Write with TLC

Recently while looking for a way to address my waning ability to focus, I remembered a presentation on ways to get back on track when one's writing suffers I'd been asked to give a few years ago. I dug through my files and found it. As I read it, I realized many of the items could apply to anyone, not just writers, who felt overwhelmed, stuck, or discouraged while working on a project, but I also realized I've developed new techniques since.  So, before we start, let's take a moment. I'd tell you to close your eyes, but then you couldn't read the next part. Take a deep breath and exhale. Another one. Let go of your day. Focus your thoughts on a project that you're struggling to complete. Don't focus on the why, just on the project itself. Imagine it completed and how you feel. Imagine abandoning the project and how you feel. Imagine working on it and how you feel. Now, I suggest you close your eyes as you imagine all that again while you slowly inhale an...

Sometimes we're going about life and all seems to be running smoothly. The bills are paid. Work is going well. There's even a few dollars in the savings account. Family and friends are healthy and happy. Pets are doing well. We even have time to play. Life is working. We relax. We think "I could get used to this." Then boom... boom... boom... Life interrupts itself. Still, we're certain we can handle what's coming our way. This one thing and that one. It throws our schedule all wonky, but it's temporary. We can handle it. We know we can. We set up systems and plans and schedules because we know that's the best way to keep on track or at least stay close to on track. But... Life has other ideas. The next thing we know, our priorities have completely shifted and we're doing good to keep the basics done because life has decided all our planning is a joke. Life sets out to prove that all those ways we learned to cope with the expected unexpected won...

Sometimes we set goals and think we have everything all figured out only to have life shift under our feet like sand on the beach. Then we have to figure out what to do. We can give up. We can switch directions and look for better footing. We can re-evaluate the path we're on. We can keep digging our feet into the sand refusing to accept reality. I've done all of these at one time or another. This year was a year of shifting goals, and for the first time ever I felt like I moved with the changes without completely sinking into the sand. I felt like I kept my goals rooted on a steady foundation even when I faltered. I started the year with several goals. As the year progressed, I began to see how some of those goals needed major adjustments while others needed minor adjustments and still others needed to be packed away for the time being. As I face the end of the year, I can see clearly that my goals for the year are still in flux. I'm not going to meet a couple of...

We all have dreams. Resolutions are easy to make. Goals are how dreams and resolutions are met. We set goals all the time even if we don't write them down, speak the aloud, or share them with others. Goals fill a scale from the minuscule to the gigantic. What makes a goal attainable is all the little goals we set along the way. It's those small steps we often don't think of as goals. It's the daily task on the way to the goal. When I shifted my mindset to think of my daily tasks as mini-goals, I found it much easier to achieve my goals. Though sometimes I've fallen into the trap of over-congratulating myself for meeting those smaller goals on the way to the bigger goal. Yet, those smaller goals along the way help me to see I'm making progress even when it feels like I'm not. This year I set a goal to finish 3 books I've had in the works for awhile. Confession, I'm not going to make it. The other day, I started to beat myself up about not meet...

For the past year or so, I've been researching morning routines as a way to improve productivity. I'm always looking for ways to improve my productivity, so I started studying this idea of a morning routine. As I watched videos and listened to talks, I thought about my own morning routine. We all have a morning routine even if we don't think we do. The morning routine consists of the things we do each morning as we prepare for our day. Some are the usual - brush our teeth, shower, etc. Some are more personalized - our chosen workout if we have on, meditating, a cup of coffee or tea, etc. As I looked at my morning routine, I started to question if adding some of the things I was learning would improve my overall productivity. I already made my bed, practiced yoga, and meditated every morning. That seemed like a good start. But... there were all these other things I could do. I found several different recommendations for writing in a morning journal or writing morning p...

Creating and keeping a schedule isn't always easy for me. There I said it. I find it easy to allow the flexibility of my schedule to allow me to think I don't need a schedule or to allow my goals and tasks to fall behind. In reality though if I'm going to accomplish my goals I need a schedule to keep myself focused and on track. Last year I realized my priorities had gotten way off track... I would reach the end of each day wondering where my day went. I felt like I was on a treadmill facing a moving target that I could never quite reach.  I decided it was time to pay attention to where my time was going. I decided to track my activity. I tried a couple of different methods. I tried documenting every activity as soon as I finished, but that was time consuming and annoying. I tried documenting my activities at the end of the day, but I couldn't quite remember everything and it was easy to dismiss this or that or the other because it only took a few minutes. I sett...