Habitual Living and Habitual Writing

I’ve been trying some new things.

If you have been paying attention to the books I have been reading over the year, you’ll notice that I have been reading a lot of books that the Los Angeles Public Library categorizes as Self -Improvement. I think with being in the last year of my 20s, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and realizing that I wasn’t taking good care of myself, like at all.

So fast forward through all of my Macro counting, reps and sets, and compound moves, I felt stronger and ate a lot better than I have in years but I didn’t feel mentally fit. Hence me revamping my habits.

I read Atomic Habits which was great and full of practical advice. I noticed through out my read that I finally figured out how I wanted to live my filmmaking life.

I’ve decided to treat Filmmaking as a sport and myself as an athlete. So I’ve been slowly incorporating a lot of new habits. Everything that I am doing in my life is to make me healthier and a better filmmaker.

I’ve been more productive in the past few weeks because I am making habits that are directly tied to my career. I have a habit of reading fiction at lunch now. I’m making a habit of reading long articles or listening to podcasts from filmmakers talking about their work process, and I plan on starting a habit of reading books on film history, filmmaking, or theory. I think about how my food and rest are impacting my body and brain. I read film articles, as I have been doing for a while, and I’ve started writing again.

My new daily writing habit is this: One scene a day. The pressure feels so low and I usually go beyond one scene and I truly mean one scene.

One scene heading. Some action and dialogue to finish out the scene and then I am technically done.

But I’m usually not.

Making Habits. Who knew?

(I’m sure many people did. But we all learn at our own pace)