Category Archives: productivity

Win Before You Begin

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If you tend to procrastinate on certain projects, one reason could be that you haven’t created a victory in your mind first.

When you think about a project that isn’t advancing very well, consider these questions:

  • Do you have a clear vision of what success for this project looks like?
  • Can you see your desired end result clearly in your mind’s eye, like you’re recalling a vivid memory?
  • Is the path forward relatively clear, from start to finish?
  • Can you visualize the key action steps to bring the project to completion?
  • Have you firmly decided to do the project now (as in this week, this month, or this quarter)?
  • Do you have a reasonably clear understanding of your standards for success (and what results would fall short of those standards)?
  • Are you confident that you can achieve the results you desire and satisfy your standards?

If you must answer no or maybe to any of these questions, it’s fair to say that you haven’t created a victory in your mind yet.

Without the pre-creation of a mental victory, you’re very likely to be plagued by procrastination, delay, excuses, and hesitation.

Create the Mental Victory

How do you create the mental victory? Let me ‘splain…

Kick back in a chair, and put your feet up on a desk or table. Prepare to do some imagining.

Pick a project where you’ve been stuck and that you’d like to unlock, so you can make some real progress on it.

Start a five-minute timer. Knowing that the time is counting down can help you focus, so your mind doesn’t drift to other topics. If you run out of time and want to keep going, feel free to set another timer. Tell yourself that you only need to focus on this for five minutes.

Now engage your mind by thinking about the project. Start at the end. Imagine that it’s over and done with, and you’ve succeeded. Go to that future time and place in your mind. See the final work product. It’s 100% finished. You did it! The project is complete.

Feel how it feels to be finally done. Look at the outcome in your mind’s eye. Appreciate the results. You achieved what you wanted to achieve. You met or exceeded your standards. You satisfied the requirements for victory.

Engage fully with the outcome in your imagination. See it. Touch it. Experience it. If you were watching this as a movie, get clear about what you’re seeing on the movie screen.

Now after visualizing the outcome, stay in the future in your mind, and reflect back upon what you did to get there. You don’t have to review the steps in linear order. Just let your mind pick a step and show it to you.

Imagine yourself doing some of the action steps. Picture those scenes, one by one, in whatever order they come to you. Hop around the timeline as much as you want. See yourself doing some of the final actions shortly before the project is done. See yourself just getting started. See yourself doing some of the middle actions.

Invite your mind to build the story of how you went from present reality to future victory. Let your mind show you the steps you took to get there. Let it show you how it feels to experience the end result.

If you’re not sure about the outcome, this is your chance to play around with different possible outcomes. Compare the stories to see which you like best. It doesn’t take long to do this several times in a row with different results.

If there are obstacles to be overcome to achieve your goal, see yourself facing and overcoming those obstacles. Imagine solving the problems you expect to encounter along the way. Make the path seem real.

The Flow of Action

When you pre-create the victory and you see enough of the story to get there, you’re likely to feel some motivation to act – possibly even while you’re still visualizing. Great… that’s good evidence that your mind now understands what success is supposed to look like. You’ve given your mind a clear goal that it can achieve.

Let yourself flow into action as the inspiration arises. See if you can invest at least 30 minutes in taking action to get started. Start building some momentum.

If you get stuck again, no worries. Just repeat the visualization exercise. Return to the end result in your mind. Re-experience the achievement. Invite your mind to help you visualize some of the key beats to get there. Realize that you can take the steps and solve the problems to reach your desired outcome.

Try this even with projects that you feel you should do but resist doing. If you really don’t feel like doing them, just tell yourself that you’re only going to visualize the end result for a while, and you don’t need to take action right now. See what happens.

You may find that this little mental trick works nicely. Once you get into visualizing the end result, your mind will often wander into thinking about the steps to get there. Let your mind explore some possible stories around that – without feeling obligated to act. You may find that this alone is enough to bypass the resistance.

If you really want to get into this, make two lists of all of your open and pending projects. For your first list, include the projects where you’re satisfied with your progress, and you expect them to be completed successfully if you just keep doing what you’re doing. For your second list, note the projects that don’t satisfy this criteria. Now compare the projects on those two lists. I’ll bet you’ll see that you’ve pre-created a successful outcome in your mind for the projects that are advancing nicely, and you haven’t properly done this for the stuck projects. And now you know how to fix that.

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Why You Should Make a Video in Your Bathrobe

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I love mental and emotional resistance training because it has done so much for me over the years. It’s a fabulous way to think about skill-building when you’re diving into new territory, especially when you feel anxious, uncomfortable, or off balance.

Consider learning how to record and publish videos online, for instance.

So much of this is about how you model the experience in your mind.

A video can be a performance. It can be a conversation. It can be a form of play. It can be a gift. You can frame the experience however you like, but you won’t really feel free to choose your framing until you crush the automatic frames foisted on you by society, like the performance framing.

A simple way to break the automatic frames and discover greater freedom is to notice what you’re resisting about an experience and deliberately do those very things with the intention of losing your fear and resistance.

So don’t fuss over trying to provide value when you begin. Focus instead on shedding your fear, anxiety, and discomfort with the medium. The value will come through more strongly as you do that.

Suppose you want to get comfortable with making online videos. For many people that can feel very awkward and uncomfortable when you first start out.

Even after years of practice, some people still feel awkward and uncomfortable – sometimes even more than when they started. Partly that’s because they didn’t deliberately chase down the resistance. They mostly tiptoed around it, so the resistance remains. Sometimes the resistance even grows as you gain experience.

Consider this type of goal:

Make and publish 50 videos.

That’s an okay goal to gain some experience, but it’s not the same as deliberate practice. You can make hundreds of videos and not practice in the direction of your true resistance. You can still end up trapped into being a bit of a perfectionist, not feeling truly free. You may find that the conditions have to be just right before you’re able to hit the record button. You may procrastinate a lot too.

Consider this way of framing an initial goal instead:

Explore and discover how to make videos anytime, anywhere, under any conditions, on a variety of topics, off the cuff with ease and lightness – without feeling any fear or anxiety.

So the goal isn’t just to gain experience with making videos. The goal is to crush fear, so you become free. Then you can fully express yourself through that medium.

Once you’ve framed your goal in terms of crushing fear and resistance, you can break it down into practical subgoals like these, which immediately suggest action steps you can take:

  • Make a video when you don’t feel like making a video.
  • Make videos in lots of different locations, including some locations that are far from ideal.
  • Make some videos where you feel ugly or unattractive, like when you haven’t showered and your hair doesn’t look right.
  • Make some videos with bad lighting.
  • Make some videos where the audio isn’t as good as it could be.
  • Make some videos while walking with a selfie stick.
  • Make some videos out in public around other people.
  • Make videos in one take, and publish them with no cuts or editing.
  • Make some videos with no pre-set topic or mental script, and speak entirely off the cuff.
  • Make a video in your bathrobe or pajamas.
  • Publish a video that you really wanted to redo because it didn’t turn out well.
  • Make some videos on controversial topics that will surely invite criticism.
  • Share something about yourself in a video that you’ve never shared before and that makes you cringe to share it.
  • Make videos when you’re hungry, tired, sleepy, etc.
  • Make videos when you feel nervous or anxious.
  • Make videos with other people.
  • Make a video when you catch yourself making a justifiable excuse not to make a video.
  • Make videos when you feel like an impostor and have zero value to give.

Whatever makes you feel self-conscious, do exactly that.

Whatever makes you feel like hiding, lean into expressing yourself.

Remember that this is just a training phase. You don’t have to live this way all the time. Just do it while you’re deliberately training through the resistance. You can even split that into multiple phases with breaks in between.

Look for the resistance in yourself, and then resolve to face it. Brainstorm a list like the one above of all the angles that make you cringe a bit. That becomes your to-do list.

It’s not just a matter of checking each item off your list once. Do them once if that’s all you need. Or do them repeatedly. But do them until you realize that it’s not a big deal to do more of them. You can feel that the resistance is either gone now, or at least it’s low enough not to stand in your way anymore.

Maybe you only need to record and publish one video in your PJs to realize that it’s not a big deal to do more videos like that. Or maybe you still feel so self-conscious after the first one that you realize that you have to do more videos like that, maybe the next one in your bathrobe and slippers, to feel comfortable being so casual on video.

You know you need to do more when you feel fear, anxiety, or worry, suggesting that the idea still appears stressful to you. You don’t need to do more when you feel bored over an idea because there is no meaningful stress anymore. What you once feared may eventually feel boring, as it should because the stress was created by a false framing anyway.

Making a video in your PJs isn’t actually stressful – it’s actually a pretty boring goal and a low bar to clear. So once you’ve cleared that bar, and it would seem boring to continue doing more in that direction, turn your attention back towards more fear-busting. Where is the resistance now?

Claw your way out of the pit of fear one step at a time. It’s a gradual process. Keep building on what you’ve done. Keep leaning into the fear wherever you find it.

This is a form of resistance training. When you train up by facing the resistance, you get stronger, and the resistance seems lighter.

Another benefit is that you build up a collection of reference experiences that you can lean on for the rest of your life. You’ll always know that you can make a video in your pajamas. You’ll always know that you can still record and publish when the conditions are far from ideal.

I know that I can make a video in my bathrobe. I can make a video when I haven’t shaved for many days, in my exercise clothes, with salty skin after a sweaty workout. I can make a video when I’m really not sure what to say or if I’m even being coherent enough. I deliberately courted those experiences a few years ago, so I could feel comfortable and be fully myself through that medium. Now it’s been years since I’ve gone more than a few weeks without being recorded on camera somewhere – CGC coaching calls, interviews, YouTube videos, etc. Most weeks I’m recorded on video at least once or twice. So it’s really useful to feel comfortable on camera without being perfectionist about it. Just show up and go.

When you do this in one medium, you can stretch it to others too. One of my best stretch goals was to do a three-day workshop with no plan, no prepared content, and no pre-chosen topic. Just do all three days off the cuff with the flow of inspiration and audience suggestion all the way through. And most importantly, do it with no fear or nervousness – just playfulness, fun, connection, curiosity, etc. It was a beautiful experience, both for myself and the attendees. It helped me reframe public speaking even more than I already had, allowing me to see it as a rich and playful form of co-creation.

What medium of expression would you love to really pwn? (Not a typo, look up pwn if you don’t know the word. It’s in modern dictionaries now.)

Gaining experience alone won’t necessarily get you there. It’s all too easy to keep dodging the scariest parts. Then you might become a control freak who can only express yourself under narrow conditions, and when something throws you off balance, you’re back to fear and anxiety again.

On the other side of your fear is freedom and expansion. You know this. Now you must summon the will to act on that knowing, or you’ll never gain access to those gifts. If you commit to such a process, you can gain access to a new medium of expression that you’ll cherish – and be able to leverage – for the rest of your life. And you can do this repeatedly with a variety of expressive forms. You can be a true multimodal creator then.

When I was younger, I was afraid of many forms of expression that involved speaking off the cuff around other people, other than a small group of close friends. So much opened up when I finally decided that this was no way to live the rest of my life, and I resolved to conquer these fears step by step. You may look far down the road and assume there’s no way that you can reach such distant goals. Don’t worry so much about the distant goals unless they really inspire you. Just focus on the immediate steps you can take right now, like sending me a link to your next YouTube video that you recorded in your bathrobe. 😉

You might figure that you’re doing people a disservice by recording and publishing some material that isn’t your best, but there’s value in that too. You’re encouraging other people not to hesitate so much and wallow in perfectionism. You teach people that it’s okay to just go. You can even weave that lesson into the video. My bathrobe video is about overcoming perfectionism, for instance.

You also never know where your self-expression experiments will lead. During his youth Stephen King submitted a short story to a magazine, and his story was firmly rejected. Years later after King became famous, the guy who’d received that story went up to King and asked him to please autograph the original copy, which the guy had kept all those years as part of a massive collection of Hollywood memorabilia. What may just be a small stepping stone today could have a totally different meaning a decade or two from now.

You’re not the true judge of the value you provide. Other people will receive value in ways you cannot predict. The crappiest video imaginable can still provide plenty of value to people in ways you wouldn’t expect. Let others decide if they’ll watch past the first few seconds. Don’t deprive them of the opportunity to soak up some of your light.

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Capturing Story Ideas

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On my novel writing journey, I’m starting out by capturing ideas, which are plentiful. I find that committing to a project summons a flood of ideas, and this one is no different in that sense. When I say a firm yes, reality says: Great… let’s unlock that idea space for you.

The ideas have been flooding my mind frequently – when I wake up in the morning, while eating, while running, and even while blogging. At any time I might be struck by an idea for a character, scene, location, plot twist, theme, or anything else related to the novel. When I’m at my computer, I like to capture these ideas on virtual index cards in Scrivener. Otherwise I’ll capture ideas anywhere convenient, and then I add them to Scrivener later.

You might think that I do this to make sure that good ideas don’t slip through the cracks, but that isn’t really an issue. Ideas are so plentiful that there will always be more good ones to consider. The main reason to capture them is so I can let go of them, which allows more ideas to come through. If I don’t write down an idea, it can remain stuck in my mind, continually refreshing itself and blocking other ideas from flowing. So capturing ideas also serves to clear them from my mental buffer, thereby creating space for more.

So far I’ve added 77 of these idea cards to Scrivener, probably half them them just today. Each card contains anything from a few keywords up to several paragraphs. I’ll likely generate hundreds of these cards by the end of the month.

This approach is working well so far. I feel like the ideas are coming to me with ease. I don’t have to chase them or hunt them down. It’s nice to see that the ideas for writing fiction are just as abundant as what I’m accustomed to on the nonfiction side. It feels like the only real change was to make a different kind of request regarding the types of ideas I want to receive. This already gives me the impression that if I wanted to, I could summon an endless flow of ideas for fictional stories to write. For now I’m just going to focus on a single novel though.

I now have an emerging sense of the overall story I’d like to write. I’m pretty clear about the genre, which is going to be sci-fi, set in the relatively near future, perhaps 15-40 years ahead.

I have a relatively clear idea for the protagonist and her story arc. And I have lots of ideas for scenes and key beats.

What I’m not clear about yet is how to end the story. There are many interesting options there, and I keep generating more. I’d like to at least figure out how I’ll end the story before I start writing it. I can always change my mind during the writing phase, but I think it’s wise to at least loosely map out the story before I write any of it.

I feel like it’s important to go through an idea explosion phase first, so I can better understand the world I’d like to create, the characters, and the basic story options. Then I can start assembling the pieces to work towards the goal of building a step outline.

For the step outline, I want to create about 60-80 index cards (physical or virtual) with just one sentence on each of them. Each card / sentence will represent one scene in the novel. Let’s say that a scene equates to about 1500 words of text in the final book. So on the low end that would be a 90,000-word book, and on the high end, we’re looking at 120,000 words. I think that’s a good range for an interesting sci-fi novel.

I’m not planning to write a multi-volume series like a trilogy, just a standalone novel. But I also want to keep my options open. I’m enjoying the process so far, so if I really get into this, I could see myself writing more books on the side in future years.

I’ve also been studying a lot of story structure models including the 3-act story structure, the 7-point plot structure, the popular Save the Cat plot structure, the classic 12-beat hero’s journey, and more. This morning Rachelle and I watched some videos showing to to break down Avengers: Infinity War and Aliens into story beats with the Save the Cat structure. So even as I’m generating ideas, I’m also thinking about possible ways to structure those ideas into a coherent story.

I also reviewed my 25+ pages of notes from Robert McKee’s Story seminar that I attended last year. The lessons have new meaning now that I can apply them to an actual story that’s coming through. This also helped me generate more ideas.

This process reminds me a lot of my game design days. There are many permutations of ideas to consider, especially in the early design phase. Eventually you have to sift through the ideas and explore how to connect the dots, so you can arrange the core ideas into a structural framework.

Generating ideas is the easy part. Getting them to converge into a coherent and unified whole can be really difficult though. I’ve been through this phase with other creative projects, so I’m curious to see how it plays out for a novel.

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AI and Character Design

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One thing I have to do ASAP for my novel writing project is to figure out some character and plot ideas. I don’t already have a story in mind, and I haven’t figured out any characters. I haven’t even picked a genre, so I’m really starting from scratch here. I’d love to have at least a basic sketch of what kind of story I’m going to write by November 1st when NaNoWriMo officially starts.

I can lean on past role-playing experience to help with some details of character design, but I also prefer to trust in the flow of inspiration and see where that leads.

One idea that randomly popped into my mind a few days ago was to leverage AI for some character design creative inspiration. I thought it would be cool to generate some random faces with ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com as a creative tool. Since humans are such visual creatives, myself included, why not start with figuring out a character’s appearance first?

While I could start with abstract qualities or other character traits, there’s something about starting with faces that appeals to me. Imagine if you assembled a gallery of pics of all of your main characters. That alone feels like progress.

Yesterday I used that site to generate lots of random faces, and I saved about 100 of them. Some of the images are a bit deformed, but most look very realistic.

Now and then I’ll see a face that makes me curious. Who is this person? What is their backstory? Might this become an interesting character to explore in my novel?

Here are some samples from the collection I saved. I haven’t designed characters based on any of these. Right now I’m just assembling a collection for brainstorming purposes.

When I find an image that captivates me in some small way, I can daydream about the fictional person and see if it leads somewhere enticing. I can invite my mind to suggest details from their backstory.

That woman looks like she works for a tech company.

That guy looks like a little sinister.

That little girl looks wise beyond her years.

This person is probably comfortable on a stage.

Scrivener is popular writing software that I’ve been using for years, especially for designing courses, so I’m using it using it for my novel project as well. I just started that project with the built-in Novel template. In Scrivener it’s easy to add images to character sheets and even to display the cast of characters visually. So when I find an image I want to use for character inspiration, I can drag and drop that image into my novel doc and then design a character around it. I like the idea of being able to display my characters visually. That makes them feel more real to me, like it’s a real group of people inviting me to tell their stories.

With AI-generated images, the output is pretty random, so I may have to generate a lot of images to find ones I like. But it’s easy enough to open five or more browser tabs and just keep refreshing till something interesting comes up.

Since these images aren’t real people, they don’t carry the baggage of previous associations, so I feel free to construct their identities from scratch. If I used pictures of actual actors to remind me of my characters, their pics might bias my writing to align with other roles those actors have already played.

I like that this approach encourages diversity in my character set too. The AI generates images of different ages, races, and genders, including some faces that look androgynous.

These images may also help me consider details that I might have otherwise overlooked, like whether a character wears glasses, has facial hair, or likes baseball caps. I still have to use my imagination to fully design each character, but starting with a photo seems like a nice way to begin. From the face I may figure out the person’s name and a few other traits, and that gets me into their story.

When I would lead friends through role-playing adventures many years ago, I enjoyed designing interesting characters with goals that would conflict with the players’ goals. Some wild and fascinating stories emerged from this collision of goals. I think a similar approach could work for writing a novel. Design a variety of interesting characters who have conflicting goals and interests, let them collide, and see what type of story emerges from that.

I see this AI-based approach as one tool that I can use to the extent I find it helpful, but I don’t have to use it for every character. It’s not a substitute for other design tools and methods, just a supplement. I think it has promise though. Maybe it’s a bit geeky, but it’s getting me into thinking about character design.

This simple idea makes me wonder what other ways I could leverage some AI assistance for extra creative inspiration.

Someday in the future, I imagine making a bowl of popcorn and saying to an AI: Generate a two-hour movie based on my novel, and play it when ready. And then the next day: Now generate the sequel that I haven’t written yet.

You do realize that it’s only a matter of time before that’s a real thing, right?

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NaNoWriMo Tips

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A couple of days ago, I searched for NaNoWriMo tips from people who’ve done it before. I especially looked for lessons that people discovered by contrasting their own failures versus successes with NaNoWriMo. I compiled a short list of the most interesting tips as reminders for myself, so I thought I’d share this list with you in today’s post.

I’m sure you can generalize some of these ideas to improve your ability to succeed with other short-term challenges as well.

Just write. Don’t do editing, and don’t even fix typos as you go.

This was among the most common tips. Many people failed NaNoWriMo by getting sucked into editing their work after writing it, which doesn’t advance the goal of writing at least 50,000 words of the first draft.

Do write-ins and word crawls.

These are social writing sessions with other people, in-person or virtual. Social support was often leveraged to get past low-motivation slumps instead of going it alone every day.

Write every day – no zero days!

Advance the word count every single day of NaNoWriMo. Having even one zero-word day along the way can hurt or kill momentum. Even if you only add 100 words one day, it’s better than zero. It’s motivating to see your word count increase every single day.

Get ahead on the daily word quota during the first 10 days, and then stay ahead.

To write 50K words in 30 days, you must average 1667 words per day. It’s wise to aim for more during the first 10 days, like 2000 per day. Get ahead and then stay ahead.

When you’re ahead on your word count, don’t reduce the daily quota below 1667. It’s better to maintain momentum and finish strong instead of dropping down to 1500 or 1200 words per day, even if that’s technically enough to hit your 50K.

Pick an idea you love.

If you only semi-like your idea when you begin, you’ll want to give up when the going gets tough. You need an idea that inspires you enough to sustain you to 50K words, so you’d better love it from the start.

Write the fun and exciting parts of your novel first.

Some people found that to maintain momentum, it was best to give themselves permission to skip over difficult or tedious-to-write scenes, so they could keep advancing the word count.

Others by contrast found that it was better to write in mostly linear order scene by scene, as long as they could maintain their word count.

At the end of each writing session, make a note about what comes next.

This makes it easier to get into the flow of writing the next day since you don’t have to waste time figuring out where to begin. You have an immediate task to dive into right away.

Reviewing and lightly editing the previous day’s work can be a nice way to begin each day’s writing session.

Some people found that a small amount of re-reading was a nice way to glide into the day’s writing. It gets the mind thinking in the direction of the story flow. Others found this risky, tempting them into premature editing.

Try the trick of writing in Comic Sans.

There are multiple articles about the writer’s trick of switching the font to Comic Sans, especially while writing a first draft. Many report that they find this font disarmingly casual, making the act of writing feel less formal and more relaxed, chill, and playful.

People like that this simple trick helps them find their authentic voice by reducing self-censoring, so the words flow more easily.

Beware the rabbit hole of research during the first draft phase.

Necessary research can be done later, after the first draft (or most of it) is written. Unnecessary research can be really engaging, but it isn’t writing and doesn’t advance the word count.

When the words aren’t coming for a given scene, write a short summary of the scene instead, and move on to the next scene.

Sometimes you’re inspired to write a particular scene, and sometimes you aren’t. If you’re getting stuck, it’s fine to write a placeholder description and then come back to hash it out later. Do what it takes to keep progressing.

Just write anything. Start filling the blank page with random words to get started if necessary.

To get started each day, just write. Write notes to yourself. Write deliberate nonsense. Put your fingers on the keys, and push down.

If you start typing like a monkey, sooner or later the ideas will start flowing.

Give yourself the benefit of the doubt with your word count.

Many NaNoWriMo writers suggest being generous in calculating your word count for the challenge, especially if it helps you claim victory. Some will include deleted scenes or other scene notes in their word counts, even if they know those words won’t make it into the final text.

Try sprints of 15-25 min, both for writing and brainstorming.

Some found it easier to work in several short bursts instead of one longer daily writing session. Crank out 300-600 words per sprint. Do several of those each day, and you’ve met your quota.

Happy writing!

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Prepping for NaNoWriMo

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I spent some time today learning more about NaNoWriMo, including sifting through their member forums looking for beginner tips and suggestions. Fortunately there’s a ton of advice from other writers who’ve done NaNoWriMo many times before.

I was curious how many people who sign up for NanoWriMo each year actually succeed at writing at least 50,000 words during the month of November. The completion percentage is different each year, but it seems to average around 15%. That lands within my expectations.

When it comes to 30-day challenges, I find that the early game is key. I usually win or lose the challenge before I even begin Day 1. How I frame the commitment matters. I have to get my mind right before I start, so I’m investing in that now for NaNoWriMo.

Here are some useful frames that have served me well over the years, which I’m also adapting to gear up for NaNoWriMo, which starts in less than two weeks.

  • Once I commit to the challenge, it’s a done deal that I’ll do all 30 days. There is no quitting except for some kind of critical emergency like a health crisis.
  • If 15% of people typically finish NaNoWriMo successfully, I see myself as a member of that 15% before we even begin. Even though this is my first NaNoWriMo and my first novel, I can mentally put myself in that top 15% now. That’s a decision, not a prediction.
  • Most 30-day challenges get difficult at some point, usually between days 6 and 15. The initial motivation will die off, and the finish line will still seem far away. It’s wise to expect this to happen and to pre-commit to enduring through that tough period.
  • It’s one day at a time. Do the daily actions, and the 30-day result will be achieved. In this case the daily commitment is to write at least 1667 words per day for 30 days. A daily commitment is easier to follow than a monthly one that allows wiggle room day by day. So I’m not looking at having 500-word days and making up for them with 3000-word days. I think the daily framing is easier. Then I can’t fall behind. A lot of people failed NaNoWriMo by using the framing that it was okay to fall behind and do extra writing to make up for it later in the month. So my framing is that falling behind on even one day’s quota is not an option, but exceeding it is okay. And exceeding the daily average doesn’t reduce the daily average for the upcoming days.
  • It’s best to focus on the core challenge, which is to write. The challenge isn’t to re-read, to edit, to research, or to plan – just to write. Many NaNoWriMo participants noted that it’s best to edit later and just get the first draft written, even if it’s ugly. Many also noted the trap of getting stuck in unnecessary research that killed their word count.
  • I’ll gain a lifetime memory from my first NaNoWriMo. That memory will be mine for decades. It’s clear that I want to look back on my first NaNoWriMo and remember that I made it to 50K words and succeeded. I don’t want the lifetime memory of failing or quitting.

Regarding that last point, I saw lots of references regarding how real these memories are for previous NaNoWriMo participants. They remember their past events, noting which ones were successes and which were failures. They remember why they failed and what derailed them.

Sometimes my best source of motivation comes from reminding myself that I’m creating a lifetime memory no matter what. Whatever happens in November, it’s either a gift or curse for my future self – for the rest of his life. When it’s only day 10 and motivation is low, it can be empowering to remind myself that I have a choice: I can give my future self the memory of pushing through to success, or I can curse him with the memory of quitting and making excuses. I can give him the memory of being in the 15% or the 85%, and that’s going to affect him indefinitely.

Writing 50K words in November is a done deal. No other framing makes sense. I will not curse my future self with the lifetime memory of failing my first NaNoWriMo. I’m going to gift him with the memory of an experience he will cherish for decades.

Do whatever it takes to give your future self some extra smiles. Soon enough those smiles will be yours.

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NaNoWriMo 2020

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As I’ve shared previously, one of my goals for this year is to write a novel. I’ve never done that before. It’s been a stretch goal of mine for a long time, and I’ve decided the time has come to finally do it.

To move this goal forward in a more concrete way, I signed up for NaNoWriMo on Friday. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it happens every year in the month of November. I’ve been aware of it for years, but this is the first time I’ve ever signed up for it.

If you have a NaNoWriMo account, feel free to add me to your buddy list. Here’s my NaNoWriMo profile, but I think you’ll need to be logged in there to see it. My account is Steve Pavlina, so it should be easy to find me there.

NaNoWriMo is both an annual online event and a non-profit organization. It started in 1999 with 21 people, and now hundreds of thousands of people participate each year. It’s entirely Internet-based, so you can participate from home. It’s also free if you want it to be, although they encourage donations. If you made a donation, they add a halo to your profile pic – cute!

The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to help you write the first draft of a novel. The stated goal is to write at least 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November. That can be an ugly first draft, and you don’t even have to finish the whole book.

There’s a lot of social support in NaNoWriMo as well. This includes an active community forum, recorded pep talks, and lots more. In fact, right after I post this, I’m going to hop on a two-hour call from my local NaNoWriMo chapter, which is hosting an online event to help members get started.

Why Write a Novel?

I’m already a published author, so that part won’t be new to me. My book Personal Development for Smart People was published by Hay House in 2008. Since I uncopyrighted my blog posts in 2010 as well, many more books have been published under my name – at least 150 of them last time I counted.

I can say that it was special experience to walk into a bookstore and see my book on the shelf many years ago. That does feel awesome. But since I’ve already had that experience, this isn’t a significant part of my motivation for writing fiction.

My motivation for writing a novel isn’t about the book aspect but rather the fiction aspect. I’m really curious about what it will be like to create a work of fiction.

I’m especially motivated by exploration and growth, and I love a good challenge. It seems like this would be a wonderful way to explore writing from a fresh perspective.

I don’t already have a story in mind. I don’t even know what genre I’d pick yet. Rachelle says I should write a sci-fi book, and that does have some appeal, but right now I still feel very open to the possibility space. I feel more interested in co-creating a novel with reality, much like the attitude I use with blogging.

I’m used to writing from inspiration, and I know how to do that whenever I want. This works for shorter pieces like blog posts and videos, and it also works for creating extensive courses. Reality always has my back when it comes to opening the floodgates of inspired ideas to share.

Since I already have a wonderful creative relationship with reality on the nonfiction side, I want to see if I can stretch this relationship to include fiction as well. Will it be radically different if I have to think about characters and settings and plot?

I do feel confident that I could write the first draft of a novel with a pantser approach – just write from start to finish without pre-planning – but it might be pretty bad. Then again, maybe this approach is good enough for a first draft.

Writing 50K words in a month doesn’t seem daunting to me. It actually sounds like fun. If I squeeze myself to write a novel in a month, what will come out? I don’t know.

Will it be something cerebral? Personally meaningful? Humorous? Slutty? All of those? I can’t say. Nothing has been decided yet.

Since I’ve never written a novel before, the pantser approach does appeal to me, at least for the first time, if only because I haven’t learned a more structured approach yet. It might be nice just to see what comes out of me by writing from inspiration. Maybe that adds up to a sucky story that’s painful to read, but maybe it generates enough good ideas that I could edit it into something semi-decent.

Any interest in joining me? About six weeks from today, you and I could both have the first draft of a novel done. Wouldn’t that be nice?

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Universal Timing Alignment

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I’ve noticed that when I get an idea for a big new project, the timing often doesn’t feel good right away. It’s as if the idea wants to get my attention, so I can start thinking about it, but it also needs time to incubate.

If I try to force the idea forward faster, it’s like pushing through molasses. It takes lots of discipline, and I have to forcefully re-engage with the task again and again. The inspiration to move it forward isn’t present. These projects don’t succeed. If they ever get completed, the results are disappointing.

On the other hand, if I conclude that the idea isn’t right for me because the inspiration to take action isn’t there yet, that could kill the idea completely. I may never get around to doing it if I force the “now or never” attitude.

There’s an empowering alternative approach, which is to say yes to the idea and then to invite the alignment that can move it forward powerfully without having to force it. You can say yes to the idea and invite the inspiration to act. Then you wait.

I think of this as aligning with truth first, then love, and then power. I often see the appeal of an idea – the truth aspect – first. Then I need time to dance with the idea for a while. I have to play with it and explore different permutations of it. I need to discover what it wants to become and how I can bring it to expression. This phase of aligning with love for the project could take months, sometimes years. It’s very personal too – I must discover what the project means to me and why I’d want to do it. So this phase is really an exploration of deeper meaning.

This meaning doesn’t have to be so grandiose. Often it’s a very simple framing. Where’s the fun? Where’s the play? Where’s the growth? Why would I want to invest weeks or months of my life in this? What’s the point?

The answer is never money, by the way. If that’s the main reason for doing a project, the idea is lifeless.

The real key to discovering what a project means to me is exploring how it will affect my relationship with reality. Once I see the invitation to explore a fresh and expansive way of relating to reality, the idea starts generating a lot of its own energy. It becomes a power source. I feel waves of motivation and invitation drawing me forward, almost irresistibly so. That’s when I can fully enter the power phase, and I know it’s time to move forward strongly. The power isn’t really mine though. I don’t have to push forward with lots of discipline and force. It’s like surfing waves that are being generated. I just have to align with the waves and catch them, and their energy pulls me forward.

At this point it’s actually harder not to take action. It’s like seeing a delicious meal that’s right in front of you when you’re hungry. It would take more discipline not to take a bite. It’s easier to act when the motivation is there.

What’s the difference between an idea that dies and one that enters this power phase? I’d say the key is that I have to say a true yes to it. I have to commit myself. I don’t have to commit to the exact timing. I just have to get clear that sooner or later, I’m really going to do it. I decide that it will happen, not merely that it could happen.

Then I invite the universe to signal when it’s ready, as if it needs time to put all the pieces in place or to write the appropriate subroutines to simulate its parts of the project.

Sometimes I think of the idea as an energy bubble that hangs out in some subspace of reality for a while, and when enough other people are ready for this idea to be birthed, we all collectively combine our energies to make it happen. Even if it seems objectively like I’m doing most of the work on a project, it often feels like there’s a collective intention driving it forward.

This does require trust. It requires patience. It requires not settling for projects that aren’t very motivating. It requires the willingness to embrace a co-creative relationship with reality.

One reason I’ve learned to trust this process is that it leads to a really nice life that I appreciate and enjoy. I don’t have to work, work, work all the time. When I work in alignment with universal timing, it’s so efficient and flowing that it doesn’t feel like work much of the time. It’s more like a feeling of creative juiciness. The results of this approach are abundant, so there’s no need to scramble or hustle throughout the whole year.

When I have some downtime between these kinds of projects, I enjoy that too. I work on smaller tasks and projects. I make upgrades to my life and lifestyle. I enjoy time with Rachelle. I go through lots of books and courses. I do personal growth experiments. I ponder ideas, journal a lot, and develop new insights. I practice. I prepare. I write and share. And I live with the anticipation that another big wave of creative energy is coming up, and I know that when the timing is right, I’ll catch that wave and ride it.

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Problems You Only Need to Solve Once

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If you have a recurring problem and you can reasonably expect it to recur, solve the problem once. Really solve it. Document your solution. Then run your solution each time the problem occurs.

This form of process documentation is common in business. I recommend you use it in your personal life as well.

Here are some examples of problems you can solve just once:

  • Do you get up right away when your alarm goes off in the morning without ever using the snooze button?
  • If you’re feeling anxious, stressed, worried, frustrated, depressed, or overwhelmed, do you know how to get back to feeling good relatively quickly?
  • If you start to lose clarity about your goals, do you have a reliable process for regaining clarity?
  • Do you exercise consistently? Or do you have to keep restarting?
  • If you’d like to create a new article or video, are you able to do that whenever you want without feeling blocked?
  • Are you able to have a productive workday when you want to?
  • If you catch yourself feeling distracted, do you know how to restore focus?
  • Do you keep your kitchen well-stocked with healthy food?
  • Do you know how to decide which task to do next?
  • How do you decide what to eat for breakfast or make for dinner?
  • Does it ever take you more than a minute to decide which clothes to wear?
  • Do you always have enough clean laundry?
  • How do you know when it’s time to upgrade your tech (phone, computer, etc)? Is it easy for you to choose your upgrade model?

You don’t have to document a process for every little thing. Maybe you’re okay deciding what to eat based on impulse or feelings. If your current process works for you and you don’t need a better solution, that’s great. But if you tend to get stuck on problems that repeatedly slow you down – and if you can expect those patterns to continue – then maybe it’s time for you to sit down and work out a more intelligent approach.

Sometimes I’ll document a process for an aspect of life just in case I ever need it. Here’s an example:

This is a Nozbe template I created for starting my workday. It’s not the only way that I can start my workday, but it’s a step-by-step routine that works well for me. If I ever feel unclear about how to begin my work for the day, I can run through this simple checklist to get started. It only takes a few minutes to run through these actions.

I have many other processes documented too. For instance, I have a detailed process for doing coaching calls in Conscious Growth Club, including getting the recordings published to the member portal afterwards. I’ve gone through this process more than 100 times, so I don’t ever need to use the checklist, but it’s nice to know that the process is fully documented. I never have to be confused or uncertain about the action steps. I also have a documented process for doing our quarterly planning sessions to help members set goals for each new calendar quarter.

A recurring event isn’t really a problem if whenever it occurs, you know exactly how to handle it.

Solving a problem once is very freeing. You can always go off-script and try something different if you like variety, but when you don’t feel like reinventing the wheel, it’s nice to have a scripted solution that you can trust.

Life is full of interesting problems to solve. There’s little point in solving the same problems repeatedly if you can solve them just once. When you aren’t stuck having to solve anew the same recurring problems, you can invest your mental energy elsewhere.

I encourage you to pick a recurring problem that you expect will happen again. Solve it once – in advance – by carefully thinking through the action steps. Document your solution. Save your solution. And use your solution when you need it.

You may want to print and post your solution in a convenient location, especially if it’s easy to forget because you don’t run it that often.

I have to adjust my home’s irrigation system four times per year to make sure the landscaping gets enough water for the season. During the summer we can legally run the irrigation six days a week. In the spring and fall, it’s three days a week. And during the winter, we can only run it one day per week. Reprogramming the system takes about 30 seconds if I remember the steps, but if I forget the steps, it may take me 5 minutes to figure them out again. So I wrote the action steps on a slip of paper and put that paper next to the irrigation controls. This makes it easy for me to run the process consistently without having to think about it.

The next time you catch yourself freshly solving a recurring problem, pause and ask yourself: How many more times will I re-solve this same problem over the course of my life? Is that really an intelligent approach? Why don’t I finally solve this once, so I don’t need to solve it again, at least for the next decade or so?

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Redefining Your Roles

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You have many roles to play in life, such as various job to perform, being someone’s relationship partner, and being a a personal growth explorer.

That there may be gaps, however, in the roles you identify, and you may want to devise a new role to cover a gap.

Look especially for areas where you’ve been procrastinating or getting weaker results than you’d like. Do you have an appropriate role for that area? Have you chosen a suitable label for the role that you like?

Identity Encourages Behavior

Note that identity supports and reinforces behavior, as noted in the recent Be a Voter post. You’re more likely to succeed in making a behavior change if you seek to adopt an identity change to align with your new behavior.

If you’re not exercising regularly, for instance, could it be because you lack a proper role to support this behavior?

One role could be runner. Another could be yogini. A runner runs, and a yogini does yoga. If you want to call yourself a runner, you’ve got to run; otherwise you can’t honestly claim the label.

I like using the athlete label. It’s good role that encourages me to exercise in a more balanced way than runner. Athlete works as a good long-term label. It encourages me to keep growing, exploring, and challenging myself in this area of life.

Sometimes labels have interesting side effects. By thinking of myself as an athlete instead of as just a guy who exercises, I buy better running shoes and exercise clothes because it fits the role. This role helps me see exercise as a long-term pursuit worthy of decent financial support.

Another label that works well for me is vegan. Some people prefer plant-based, which labels the behavior but not the role. Consequently, plant-based is significantly weaker in terms of identity – it’s a label for wannabes and approval seekers. It’s better to lay claim to the vegan role and to not be so timid about it. The identity framing of being vegan is stronger than just calling yourself a plant-based person. Vegan is a lifestyle. My yard is plant-based.

What labels do you use for your health and fitness roles? How are they working for you?

Adopting New Roles for Growth

In addition to tweaking and improving your existing roles and labels, you can also add new ones.

For instance, if you want to really get into music or writing, start labeling yourself a musician or writer. If you want to get serious about coaching, don’t just do coaching – be a coach!

Become that which you want to embody. Create a role for an empowering behavior pattern.

Recently I felt a desire to improve at prioritizing and balancing various projects. Using labels like blogger or entrepreneur don’t help much in this area, so I added a new role to encourage more attention on this skill set: the role of manager.

Previously I didn’t think of myself as a manager, but I do have a lot to manage, and I like the idea of improving my skills to the point where I can genuinely think of myself as a highly effective manager. So this role has a positive association for me – it’s a path of growth.

Note that labels are very personal though. You might dislike a label that works exceptionally well for me. That’s fine. Your invitation is to pick the roles and labels that motivate you.

If a label doesn’t motivate you to engage with some area of life, dump that label, and pick a different one. Sometimes you have to test a few different labels to find one that actually motivates you.

Be careful as well to pick roles that allow room for growth. A good role helps you stretch. A bad role cages you. Take a look at your existing roles. Are there any that you’ve outgrown?

What new roles could you add to your life to remind you to invest in areas that you’ve been neglecting?

Good roles are invitations. They entice you to do some character building in new directions. A good role encourages you to make positive behavioral changes to align with it and to stay aligned. By reminding yourself of the role, you have a shortcut to remember the behaviors you want to adopt.

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