30 days ago, I signed up for Dickie Bush & Nicolas Cole's cohort-based course, Ship 30 for 30.

In that time, I wrote & published 30 Atomic Essays, learned the fundamentals of Digital Writing, made friends, and continued gaining clarity around my niche. It's been a very rewarding (and challenging) journey, and I am more excited than ever to keep writing online.

Here are the 3 biggest things writing & publishing consistently every day for 30 days taught me:

1. Take Imperfect Action

As you might imagine, coming up with a topic every day is no easy feat. And while the templates provided some helpful starting points, it did require focused effort. I had to be comfortable knowing that not every one was going to be a mind-blowing revelation, but the important thing was (and is) forward momentum.

2. Build a Support Group

The program gave us many opportunities to connect with our fellow shippers, many of whom I've remained connected with. When tackling a challenge such as this one, it's extremely helpful to have a sounding board of peers going through the same ups and downs.

3. Push Out of Your Comfort Zone

While I could have kept the topics superficial and safe, I would always look for an opportunity to share a personal story. Not surprisingly, those are the ones that received the best feedback. At the end of the day, our stories and experiences are valuable and should be shared. I guarantee you that your voice will be heard at the right time by the right person. It's not up to us to decide their value.

I don't know where you were in your late 20's, but if I told you (at that age) that the only opportunity to better your life was to leave the country you were born in and travel to another country where you didn't speak the language, I'm wondering how many of you would honestly (in this day and age) make that trip.

You see, it's exactly what my father did. He traveled from El Salvador in the late 70's in search of a better life for his family. Not to put too fine a point on it, but had he not taken that leap, I wouldn't be here writing this to you.

Not only that, at some point during the 2nd or 3rd work shift of his day, he somehow managed to find an advertisement in the back of a magazine, promoting a program in computer repair.

I can't for the life of me put myself in his shoes, but something clicked. He recognized, as many did then, that computers were the future. And so he found a way to get the money to attend, and my family's life was changed forever.

It was he that brought home the first electric typewriter I had ever seen. Granted, the thing weighed a ton, but it was cool as shit. That piqued my curiosity and eventually led to my first Texas Instruments PC with a cassette recorder as the 'hard drive'. It's been a love for tech ever since.

Since starting 2023 I've been pretty ambitious about the things I want to improve in my business and personal life. It's this weird feeling of making up for lost time, that I have trouble articulating.

A few things that I am proud of include, maintaining my streak of publishing my weekly newsletter, A Life Worth Living. I invite you to check out the past letters and sign up at harryduran.com.

If you're reading this, you're also likely aware of the Ship30for30 writing challenge I signed up for this month, where I committed to posting one Atomic Essay per day.

I missed yesterday's post, which was a bummer. But it's been helpful to reflect on it this morning. Yesterday (Sunday) was a day of doing my best to disconnect from screens. I read a physical book and even got a solid workout in. As the day progressed, I kept thinking about my daily essay, but by the time evening had rolled around, it was clear that was not going to happen. And I had to be OK with that.

If you've been pushing hard to keep your 2023 goals humming along, please give yourself some grace when you miss a day. It will happen, and it's OK. Don't let be an excuse to relax too much, LOL. Get back on that horse and use the time off as a reset of your commitment. And yes, that's means you can expect another essay later today :)