The word that kills a healthy writing habit

“I should write more.”

That single word kept me from writing consistently for years.

‘Should.’

That ugly word implies obligation.

Obligation creates pressure.

And pressure makes your brain look for any excuse to avoid the thing.

I always rebel against what looks like obligation.

I used to sit down to write and feel like I was forcing myself to eat vegetables. No wonder I kept finding reasons to skip it. Life conveniently got in the way every time.

The shift came when I stopped thinking about what I should write and started thinking about what I actually wanted to say.

For me, that started with talking about the things in my life where I’d seen little wins. I knew others were like me from months or years ago, sharing similar struggles.

Knowing I could write stuff that would genuinely help others motivated me.

When writing felt like an obligation, I’d write an “I GET TO WRITE” list.

I’d ask myself:

• What am I genuinely curious about?

• What problems have I solved that others are still stuck on?

• What would I talk about for hours over a beer with someone I liked?

• What topics feel fun to explore rather than dutiful to cover?

When I focused on that list rather than a vague obligation to “be consistent,” writing stopped feeling like a chore. It became something I got to do, not something I had to do.

The difference sounds small, but it helped me go from writing sporadic posts driven by guilt to daily writing driven by genuine interest.

If writing feels like an obligation right now, you might just need clearer direction on what you actually want to say and who you’re saying it to.

That’s what The Confident Writer helps with.

It shows you how I developed a consistent writing habit, figured out what to write, who to write for, and how to grow my online audience (now over 200k).

This is the ideal starter course for writing online.

The special ‘cheese pie’ sale for this course runs until this Sunday, January 25th at 3pm ET.

Then it’s gone for several weeks.

Get The Confident Writer here before we close (now $87, down from $197)

Alex