Day 84: What Writing is Really Doing
There’s two things I need, and want, to do right now (and have for the past hour) and instead of doing either have successfully distracted myself with multiple side quests. My subconscious thought that would somehow make deciding easier… you know, running out of time to do both.
As you may have guessed, writing this beat out the other task of creating a graphic of what’s entailed in being on the podcast launch team. I did get the initial post out, but none of the 9 people who saw it signed up. Rude. And because I’m a smart and savvy business owner marketing maven, I recognize the lack of eager teammates might be from not knowing what they are signing up for. If you are a biz owner and ever run into people not buying what you’re selling, make sure you are simplifying everything as much as possible. ie messaging, process, ROI, and always have the main focus be (and communicated well): what’s in it for them.
Tonight the Mayor of Fairfax City is providing the chairman of the chamber I’m a member of with a proclamation for all of his years of commitment to the city. Which is part of the reason why I’m writing now. So it doesn’t loom over my head. The event should only last about half an hour but I need to stop by one of the local (chamber members) restaurants and get him a gift card. How clever is that? I thought about it in the shower when “writing” his congrats/thanks card. This is what I came up with: “Dear Doug, Thank you so much for all you do for business owners and the community. You were so warm and welcoming when I joined the chamber a few years back and that type of kind leadership is what makes long-time loyal members. I greatly appreciate the support you’ve directly shown me and look to emulate your leadership style.”. Damn, I might need a bigger card. Hahaha.
As mentioned yesterday, I did A LOT of rearranging (while cracked out on Sudafed). I swear moving things around and decluttering is one of the most beneficial things you can do when feeling stuck. I wasn’t feeling stuck when I did it yesterday, I just literally needed to get the tree set up. But here I am greatly benefiting from it by coming up with great ideas and words in the shower.
When the boys got home from school one of them said, “the tree looks great. Thanks for hanging the ornaments.”. Which made me realize that I never do that part of the job! I got so annoyed yesterday when I hung the ornaments and couldn’t get the stupid ass hangers to fit on the branches. I thought, “Why is this expensive ass tree (a Balsam Hill hand me down) such a pain in the ass? Our previous ones were so much better!”. Buuuuut….now I’m wondering if all the trees are annoying to hang ornaments from. I laughed and apologized to the kids for the many years of them having to do it. Next year, they’re definitely back to it though but maybe the husband and I will help.
In the shower I also thought about how much of a lifeline writing is for me. It has helped in every aspect of my life. I’m processing things easier. The fear of overdivulging is gone. Most of my paranoia is gone about the cost of putting so much on the web (including the pod and IG videos) that can be scrubbed and used for identity theft. Truly, if someone's going to try to swindle my family, or contacts, with a recording or hologram of me…they’ll find a way. You know what I got against these bastards though? My daily writing. On my website. Unless they hack that. Doh! Let’s come up with a code word…
Ok, enough of the spiral. I did want to remind you that if you are being called to start a daily practice, maybe try it out. But if you do and it doesn’t work out, don’t get down on yourself. I’ve known the personal benefits of writing for decades now (almost my whole life: I started writing poems in 7th grade) but the timing wasn’t aligned in my life. Because this does take time and energy. Both of which I’m finding every day. Because it’s a priority.
For you, I hope you find something that greatly benefits your life in many ways.
