My 100 Post Challenge

I've made a goal to do 100 posts on this blog. Why 100? Because there are a couple of different challenges around the internet that focus on doing 100 things. One is the “Design 100 Somethings” project by one of my favorite illustrators Jake Parker.

But perhaps I was most inspired by Andy J. Pizza's podcast and Skillshare class. Andy preaches taking on a “Side Quest” as a creative challenge and even his “Creative Pep Talk” podcast was just a side quest for him. In his Skillshare class, he talks about the fact that you shouldn’t decide in the middle of a marathon how far you are going to run. As it relates to starting his podcast he said that he committed to do 100 episodes before he allowed himself to change course or even stop doing his podcast.

So 100 just seemed like the right number to shoot for. For me it is a super challenging goal but it is also doable. My ultimate goal is to see what building an art related website will teach me.

​As part of this personal challenge, I wanted to make the goal more visual and tangible for me. So I had a little fun and created a paper chain of 100 links.. When I write a post, I get to remove a link from the chain. The picture here is when I was half done with 50 links. Those are simple blank index cards with random Neopastel2 colors blended with water on each card. I cut each of my 10 index cards into 10 strips for a total of 100 links.

[Picture: Chain with index cards.]

Kind of dumb but it was fun and it was motivating for me so I went with it.

I don’t plan to do the 100 posts in 100 days. That is far too aggressive for me. What I will do is post at least once a week because I know from experience a regular cadence as well as a deadline is necessary in challenges like these. What I will do every day is write or edit. I will write or edit for a minimum of 10 minutes a day on mainly blog posts but I may deviate and write whatever I want for 10 minutes. This approach is a combination of the book Writing Down the Bones [https://amzn.to/34QTNgV] and the book Make it Happen in 10 minutes a Day [https://amzn.to/2wVt1HN]. Both books have been a great inspiration to me. (I make a very small commission for purchases made through the above links.)

My weekly deadline to publish will be Wednesday night by midnight. I may post more often but that is a minimum. If I only post once a week this goal will take 2 years. I am prepared for that, but I don't think it will take that long.
Either way I am sure I will learn plenty this year!