I’ve had the same writing habit for 7 years. It’s led to 2 books and a journalism career.

There’s nothing genius about consistency. And that’s what makes habit so powerful.

It is simple, effective, and, should someone choose, anyone can begin and make exceptional progress over time. This is the philosophy of how I became a writer.

I showed up to write one day and never looked back, and now I’m about to publish my second book in two years: Life Between Moments: New York Stories.

Seven years ago, I started keeping a journal. I promised myself I would write one full page per day, which was about 450 words for a traditional Moleskin journal.

Even then, when I was in college in San Diego, I rarely missed days. Because I refused to negotiate with myself, I made rapid progress. My trajectory began to grow steeper, since I was learning quickly and developing my skills as a writer.

And all it took was to sit down and write, every single day, for about 15 minutes.

When I began the 450-word-habit, it would take me about 25 minutes to complete. Then, about two years later, the same volume took me roughly 11 minutes to complete.

I never bumped up my daily quota beyond one single page of writing, and that had a big role in why I was able to continue the habit for so long. I still journal regularly to this day, and even so many years later, I still find it makes me a stronger writer and thinker.

The daily thoughts I pour onto paper with a real pen help me focus on the day, sharpen the axe as a writer, and comfort my own mind. There’s a great familiarity I have when I sit down and open my journal. Should I cease, then the familiarity would evaporate and I’d be surely be worse off.

Now, when I reflect back, I know that I’m a writer and journalist today because I chose to pick up the pen seven years ago and have yet to put it down.

The success I see on a day to day basis is from what I’m doing at work, but it is rooted in the things I’ve been practicing in the background for years. The daily, quiet repetitions of writing one page a day.

I have a dozen journals on my bookshelf now, each filled to the brim with ink and lead. Fifteen minutes a day for years and it changed who I am and how I think about myself.

The habit, too, helped me instill the idea that writing was a part of who I am, a core piece to my identity.

I am the type of person who writes everyday.

That’s what the journal helped me do — which is why I continue to turn to it every single morning.