Every cohort, we get asked the same 10 questions over and over again.

And rightfully so: these are the things people tend to struggle with the most.

So, to get ahead of things, we want to PROACTIVELY answer these questions for you.

Question #1: "How do I overcome distractions?"

The big transformation we encourage you to make throughout Ship 30 for 30 is going from being a "passive" reader to an active reader. When you browse social media, when you explore the web, when you click on articles to read, watch videos, listen to podcasts, etc., are you consuming intentionally? Are you studying it? Are you asking what's working, what's not working, etc? Are you trying to see what you can "steal" for yourself and try to implement in your own writing? Or are you just consuming and wasting the hours away?

The root of overcoming distractions is becoming an active reader and consumer. Because then you will constantly feel inspired. You will want to create more than you consume, which is ultimately the goal.

Distractions are what happen to people who aren't inspired, who aren't actively reading, listening, watching, and studying.

Question #2: "How much should I be editing in each Atomic Essay? Do I need an editor?"

You shouldn't.

The truth is, for the first year (or longer), editing is largely a waste of time. And the reason is because you don't know (yet) what to edit FOR. Swapping out adjectives or obsessing over any individual sentence or description isn't going to make or break your writing.

Instead, you want to focus on shipping as many ideas out into the world as possible. After you learn what types of ideas are resonating and WHY, then you can focus on improving and refining and editing your ideas. But until you know (by gathering data) what's working and what's not, editing is a waste of time.

So, don't bother.

All the editing you should do is 5-10 minutes of spelling and grammar edits.

Question #3: "I don't want to publish things until they're perfect. What if my Atomic Essay isn't perfect, should I still publish it?"

Similar to the above question, perfection is a bit of an illusion.

Until you start writing & publishing (a lot), you don't know what "perfect" means. Perfect, how? Perfect, in what way? What if your definition of perfect isn't what audiences even want?

Instead of focusing on perfection, we encourage you to focus on progress. Are you staying consistent? Are you producing new ideas every day? Are you hitting publish? Are you learning (through data) what's resonating and what's not?

If you focus on progress, you move 100x faster.

But when you focus on perfection, you end up standing still, never moving forward.

Question #4: "I'm a procrastinator. How do I overcome this bad habit?"

We have this saying in Ship 30 for 30. You're going to hear it a lot.

"The more you write, the more you write."

What this means is, the more you write, the more you learn what readers like and don't like from you, which gives you more ideas, which gives you more opportunities to learn, and so on, and so forth. People who procrastinate are basically stuck in a cycle of not-starting."

The less you write, the less you write."

So, if you want to overcome procrastination, practice starting every single day.

Question #5: "This is my first time writing online. I don't feel very confident. What should I do?"

Here's a little secret: no one does.

Confidence isn't something you have. It's something you build over time.

And the way you build confidence is by doing the thing you want to feel confident doing. For example, why are athletes confident in their skills? Because they've been using those skills and building those skills and practicing those skills for years. Sometimes decades. So the way you start to feel confident about your writing is by publishing consistently.

The more you publish, the more confident you will get.

Simple as that.

Question #6: "What do I do if none of my ideas seem very good?"

You have no idea which ideas are good!

Once you begin writing and publishing online, you will learn (very quickly) that you never know which ideas are going to resonate and which ones are going to fall flat. In fact, the ideas you most likely think everyone is going to love, are the ones that will go nowhere. And the ideas you think, "Meh, this is OK," and you decide to hit publish anyway, are the ones that become runaway success stories.

The truth is, it's very hard to know what's going to work and what's not.

So, don't even bother.

Just write what you feel like writing that day. Hit publish. And let the market decide.

You'll be pleasantly surprised.

Question #7: "I struggle with imposter syndrome. How do I overcome this?"

Imposter syndrome is a bit of a misnomer.

After all, how can you be an "imposter" if you are being yourself? The only time people feel like they have imposter syndrome is when they task themselves with being something they're not. They think they need to present as some big fancy expert or some "super successful" person, and it makes them feel like they're living a bit of a lie.

OK, so don't do that.

Instead, just write about your own experiences. Share your stories. Be a bit vulnerable maybe even admit, "I don't have all the answers—I'm still learning about this thing I'm explaining to you." Share your unique perspectives and insights.

If you do that, you'll never feel like an imposter.

Question #8: "I have no problem coming up with ideas and writing, but I have a hard time being consistent. What's the secret?"

Consistency is something you earn each and every day.

The more days you show up and write, guess what? The better at "showing up and writing" you will get.

But the more days you show up and don't write, guess what? The better at "not showing up and not writing" you will get.

You are always practicing something.

So, the secret to consistency is to do the thing more times in a row than you don't-do-the-thing.

Eventually, you'll get so good at "doing the thing" that being consistent won't even feel like a challenge.

It's just what you do.

Question #9: "I can't seem to find the time to write. Suggestions on what I should do?"

Again, you don't "find" the time to write.

You create it.

You make it happen. You organize your day around it. You say, "This is a priority to me," and you don't let other people's priorities overtake your own.

The best thing you can do is send yourself a calendar invite for 1 hour. And then protect that hour relentlessly. Imagine that hour was blocked off for you to get interviewed by Oprah, or that hour was blocked off for you to learn the secrets of building wealth from Warren Buffett. You wouldn't cancel that hour, would you? You wouldn't let something else get in the way of that hour, right?

Well, treat yourself with the same level of respect.

Block off an hour of writing time, and don't cancel on yourself

Question #10: "Where should I be writing online?"

Ah, great question!

We'll answer this in depth tomorrow during Day 2 of Onboarding: Launching your Social Blog