Day: January 17, 2013

985 days ago I started forming the habit of writing every day. This was a tough habit to form, but given that I only needed to write for 10 minutes, I was able to make it a part of myself and something that nags at me until I have done it. Breaking this habit is possible still. It is only a few years young and is only now becoming a part of my nature. Other habits, ones that I have struggled with for years, are harder to break. Worst still, breaking habits requires a degree of dedication hat is difficult for anyone to muster.

I am overweight. I am not fat, mostly, but I am larger than I should be. 213 lbs at last check, which is 15 more than I desire and at least that much heavier than I can be and still be a functional football player (we won’t talk about the damn drops over the last few weeks. I am taking a week off to get my head right). Getting in better shape means breaking several habits. I would need to monitor what I eat, which I do not. Make healthy food a priority, which I don’t. Be diligent about exercise, which I struggle to even care about at this point.

The point is that I understand why people cannot get back in shape. It isn’t just one thing. It requires the disassembly of several habits that created the conditions for poor health. Each habit builds on the next and the way we are taught about getting healthy is to attack all the poor habits at once. I cannot see how that is effective. I think a smarter solution would be to identify the individual habits that combine to form the negative behavior. Work on one habit at a time, in a reversal of the habit forming strategy (30 days at a time). Take care of the easiest first. If this can be done then you ca chip away at the problem slowly and maneuver towards a lasting success.

I shared the 10 minute rule with some students today. Not the blog itself (as that would be egotistical) but the idea of it. These are all novel writing students who struggle with the words. The words don’t come fast enough. the words come too fast. There is no time to record them. There is no time to summon the writing. There is no time to write.

I asked them to take 10 minutes minimum out of each day and write. I know that for some this will be a challenge, as it was for me. For others it will be an opportunity to solidify that wealth of talent that lives within them. A chance to open the vault doors at let slip the tide of fiction. Or non fiction as the case may be.

I am struck by the abundance of words within them. I am struck by this as I struggle with the production of my own words yet again. As the walls of deadline loom before me and the 20th looks down with dark eyes I ask, How can I get the words? How indeed?

Perhaps I should stop self-sabotaging. I should put mind to work ahead of habit and distraction and call forth the working thoughts of a man who knows his craft and his skill and his depth of person and character before I, infinitely smaller than he, forget who he is, which is me, which is meant to be he again.

I am of course rambling incoherently. Sometimes such things are necessary to get the junk out before the goodness can flow freely. That and pancakes do a good writer make.