A Wish for Your Week (and Mine, Too)

Wishing you a safe, productive, and fulfilling week.

When our son lived at home, I would write weekly (sometimes daily) notes to him. This post is inspired by one from about 10 years ago that I recently found. Strikes me as good advice as we start a new week. Wishing you a safe, productive, and fulfilling week.

When Do I Get to the Important Stuff?

The plumbing springs a leak. Laundry piles up. The dogs need a walk. It’s time to change the oil in the car. And that’s just the tip of the responsibility iceberg. 

When do I get to the important stuff? The stuff that matters? The book project? The t-shirt design? The blog post? The answer is that if I want to, I will. 

One of my favorite quotes is from the writer Robert Haas: “Take the time to write. You can do your life's work in half an hour a day.” Words I try to live and work by.

Keep pushing that important project forward, even if today between the dogs, laundry, and wet floor, you only get a few minutes to spend on it. 

If I practice focus, intention, and consistency every day, especially on the most challenging ones, something interesting happens. I finish.

A version of this article is also published on LinkedIn.

How Do You Get Unstuck?

Mike Barzacchini Photo

How often do you get stuck? Sometimes the better question for me would be, “how often do you get stuck in one day?”

I try to pay attention when I get stuck or I feel like I’m about to get stuck. And I try to stage an unstuck intervention. Something small and meaningful that changes my mindset, my energy, and my attitude. Here are some of my unstuck strategies:

• Brew tea.

• Walk the dogs. We have four, so I can usually find a willing partner.

• Go out and look at the trees (the birds, the moon…).

• Read poetry.

• Search for an inspirational quote and write it down in my notebook.

• Write in my journal.

• Stretch.

• Meditate for five or ten minutes.

• Do timed writing or timed drawing — something like three minutes — on a topic or idea unrelated to what I’m working on.

• Write a letter to a family member or friend. Not an email or text, but an old-fashioned pen on paper letter or postcard.

One of these will usually unstick me and often lead to a new thought or better idea related to the project I’m working on. What works for you when you’re trying to get unstuck?

How Do You Reward Yourself?

How do you reward yourself for reaching a goal? How do you celebrate a job well done?

Celebrating even the smallest progress is important. It’s something I often forget to do. Rewards not only help motivate me. They also keep me focused. Sometimes that focus is its own reward

I started this year with a goal to write and publish one blog post a day. I identified a reward. I’d treat myself to ice cream at the end of each month. With the exception of one hiccup, I’ve stuck to my goal. In fact, for the months of January and February, I wrote and posted every day without fail. That’s two complete months. That’s two ice cream rewards.

Here’s the thing, while I continue to write and post, I’ve yet to collect. I track each day’s goal and write down the reward achieved at the end of each month, almost like an “I owe me.” Yet the promise of the reward helps keep me writing every day.

Whether it’s ice cream, pizza night, or a beach vacation, I hope you remember to reward yourself in a way that keeps you moving forward toward your goal while celebrating your successes.

Now, excuse me. I need to go and start collecting on a debt. I’m thinking vanilla with salted carmel.

Why I Can't Wait for the Perfect Wave

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

Often, I’ve waited too long for the perfect wave. Here's the thing, the more I wait for this unseen, optimal wave, the more I'm wasting my most precious resource, time.

What's keeping me out of the water? Fear? Uncertainty? Lack of confidence? All of the above? I can struggle and spend even more time trying to find the answer to that question. Or, I can just dive in.

Because the best wave is the next one coming in. No more waiting! Surf's up!

Create. Finish. Ship. Repeat.

Create. Finish. Ship. Repeat. So far in 2021, this is what’s working for me. It takes daily focus, intention, and attention. But when I ship, there’s nothing like that feeling. What’s working for you?

Don't Wait for the Perfect Hammer

How many bookshelves have I neglected to build while waiting for the perfect hammer?

It’s a trap I’ve fallen into throughout my life. I’ll finish the big project once I rearrange my office. I’ll start the new story once I find my favorite journal. I’ll begin my daily drawing routine once the new pencils I’ve ordered arrive.

At a higher ed seminar, I attended a decade ago on creating visual content, a very smart presenter was asked for her camera recommendation. She replied, holding up her smartphone, that the best camera was the one you have at hand. Keep in mind, this was in the era of the iPhone 4 or 5, long before today’s super HD smartphones. This advice has stuck with me, though I still struggle to follow it at times.

Waiting for those new pencils to arrive, searching for that lost notebook, rearranging the furniture in my home office, these are all tactics that keep me from doing the work. How will I ever build the bookshelf if I continually wait for the perfect hammer?

It’s the first Monday of the new year. Let’s grab the hammer at hand and swing.

Photo by Adam Sherez on Unsplash