Miracles Happen, Right?
Successful people do what the experts recommend. Experts like the authors of books such as: ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People‘ (Stephen Covey), ‘The Millionaire Next Door‘ (Thomas J. Stanley), ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad‘ (Robert Kiyosaki), and a plethora of others that are full of fabulous advice. I’ve also read countless books like these, and have enjoyed every one of them. Applying the advice though? That’s another thing entirely. (*quick note: the links above are affiliate links – learn more about those by clicking here)
Why? Everything between the covers boils down to self-discipline. The ability to figure out what you want – and then to do whatever it takes to make it happen.
I always start out with good intentions, determined to make it work ‘this time.’ I’ll research everything I can find to back up and drive home what I just read. To ‘make it happen.’ But two hours later, I’m watching REO Speedwagon videos because something in an article so far removed from what I originally started searching for reminded me of one of their songs.
So what’s a girl to do???
I finally realized that what works for a lot of people might not be an ideal solution for me. Or – maybe – I just need to think of the solution in a different way.
In the same way the word ‘resolution’ sets me up for failure every January, I realized it’s basically the same thing with the term, ‘self-discipline.’ Kind of like the proverbial bull and red flag – only exactly the opposite. Instead of running toward what I want (in the bull’s case, the flag), I read self-discipline … and head the other direction.
I also realized that there is one thing that does work for me … a routine.
Routines? Seriously?
I know, right? It surprised me too since I’m not a lover of scheduling my days. I start off taking my thyroid medicine, then spend the hour until I can eat reading my bible and praying. If I veer too far from this routine, things get chaotic and stressful – in a big way.
Unfortunately, even when things aren’t chaotic and stressful, the rest of my days are entirely unstructured – and therein lies my problem. (refer to paragraph about about good intentions and REO Speedwagon if you doubt me)
And so, I’m aiming to solve this flaw that’s so much a part of me. I’m going overcome it. I’m going to get victory over it. In a hurry, too.
Why in a hurry?
Half a million words, that’s why.
Umm…
What?
Five-hundred-thousand words. By midnight on New Year’s Eve. That’s how many words I’ve committed to write between April first and the end of 2023. With 236 writing days (I take Sundays off every week), I’ll need to crank out 2,120 words a day.
Or at least that’s what I needed to do every day when I started writing this blog post.
Now I’m down to 209 writing days. In my defense, allergies have been kicking my butt, along with kind of ripping my throat up when a scare caused me to yell louder than I have since I was a teenager. But I’m finally on the mend and ready to try and hit the new daily goal of 2,367 words per day.
That’s not too bad, right. Not much more than the original one.
Will I succeed? I have no idea. I’m not going to hold my breath … but I am going to give it my best shot.
Except there will be no shot if I don’t come up with a routine. So, that’s another goal over the next couple of days – to figure out an easy to follow routine, to have that routine solidly established by the end of May – and to have at least 63,909 of those words crossed off the calendar.
So… Feel free to cheer me on, nag me I mean ask about my progress, or offer any advice that might help. Also, check out my Facebook and Instagram pages for updates and fun stuff – and don’t forget to like and comment on the posts (and share them too!). Facebook especially makes it hard for authors’ posts to reach their followers without interaction from fans of our books.
Also, in case you didn’t already know, newsletter subscribers get a free copies of Hard Goodbyes and New Beginnings (Weko Harbor prequel) and Cooking with the Coach’s Boys (which contains 50+ recipes – and notes from the cast of characters we all love so much). A heads up though – the cookbook may contain spoilers, so if you haven’t read the series yet, you might want to skip this for now. You’ll get the password for the VIP page on my website, which is where you’ll find the instructions for getting the cookbook, in future newsletters.
And now, it’s time for me to get busy and knock today’s writing goal out of the park! I’ll leave you with a song that tends to motivate me (yeah, I love me some Aerosmith sometimes) – and until I get a routine established, I need a bit more motivation.
