Ready or Not. It's Time to Show Up. ~By Suzy Leopold

Perhaps there are times when you think it isn't the right time to write.  

I'm not ready to write that book. I can't write because I have so much to do.

Perhaps you are a writer, or desire to be a writer, but you are stuck in a pattern of defeat. Dismiss the negative thoughts. You have been given a life that includes goodness, frustrations, blessings, distractions, beliefs and doubts. Dismiss the self-doubt.

In the midst of all of the items on your daily to-do list, your family needs, the demands at work, numerous deadlines, and so forth, don't forget about you and your needs and desires. Sure you have needs for happiness, comfort and good health for you and your loved ones. These are all good desires that everyone deserves in life.

With a new year around the corner, it is time to uncover the needs and desires that make an imprint on your soul and express who you are as a writer. 

Begin thinking about bite-size goals and resolutions for 2016.

January
2016

One of the greatest road blocks a writer faces is the lack of structure. There is no one to tell you what to do and when to do it.

A writer needs goals.

If you don't know where you are headed or what road to take, how will you know when you are there?

Start small. Show a willingness. Begin with an open heart. This is about an emotion of readiness and not a feeling of courage. If you wait to feel courageous before you begin writing, you may be waiting forever.

Learn how to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely goals for your writing career.

SMART

Specific: Write clear, precise and definite goals that provide a target. If goals are too broad or too general they will be hard to achieve. 

Measurable: Goals must be written so that a writer can measure progress and know when the goals are achieved. Goals are useless if they can't be measured.

Attainable: Think about the steps to take to achieve the goals.

Relevant: Make sure the goals are just right; not too easy and not too challenging.

Timely: Follow a definite timeline. As you check your progress, adjust as need be.

Perhaps you could begin with the Five Ws. Include the word How.

First Step: Set Goals
Second Step: Get to Work
Third Step: Stick to It
Fourth Step: Make a Plan
Fifth Step: Achieve

Consider setting up a list of short-term goals and a list of long-term goals. Short-term goals are reasonable goals that can be accomplished during 2016. The other list will include reasonable goals that will take longer and eventually be accomplished over time.

Which of the following examples are SMART Goals? Which are only dreams that will cause frustration?

I will read X number of books on the craft of writing during 2016.

I will become a published writer in 2016. 

I will research and write X number of picture book manuscripts in 2016.

I will become a famous author in 2016.

I will attend X number of writing retreats, conferences and/or workshops in 2016.

I will write and sell my first chapter book for $100 k.

I will study and examine X number of picture books as mentor texts.

I will purchase all recently published picture books.

If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace the opposites, to live in a creative tension between our limits and our potentials. We must honor our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave us.

~Parker Palmer

Don't sit down to write without a set of goals. A writer needs goals to have a direction and a purpose.

Showing up where you are with what you have is what good writers do. Time to write. Time to create. 

New Year’s Resolution: To Trick My Brain into Greater Effectiveness by Pat Miller

You did it too. You viewed this fresh New Year as a field of freshly fallen snow, and you made optimistic lists of all the ways you were going to make tracks across it. Hope blossomed, opportunities loomed, all was possible. By Day Twelve – (ahem) – those plans have turned to slush.

This year, I avoided the slush because I read a book in December that changed everything! It’s Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results by Stephen Guise. He explains a system he developed to help himself and has since taught to thousands. A core principle is to make your goals so small that they are stupid. So stupid that your brain, instead of resisting, says, “Hah! I can do that with my brain cells tied behind my brain stem.” That tiny, stupid goal leads to a tiny success—hurrah! And success breeds success.

Guise began with a goal of doing a single push-up. One a day. Stupid. Yet each day he accomplished that goal. And often many more. But if he only did one, he had met his goal. A mini habit was setting up and he felt capable. 

Often the main block to progress is inertia. Accomplishing a stupid goal is sometimes all we need to get going. But if it isn't, accomplishing the tiny goal is still enough to make us feel pleased that we took a step. We did it!

The seven parts of Guise’s book take you through the psychology of willpower, motivation, and habit building. One of the surprising things he shows is how poorly motivation is equipped for habit-making. No matter how rah-rah you begin, pep talks, lofty ambitions, and even guilt just don’t get the job done over the long haul.

Shortly after I began his book, I tried Guise’s technique on my two year-old grandson. Walt greeted the request to wash his hands for dinner with “No!” Rather than cajole or boss, I asked him if he would mind washing just his left pinky finger. That’s all. He agreed. Of course, in the process of trying to wash just one pinky, both hands got clean. Next meal time, he asked if he could wash just one thumb! It became not just a game, but a mini habit.

These words from Mini Habits by Stephen Guise resonated with me:

•  “The reason starting is the hardest part is because it carries the brunt of the weight of the commitment.”
•  “You will find as I have, and as Newton’s law suggests (for physics anyway), that once you get started it is almost as hard to stop as it is to keep going. Add to this that nothing is more motivating and inspiring than seeing yourself take action.”
• “Mini habits are the perfect way to start over…The victories may be small, but one small victory to a defeated mind is a big victory.”

This year is different for me because my resolutions (Guise suggests three at a time) are stupid ones: read four pages of a new children’s book, write 50 words towards my deadline. You get the idea. And I can smugly say that I am on track with all three of my goals!

Guise is an entertaining writer who makes the psychology interesting, the process easy to replicate, and the success almost instantaneous.(Listen to an audio sample here)

Before you give up on your New Year’s resolutions, get a copy of Guise’s Mini Habits. It will help you reach the point where your brain is tricked into greater effectiveness.