Special Edition Weekly Spark #52: What I Learned From One Year of Writing The Weekly Spark
An actionable message of reflection to start your week
Hope you had a relaxing and restorative weekend! Time has flown; this week’s Weekly Spark marks an entire year of The Weekly Spark. This past week, I took time to read the previous 51 Weekly Sparks to review some of the more prevalent themes in my writing. Some of these larger themes include service, creating time to think and reflect, establishing a positive routine of personal development, engaging in meaningful conversation, and the importance of people/relationships. As I reflect on a year of writing The Weekly Spark and orient for more years of content creation, I think it’s important to reiterate why I started.
For those of you that have been around from the beginning, you are likely aware of the flow of how I started writing this weekly email. First, in early March of 2020 (just a few days before the dawn of the pandemic), I was reflecting on my interest in reading and desires to share some of the lessons to spark reflection and conversation on meaningful topics including personal development, authenticity, vulnerability, and service. My friend suggested I create an Instagram as a starter to try to facilitate conversations on those topics, which I titled “Candlelight Conversations.” Growing up on Candlelight Drive, this was a nod to home, where my values are predominantly derived, as well as the intimacy of conversations that I sought to create. The conversation element was reflective of the fact that I was seeking to create conversation where more people could share ideas, learn, and grow. This progressed to Facebook, a podcast (I need to do more of these), hosting service events and fundraisers, and of course The Weekly Spark. My end goal was never social media, so I wanted to start an email chain of some sort. My goal with The Weekly Spark was to provide meaningful food for thought, space for reflection and conversation, as well as a few quotes and books/podcasts/videos that are beneficial for personal development. Knowing the importance of routines, and particularly starting the week on an intentional note, I knew Monday morning would be my ideal time slot. I saw The Weekly Spark as an opportunity to share my content with people both professionally and personally, with the hopes of starting their week on a high note.
So what have I learned after writing The Weekly Spark for a year? A lot. And a lot of that learning has been documented in various Weekly Sparks that you have received. The first lesson is the importance of putting the pen to the paper, instead of just having ideas dancing in your head. Marc Randolph, cofounder of Netflix said, “You'll learn more in one hour of doing something than in a lifetime of thinking about it.” I found this to be very true with everything that I have started; I had the idea of a weekly email dancing in my head for months before starting it. Everyone has ideas and things that they often think about and while it’s often easier to keep the perfect vision in your head, demystifying it in reality and taking action steps is how real progress is made.
Additionally, and this is likely no surprise, I LOVE writing The Weekly Spark. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when it’s challenging. Sometimes I’m not sure what to write about, or I have a busy schedule and struggle to find the time to write; it’s not all sunshine and roses. In general, I love the process of taking a topic, brainstorming the best way to present it, and sitting down and writing, revising, and making the content as meaningful as I possibly can. In re-reading all of the previous Weekly Sparks, I saw some weeks where I was like “wow this one was good, I loved this one” and others where I said “sheesh, this one was certainly not my best work.” And that’s ok. That’s part of the creative process for me, and part of the larger journey of learning to put your thoughts and ideas on a public display. Let’s face the truth, any given email I send out has less than a 50% open rate, which could feel like a low return for a lot of effort. That is if your measurement of return is the open rate on a weekly email. Fortunately for me, that’s not why I write. Would I like to get more people on the list so that more ideas can come back to me and perhaps I can create a more dynamic conversation, as well as help more people? Absolutely. But that takes time. At this stage, I have learned so much from the creative process of curating weekly emails, and attempting to make them reflective and meaningful, while sharing powerful resources in the Mental Diet. If they help just one person, that’s motivation to keep writing.
So what does this mean for you? Now that you’ve heard a bit more of my thoughts, one year after the inception of The Weekly Spark, what can you do? As far as it pertains to me, please continue to share feedback and ways that I can improve my content. If you have a few people that you think would benefit from receiving The Weekly Spark, please either add them to the email list by subscribing them, or send me their emails and I can gladly add them. As far as it pertains to you, I encourage you to think about the things that you’ve always wanted to do and never done. Think about ideas you’ve had sitting dormant in your head, and what it would look like to thrust yourself into action and demystifying those ideas. I also would advocate for engaging yourself in some form of creative process; it doesn’t have to be writing, but allowing your mind, body and spirit some time to explore and be creative is perhaps the best thing you can do for yourself. Lastly, continue to push yourself in the personal development sphere; one of the main reasons I write is to hopefully help someone reflect and learn a little bit more about themselves, so that they can share that better, improved version with others, and thus have a more amplified positive impact on the world. Thanks for reading and being a loyal supporter of The Weekly Spark!
Mental Diet
Book the Week: How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman
I mentioned Katy Milkman and linked a podcast that she was featured in last week, and was intrigued by her content so I decided to read this book. It has very interesting and applicable concepts for how we can create positive change in our lives. One example is through temptation bundling, by pairing one of your temptations with something that you know will better yourself/you know you should do; one example is pairing watching Netflix with exercising, or folding laundry. Another one of her tools to create lasting change and habits is through the use of commitment devices. She outlines two types of commitment devices- soft commitments and hard commitments. Soft commitments are when we make our intentions public, and thus have the accountability to other people to uphold our end of the bargain. For example, if I sign a pledge to follow a certain diet, and I have multiple people witness it, I will then not only feel accountable to myself but them as well; in a sense, the guilt/duty to others serves as a motivating factor to increase commitment. Hard commitments are when we try to tame a vice or create a new habit by attaching monetary punishment to going against what we should be doing. For example, if I am on a mission to adhere strictly to the X diet, and one day I decide to go against it, I have to donate money to a non-profit or something of the sorts. The key is having the monetary value be high enough that it matters and deters you from certain actions. Just some implementable ideas from the book, and a book that I highly recommend picking up for yourself. Katy also has a podcast, titled “Choiceology,” which examines the rationale behind some of our behaviors. I listened to a few and recommend those as well.
Quote of the Week:
"You’ll learn more in one hour of doing something than in a lifetime of thinking about it.” -Marc Randolph, Co-Founder of Netflix
I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing. As always, I welcome any thoughts, comments, or feedback. If you found this Weekly Spark beneficial or thought-provoking, please share with a friend and encourage them to sign up, or send me their email and I will gladly add them to the recipient list. Lastly, if I can help you in any way, whether it’s with my knowledge, connections, or resources, please reach out. Let’s stay positive and make it a great week for everyone around us!
Nathan