Reaching the critical mass.

Just before the Christmas to New Year's Eve crush, I took a course on Designing Your Writing Life with writer/coach Jenna Avery.  Over the course of the four sessions, I learned a lot about making life as a writer work.  I'm sure to people who aren't writers, it seems ridiculous to take a class about making life as a writer work, but not so.  The idea that if you're a real writer the writing just happens and the books just get published is not at all true.  Writing is a profession, just like any other.  Actually, like any other except writers have zero job security and no guaranteed income.

Still, just to help illustrate, say you're a nurse and you work in a hospital.  Do you ever get sidetracked by an emergency or even just a simple request?  When several patient call-lights are going off at once, do you answer them sequentially in the order they were received or do you triage them by importance?  Do you ignore one doctor because the other is louder and more demanding? 

In every profession, there's a balance that needs achieving.  The same is true in writing.  If you work from home, there are all kinds of competing distractions:  spouse, kids, friends, school functions, cleaning, laundry, cooking.  Those things don't get in the way as much if you works outside the home.  There's not much you can do about the laundry when you're teaching 35 kids about prepositional phrases, the order of mathematical operations, the periodic table, or the War of 1812.  But if you work from home, as many writers do, and someone calls to say he forgot his gym bag, or you see there's a pile of dust bunnies breeding under the sofa, it's harder to ignore those things.  Thus, the writing, which is supposed to be the career, gets pushed back to the position of hobby, then finally something you dabble in from time to time.  (Kind of like exercise, huh?)

One of the things Jenna Avery said that really resonated with me was this:  Making a big change requires a critical mass of subtle adjustments.  I think that needs repeating:  Making a big change requires a critical mass of subtle adjustments.  Did the light bulb just illuminate for you?  It did for me.  It also had the effect of making me see New Year's Resolutions differently. I don't have to take on a list of massive changes to make in life this year, only to feel badly when I don't meet one of them.  Nope.  Not necessary.  All I need to do is make subtle adjustments, and then, as those subtle adjustments reach critical mass, the big changes will come.  Brilliant, huh?  I love this idea!

So, my subtle adjustments for 2014 include:

1.  Walking more.  If I can take a few more steps every day, great. Bye-bye ham thighs.
2.  Eating better.  I don't like the way garbage foods make me feel anyway, so why not just eat the things that make me feel better? 
3.  Do a little cleaning/laundry/organizing after dinner each night.  Thirty minutes to an hour.  No need to exhaust myself.  Just do a little everyday.  If someone helps, great.  We get twice the amount done.  If not, it'll still be there tomorrow.
4.  Write on a schedule, not just as I feel like it.  That sounds less subtle than it is.  I already write almost daily.  But by scheduling start and end times, I won't suffer the burnout that I get from writing 12 hours a day for four days, then nothing for a week.  Additionally, if I can get other folks used to my working on a schedule, they'll be less inclined to interrupt with their emergencies during those hours.  Blood and bone emergencies excepted.

That's it.  Those are my subtle adjustments for 2014.  I have some other things I plan to do, and of course, I'm still resolved to reading at least 12 books this year.  If you know me, the 12 book thing is the one resolution you know I will meet.  But I'm not charting a course to scale Everest, untie the Gordian knot, or remake my body to win Ms. Olympia this year.  I'm going to make my subtle adjustments and see what good things 2014 brings. 

Happy New Year!