When Arnold Schwarzenegger was a teenager, he started lifting weights in the Athletic Union in Graz, Austria. Arnold was surprised to see each athlete had a section on the wall in the gym next to where they lifted weights.
They listed exercises like 'Dead Lift', 'Bench Press' 'Clean and Jerk, 'Shoulder Press' and so on. The athletes chalked a row of hash marks next to each exercise, each one representing a set.
After an athlete completed the reps comprising a set, they marked an X through the first line. To complete a session, the athletes, including Arnold, had to mark an X through each of the five or six lines.
In his biography Total Recall, Arnold writes:
"This practice had a huge impact on my motivation. I always had the visual feedback of 'Wow, an accomplishment. I did what I set out to do. Now I will go for the next set, and the next set."
Arnold applied this mentality of completing reps and sets repeatedly to achieve success in his career as an actor and as a politician.
While governor of California, Schwarzenegger prepared for a big campaign speech by renting a studio. There, he visualised his audience. Schwarzenegger delivered his speech over and over for three days. Each time, he marked his reps on the front page.
Schwarzenegger put his reps in for his competitions, big moments on screen and speeches.
You too should do the same.
How to Put in Your Reps
If you’re a new writer or blogger on Steemit, put in your reps.
Write 500-words a day.
Write seven days a week.
Write 52 weeks a year.
(Change how you work if you must)
Like Arnold, put in your time.
The more sentences you write, the stronger your command of the language will become.
The more clichés you terminate, the better you'll become at editing.
The more blog posts you write, the better you'll be at articulating stories and ideas. And the more posts you publish, the more you'll know how to write the next one.
And the one after that.
Look:
There will always be a gap between what you want your posts or writings to achieve and what comes out on the blank page.
The best way to narrow that gap and improve the quality of your blog posts is to put in your reps:
Write more often, finish your posts and get into the habit of pressing publish.
If you’ve come this far, you’re in the minority. It takes a tremendous amount of hard work and mental discipline to release the best possible version of your posts into the world.
But when you’re done, you’re done.