What Question Are You Asking Yourself?
If you’ve ever spent a Saturday watching or participating in a track and field meet, you’ve probably witnessed someone falling out of the blocks. The sprinter is crouched and ready, head down and waiting for the starting gun . . . And then, the moment arrives and they stumble and fall.
It’s a tough thing to witness, even tougher to have experienced.
We’ve all been there, right? We're ready to go, the race is ahead of us . . . and we fall out of the gate.
This time of year, “New Year, New You” gets all the hype. Encouragement is abundant for 2022. And who can dismiss a fresh start, especially after the last couple of years? Like the sprinter, maybe you were ready to go, the race ahead of you . . . and then you crashed.
If that’s you, today is about helping you up after you've broken the promises you made to yourself about your writing goals, your publishing plans, or any other resolutions you’ve made around your art.
So, what do you do if things haven’t gone the way you would have hoped to start the New Year?
It’s easy to dismiss the rest of the year because you feel like you failed, which is crazy because we have over 340+ days left in 2022. Resolutions are traps. Easily made, even more easily broken.
Get your mojo back on track: Start with a question.
You don’t need the right answer to start. Simply asking, “How can I be a better writer?” will direct you to answers naturally.
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“Getting back on track is as easy as asking yourself one simple question.”
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A resolution often ends in a zero-sum game. You did it, or you did not. As Jon Acuff would say, "You’re not being very kind to yourself." A good rule that Jon uses is to only say things to yourself that you would say to a friend. You wouldn’t tell a friend, “Well, looks like you failed. Better luck next year.” No, you would tell them it’s all right, try again.
If that’s you right now, if you could be a little kinder to yourself, start by asking yourself a question. Getting back on track is as easy as asking yourself one simple question:
- “What can I do to help my writing today?”
- “What’s one thing I could do right now that will help me feel good about what I’m trying to accomplish today?”
- “Do I have 15 minutes that I can spend, distraction-free, to focus on one of my goals?”
Don’t let the hype of “New Year, New You” stop you from achieving the things you have in mind this year. It’s not kind. You can get back on track easily. All it takes is starting with a question.
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