In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell cites the “10,000 Hour Rule” as the deciding factor for finding success at a specific practice. 10,000 is the magic number when we talk about developing a skill like playing a musical instrument, learning the craft of writing or becoming a virtuosic computer programmer.

Gretchen Rubin, in The Happiness Project, notes that “Enthusiasm is more important to mastery than innate ability…because the single most important element in developing expertise is your willingness to practice.”

And that’s why, in part, we have created this blog. Not necessarily to wow and entertain all of those who read it (like our mothers), but to put in our share of practice at what we want to excel in. Admittedly, some of our posts won’t be our best. And we hope they aren’t (at first, anyway).

Many of us chose not to put in the time because we fear that our work will suck. And the hard truth is: it probably will. Knowing and accepting this will enable us to complete, as writer Anne Lamott calls them: shitty first drafts.

So this blog is for all of you out there who are paralyzed with the fear of shitty first drafts. Here are some of ours…