You can do anything for thirty days.
Hey family!
A few years ago, I worked with a personal trainer. Whenever I slowed down during a workout, she'd say, "you can do anything for thirty seconds." If she asked my opinion during those blaring workouts, I would have disagreed. The exercises were challenging, my heart hurt, and my muscles ached.
But guess what? I survived. Painfully and tiredly so. But I survived.
That mantra came to mind recently. November was National Novel Writing Month or Nanowrimo. Nanowrimo provides a space for aspiring writers to start, finish, or bash through their novels by writing every day for thirty days for a specified amount of time. The goal is to write fifty thousand words, which essentially is a novel.
I jumped into Nanowrimo last year with zero expectations. The excuses blared in my head—I have too much going on. I'll never get through this. I don't have time.
You know what I'm talking about—the negative chatter we create in our heads that stifles progress and fuel fear? Yeah, that.
But I fought the negative chatter and participated in Nanowrimo. And guess what? I survived. Thirty days later, I finished forty-seven thousand words. This year I maxed out around the same. I didn't achieve fifty thousand, but I'm proud of my efforts, and I'll participate again next year.
How about you? What is something you've been dying to do but haven’t? Better yet, what is something you need to do to move to the next level in your writing, but negative chatter, pride, or fear, overwhelms you? Nanowrimo doesn't have to be for writing. For example, you can participate in National Write Your Business Plan Month. Or National Exercise Month. Maybe even National Make an Appointment with a Therapist Month.
I’m just saying.
Here's a quick guide for you:
1. Set a goal
2. Give yourself thirty days
3. Be consistent
4. Document your progress
5. Thirty days later, be better than when you started.
Easy peasy.
I don't mean to get too deep. (Well, maybe a little. Y'all know me by now) But I want to remind you we all struggle, and excuses will always exist. Home. Family. Career. A drop in the
barometric temperature. Anything to dissuade you from doing the hard work to reach that next level in your life. But alas, I'm not here to judge. (Lord knows there's no room for that.) I'm here to encourage. If you have something you want to do but have put off, do it now.
You can do anything for thirty days.
Write on,
Tamika