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I’ve created a guided journal for those who’d like to teach themselves to find the good in each day. Each two-page spread has lines for three daily good things, plus a space for the three highlights for the week. There are no dates—only lines to fill in what week it is—because you shouldn’t wait for the beginning of the year to start a journal.
My latest novel has been the most difficult thing I’ve written to date, combined with other struggles in my personal life, and “You got this Travis” has become our mantra. It’s from a Vine video that my friend shared with me and it’s a simple encouragement that also makes me smile.
Keep reading to see the video.
When you first set out to write a novel, it’s scary and exciting and the words flow faster than you can type. But sooner or later, you’ll hit a wall and the gushing flow will become a slow drip that slowly drives you crazy. Or maybe that’s just me.
My goal for 2019 is to write my best book yet, but to allow myself to breathe. To stop the crazy spiral before it starts so I can enjoy life.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Now imagine there’s a huge elephant in this room and you were told you had to eat it. Do you start with an ear? The tail? A toenail? It’s gross, I know, but you’ve gotta do it.
In my last post I talked about pushing yourself and reaching for the big goals, the ones you think about when you’re falling asleep but are afraid to admit out loud. Now I want to talk about balancing that with the rest of your life.
I’ve talked before about the sacrifices you have to make if you truly want to achieve your goals, but another way of looking at it is balance. If you want to write a novel, but you also have a day job and a family and you coach your son’s soccer team, you may have to cut out something else to find that time.
Write down your goals. And not the easy ones, the ones you know will take work but are easily within your grasp. Write down the ones that scare you. The ones you secretly wish for when no one is listening.
I started writing my current novel in April and arbitrarily decided that I’d like to finish it by the time our family arrived at the beginning of August. I quickly realized that wasn’t going to happen, but I still wanted to finish it SOON, so I set a new deadline of our NEXT houseguests. Who are coming at the end of August.
In less than two weeks.
When I agreed to speak to 200 eighth graders, I thought, “How hard can it be? Adults talk to kids all the time.” But THIS adult has very little interaction with anyone under the age of 25 so needless to say, the fear set in very quickly.
My word for the new year is persevere. I plan to continue on my current path and continue steadfastly with my writing and publication goals.