Tag: know thyself

Uncategorized, Writing Goals

What’s the Excuse?

JSB

I worked at home for a month. An entire month. I had a plan: wake up, attend to a few chores, make tea, report to my home office, turn on the computer, spend the mornings on work-related tasks and during the afternoons, write a novel. Easy enough, right?

For years, I thought my day job was to blame for my apparent lack of creative discipline. I thought I was spending too much time and energy at work. I thought I didn’t have the brain power left at the end of the day to be creative. I resented my responsibilities. I thought they were robbing me of productivity.

After a month of sitting in front of my computer without writing, what I realized was that the only thing stopping me is me. Not a lack of time, not a lack of energy. I lack discipline.

My blog posts are all the same. I am constantly coming up with different strategies that never work. I make excuses. In the meantime, everyone else I know is making progress with their creative projects, full-time job or not.

I don’t have the answers on how to go about finishing. All I know is that I really want to. I want to commit to myself and to the work. And I don’t believe its too late to figure out how.

Believers, Time Management, Uncategorized, Writing Goals

Write the Vision

JSB

My uncle just sent me a text that said “Write the Vision.” I’ve been told that by different people more than three times in the past two weeks.

I have several apps that are supposed to help me do just that: goal apps, to-do apps, habit trackers. You name it, I have it.

There’s gotta be some truth to the advice. I listen to several productivity podcasts, get a half dozen motivational emails and texts, and they all seem to come back to:

And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. (Habakkuk 2:2 King James Version KJV)

Which leads me to ask, “Am I supposed to be running?” Until I copied that verse into this post, I’d never noticed the second part of the scripture. I don’t run!

I tackle my to-do lists a little at a time. I procrastinate. I linger over the checkboxes on whatever app I’m using and do little. WHO KNEW I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE RUNNING?!!! And I bet it’s a long race. The Bible is big on endurance.

For the record, at the time of writing I feel tricked, bamboozled and downright lazy. I’m out of shape. I wasn’t ready to run. I was barely ready to walk fast and now the stakes are higher! THE STAKES ARE HIGHER!

I’d better order some running shoes. I’d better learn how to stretch myself.

Uncategorized, Writing Goals

Wrestling With Discontentment

JSB

If I judged by my Twitter feed alone, I would think the entire world was trying/working/hoping to rise above their station, to do their dream work, to create. I know that’s not the truth. In my real life, I am surrounded by content people, the sort of folk who only seem to wish the world would stay just as it is. I would call people like that satisfied.

I often wonder why I’m not satisfied.Why am I so unhappy working for someone else? Why do I believe that work should bear more fruit than just enough money to keep me where I’ve always been?

I listen to a lot of podcasts while I’m at my nine to five. They’re a great way to diminish the distance between my work day and my outside goals. They encourage and motivate me. During an episode of Goal Diggers, a podcast hosted by Jenna Kutcher, the host asked listeners why they want whatever it is they want?

It was a good question, a question I don’t have the time to figure out in this post. But if I did, some of the things I would want to work out are: What is my end goal? What would a perfect work day look like? Where do I see my career in ten years? How do I truly define success?

Right now, as I wrestle with discontentment, I’m beginning to understand that in order to move beyond it, I have to figure out what it stems from. I’ll need to know if I’m trying to move towards something or just trying to escape from something else. I’ll need to know what my motivation is, and maybe the understanding will help me figure out what I need to do next.