Dog hair on my doormat taught me something special
Every morning, there’s a new layer of dog hair on my doormat outside my apartment.
Like after a fresh snowfall.
My neighbours have dogs, you see.
The hallway in my building becomes a collection point for their fur.
Most people would find this annoying.
But this reminded me that most interesting ideas don’t necessarily need to come from living a wild, crazy eventful life like Indiana Jones.
They come from paying attention to the unremarkable stuff most ignore.
Little things like:
The way people avoid eye contact in lifts.
Nearly getting knocked over by e-scooters.
How your coffee tastes different when you’re stressed versus relaxed.
Nobody needs you to climb Everest or start a billion-dollar company to have something worth writing about.
They need you to notice what they’re too busy to notice themselves.
And when you see these things, they realise they’re just like you.
And that’s what creates connection.
This goes against everything we’ve been taught about ‘content.’
We think we need to out-stimulate the competition.
In reality, we just need to frame what’s normal in ways that make us look twice.
Often, that means simply drawing attention to what’s valuable in the mundane (like I did in this email).
In this way, relatability beats spectacle.
Your readers aren’t all living extraordinary lives either.
They’re in apartments with dog hair. They’re drinking coffee. They’re staring at screens, wondering what to do with their afternoons.
When you write about the small, true, specific things, they see themselves in your words.
That’s when they stop scrolling.
The trick isn’t living a more interesting life. It’s seeing your ordinary life through a more interesting lens.
Want to learn how to apply your habit for daily writing so your audience grows?
My Online Writing Alchemy course shows you exactly how to write things that resonate in a way that grows your online following fast.
When you do, you’ll regularly enjoy that warm, fuzzy feeling of readers sending you emails of thanks.
Write something daily. Post it. You’ll have an asset few will enjoy in the coming years.