OK, look – I didn’t want to be the first one to mention it….
but you’ve got a Hot Pink Octopus
and it’s wrapped all around you.
You can’t get away from her.
You can pry off one arm, but she’ll wrap it somewhere else.
Maybe somewhere that tickles.
You can try to hide from her…..
but you know a 600-lb Hot Pink Octopus can fit through a hole the size of a quarter…
so she follows wherever you go.
She’s been with you forever.
She’s your creativity.
She’s your stories.
She’s the uncanny sense that you have been put on this earth in this
incarnation to
share your words
share your vision
share your voice
She’s the part of you that knows better than you —
and the less you try and manhandle her, the better.
Babe, you were put here to share your octopus.
And when you share her,
and people love her or don’t,
you can know that it’s not You that they love or don’t,
it’s your Hot Pink Octopus.
Your Hot Pink Octopus might even win awards
or make you a fortune
or connect you with other Cephalopods
And together, you can do great things.
Quit fighting her.
Quit trying to ignore her.
Quit pretending like she doesn’t matter,
or that you can only make time for her once everything else gets done,
which never happens.
The world needs your Hot Pink Octopus:
Her shape-shifting wisdom…
Her gift of camouflage…
Her endless curiousity….
Her remarkable ability to adapt and learn…
She’s been on this planet for almost 200 million years.
Let her speak.
| Hi Charlynn –
Sweetheart, I think you know in your heart that there is no such thing as a “good” idea or a “bad” idea.
There are only IDEAS.
And the ideas that occur to you are so special –
Because they are yours alone.
It’s all been said before….but not by you.
I mean, if I told you that I had an idea about a postage stamp artist and a postcard artist who have a mysterious love affair and the whole book is made of removable, readable letters between them — oh, and it’s a trilogy….
You might scoff, but the 90s sensation Griffin and Sabine series have sold over 5 million copies worldwide.
Or what about the innovative Choose Your Own Adventure Books?
Those have sold —
wait for it —
250 million copies.
(Oh, and I happen to be friends with the editor of those books. She’s awesome. #hairtosshairtoss #iknowthecoolestpeople)
What about a poorly-reviewed, self-published series of erotic novels loosely inspired by Twilight fan-fic that set a record in the UK for best-selling paperback fiction book of all time? The 50 Shades series has earned over HALF A BILLION DOLLARS in book sales alone.
Not to mention the movies, merchandise, etc….
I mean.
Seriously.
You cannot judge a book idea before you write it.
And – take it from me – sometimes you can’t even judge it even after you write it.
(I was so convinced that The 15 Minute Method was a terrible idea that I actually looked into cancelling my contract with the publisher. #truestory)
So quit asking yourself this unanswerable question.
And quit letting that question keep you from writing.
If you would like to share some about your book idea with me in a small group (no sales – just wisdom and mutual support) – please find a time here.
By the way I’m offering Figure Your Book Out In One Day AND Super-Secret Book Writing Club starting in early Jan — if you’re interested in more info, please email me back here. – S.
P.S. And if you DO NOT want to hear any more about book writing, you can opt out of this 21-day series about the creative and professional process of book writing and still stay on our regular list by clicking here and we’ll take care of it within 24 business hours, OK? Thanks. – S.
|
The good news… this quick tip will help you with any project or goal you are interested in starting or completing.
Now find the tension between you and your goal and get started today!
Chapter 14 – Minimum Daily Requirement
Now, I love home-remodeling shows, but I also believe that we are naturally inclined toward productivity. We love to be learning, doing, and playing. We love to stretch and grow and solve problems, and we love to feel like we’re making a contribution to the world . Too much unstructured time can be stressful and depressing. When we don’t know what to do with ourselves, we give up.
The trick is to inject some creative tension into your life. The word tension gets a bad rap, but remember that it is structural tension that holds the keystone in every arch — and sexual tension is often the beginning of all kinds of wonderful things .
Think of a goal that frightens you a little bit, something that stirs you up, maybe even something that you’re pretty sure is impossible. Let it loom large in your mind. Connect with it. Feel the energetic relationship — the tension — between where you are now and where the goal is. Feel that energetic spoke of the net between you and that goal, and let that tension to pull you forward into taking one first step.
When you’ve taken one step, celebrate. It’s easy to brush aside first steps, especially when you believe that you really should be farther along already, but don’t. You did something, which is more than you did yesterday. Which is excellent. Be proud.
To finish reading… just grab a copy here: http://www.StartRightWhereYouAre.com
Chapter 9 – Completion is Overrated
There’s a half-completed sweater in the knitting basket. There’s the first three chapters of a novel in a drawer. There are the specialty tools that you bought to make the ornaments for baby’s first Christmas, even though baby is now entering the fifth grade.
When you see a reminder of something you’ve left undone everywhere you look, you are automatically going to feel exhausted. Half-completed tasks create what productivity guru David Allen calls “open loops” in your mind, and those open loops take up a lot of bandwidth.
There are plenty of good reasons to have stopped moving forward on a project. You might have simply lost interest. That’s fine. There are no starving creative artists in Antarctica being deprived because you didn’t finish what’s on your plate, so to speak.
You might have stopped because you made a mistake or hit a wall, and your misguided perfectionism won’t let you keep going. This could be a good time to make some 5-Minute Art about that perfectionist voice and see if you can’t liberate your project from her thorny clutches. It’s not like there’s really a right way to do creative things .
Fear of commitment can sometimes play a role, too. Allowing yourself to get too deep into a project might mean that it’s actually important to you, and it might have a real impact on your life, your work, and your relationships. So you keep it casual. Being a creative Casanova might feel like it’s protecting your heart, but ultimately you’re setting yourself up for dissatisfaction. What do you suppose might happen if you committed fully to your work?
I’ve also seen people quit mid-project because they find themselves in what the master consensus facilitator Sam Kaner calls the “Groan Zone.” He uses this expression to describe the point in consensus facilitation where diverse opinions have been expressed, and it feels like you’ve reached an impasse and will never find common ground — which is often the moment right before some new and beautiful solution emerges. I find it works equally well to refer to the sloggy middle of any project. Once that new-project smell has worn off and the end seems too far away, it’s easy to let boredom and discouragement take the wheel. Try creating some mini-goals, or even micro-goals, and make sure you’re rewarding yourself for your incremental progress.
Little Changes Action Step: Have a frank conversation with your inner, wise self about one of your half-done projects, and make a swift decision to either let it go or to schedule time in your calendar so you can get back to work on it.
To finish reading… just grab a copy here: http://www.StartRightWhereYouAre.com
It is not possible to lose 30 pounds.
It is not possible to write a book.
It is not possible to clear out all the clutter.
You know why?
Because it is only possible to lose a few ounces a day.
And it is only possible to write a sentence or two — maybe a few pages.
It is only possible to clear a bit of the room at a time.
This may seem like just word play, but stick with me here — because I think this is important for two reasons.
1) The Goal Cannot Be Achieved All At Once
Especially if you have a BIG goal, you may have put off working on it because…well, it just seems too big.
It’s so big that you don’t know where to even start.
It’s so big that you doubt you can complete it.
It’s so big that you question your worthiness, your credibility, your right to even attempt such a thing. (The phrase, “Who do I think I am?” may show up here.)
But when you remember that it is not the BIG goal that needs to be accomplished, but rather just the immediate step that’s right in front of you….
Well, that feels much better, doesn’t it?
(Need a suggestion for what one immediate step might be? Try picking one action that will take less than 15 minutes and is easily within your budget.)
And here’s some even better news:
2) The Goal Is Not a Destination
You may have noticed that sometimes you DO complete a big project, and you end up feeling sort of….deflated.
Depressed.
That post-Christmas let-down feeling.
Because you thought you were done.
You thought that once you achieved your goal you would be complete – and that something would change.
But once you lose 30 pounds, you still have to maintain all the discipline and self-love that got you there.
And once you complete your manuscript, it’s not as though you are done writing.
And even if every bit of clutter gets swept away from your place, it’s only a matter of time until more clutter creeps in.
This is not failure.
This is process.
So you might find it comforting that you are mid-process on just about everything.
That means it’s not too late to take the next step.
It’s not too late to begin again.
It’s not too late to delight the world with your art.
