Oh, hi friends!
The day before Thanksgiving, I went for a short run. I was working from home, so I could go in the afternoon (a habit I had during my full-time freelancing days).
During my mile-and-change, I thought: What if I did this every day until New Year’s?
A run streak, in other words.
Then I thought, nah. It’s cold. Snowy. Rainy. I’ll be traveling. Most days in New York I’m out of the house from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. And do I really need one more thing to do?
But later that day, my friend Theresa messaged me on Instagram and said “Yo, do you want to commit to the Runners World Thanksgiving to NYE run streak? A mile a day, every day…”
And then I remembered…this is totally a thing! My friend Aransas did the streak last year. (We ran once a week together. She ran seven days a week!)
And so, with that extra push, I thought: Why not?
Yesterday, I did my fifth day in a row. Now, when it says one mile minimum, I’m not kidding — most days, due to timing and energy and [everything else], I’m probably going to do one single mile.
But the distance isn’t the point.
The point is to keep your momentum.
The point is to keep your word to yourself.
The point is to keep going.
If you’d like to join me, Theresa, Val, Aransas, Rachel, Leah, Beth (and anyone else who’s already messaged me on Instagram) and commit to running a mile (or walking! or biking!) every day from now until New Year’s Day, I would love that.
Or, another thought: Write 100 words a day. Or a song a day. Literally anything you want!
Let’s streak, together.
The point is to keep going.
“I think this is very gendered. I think it’s hard for women to say, 'Yes, I’m ambitious. I want to be successful. I want people to appreciate the work I do. I want it to make a difference.' I will say those things.
I don’t know that I want to achieve some of the things that I think our society values most: a big paycheck or a fancy title or a lot of awards. The things that they put on your obituary. For me, it’s always been about doing something that makes a difference.
I hope to keep being able to make documentary films that reach a lot of people and that help us see ourselves and our world with more nuance and more complexity. For me, [that means doing] films that challenge our conventional wisdom, the stories we tell ourselves, the myth of American exceptionalism — I really think we need to look deeper at some of the darker sides of our history and come to terms with them. And so if I can make a difference, those are the kind of stories I want to tell.”
Each “How I Get It Done” interview on The Cut always has a gem or two, like this one from filmmaker Lynn Novick.
Also, the way she talks about the films she wants to keep making reminds me of the type of language we use when writing personal statements, or artistic statements, or even cover letters for jobs.
Or, rather, it’s the language we could use. I’ve had to write a few artistic statements lately and at first I resented them: How dare you make me summarize my creative philosophy in a single page!
But now I’ve seen how useful it is when you’re forced to confront the Why?? and, well, actually answer it.
Instead of thinking them as chores or annoying stumbling blocks on the road to the Goal, what if we viewed these statements as helpful ways to illuminate why you’re clicking “submit” in the first place?
Um, please click to watch this five-year-old drummer Justin Wilson II, who’s the entirety of my new life soundtrack. YOU DRUM THAT DRUM. (“Baby boy drummer” even has his own YouTube page!)
Do you like these daily emails? Please share with a friend!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara