaning of catharsis till the word automatically wrote itself and I had to look up for the meaning. Yes. It wrote itself. Its funny how subconscious mind works. More on this in one of the subsequent letters. For the time being, getting back to the letter.
Thank you for agreeing to receive these letters. For “creators” like me, its the patrons like you that keep us going. If not for you, who would I write for? I may argue that writing doesnt have to serve any other purpose than the writing itself. But then, I am human. And I need validation. And I need some sort of gratification (even if its in my head that someone out there is consuming what I create).
Also, writing allows me to connect with people. Both known or unknown. In fact thats the mix of recipients on this email. Out of four people that I am sending this to, 3 are friends and one is a stranger. I am hoping as I get regular with these, I will get to know more unknowns. And the knowns will know me better. So, in one word, I get to grow my tribe!
The other thing about writing is that it gives me the illusion that I am creating something. And to me, creating is THE thing that I want to stand for. Right now. In the past, I have stood for ambition, material wealth, fame and or impact. Right now, I want to stand for creation. When I say I stand for something, I mean that each of my action is guided by creating. I want to create. I want to support other creators. I want to live in the company of creators. I want to have the creator’s mindset. Even if its crap, I want to create. In fact, if I can help you create something, please do let me know. And even though I advocate marketing, I know when to be discreet. Whatever we discuss stays with me.
I also want to use these letters as a mechanism to seek feedback on various things that I create. I will share things here before I share elsewhere and seek your inputs. Feedback. Whatever.
These letters will also be like a scratchpad to talk about things that clutter my head. These could be ideas that I am working on, thoughts that are making my head go into a spin, issues that affect me, the revolution that I want to bring about and so on and so forth.
If you think about it, these things are actually the things that you write about on your blog. But there is tiny difference. On a blog, once you publish something, the onus is the recipient’s to open the browser, read and feed you back. Thats a million steps of friction. On the letter, however, its a thing that is in your mailbox. Its a thing that is screaming for your attention. Its a thing that you feel compelled to act on. I know some people who have the OCD of opening every email that comes their way. A letter thus ensures that I get access to others. So letters are indeed better 🙂
Finally, this allows me to get into a new habit that two dear friends (Krishna – https://twitter.com/cunfusia and Harshit – harshitsaran.wordpress.com) have been trying to hard to put me into. Lets see if I can keep the habit going and redeem the efforts of Krishna and Harshit.
Thats about it for day 1. As I end this, I have a favour to seek. Two actually.
A, Please do tell me what could I write about tomorrow.
B, And if you had to forward this email to EXACTLY three people, who would those people be? In fact forward it to them. Ask them to “subscribe” to my letters by sending me an email?Finally, the day you wish to stop getting these, please do tell me and I would unsubscribe you and remove you from the list.
Till the next one,
Thanks,
@saurabh
PS: I know that this letter does not really add value to anyone right now. This is more of a rant of an old man. But with time, I will figure out the magic formula that will ensure that its worth the time!
Oh, if you want to get these on email, please send me your email address. And yes, your privacy is as important to me as mine is. I promise to not share your interest, details etc with anyone else.
Thank you!