Day: June 6, 2023

Writing requires patience, dedication, and organization. None of these parts lead to success without the other two being fully operational. My personal Venn diagram suffers from a startling lack of dedication and organization, but I do remain ever patient. What I think I’ve learned from my patience, is that I need to stick to it more, and I need to be more organized on a daily basis. Lately, as I know I recently mentioned, I have locked in on a daily schedule that has me moving through tasks, checking them off, and returning to them the following day. It works for me. What I need to do now is dedicate myself to this level of organization and not go overboard or get too fancy or intricate. A simple hand-written list works. No tech needed. No fancy bells and whistles. I have made this mistake in the past. Once you start tinkering with a simple and easy to execute formula, the entire thing falls apart.

Some Thoughts:

1. Kid drove himself and his brother to school today. I followed to make sure everything was good with the 27 year old car he has. It was, though I want to look at those tires a little closer when he gets home. He did okay. Some issues on the highway, but he wasn’t reckless or speeding. He needs the practice. He will get it with these daily drives to school. It is a big moment for them all to be independent from me in this fashion. Loving it. Still, I am a dad and I worry. Let’s see how he does making it home entirely on his own.

I read a lot of fiction. Actually, to be honest, I listen to a lot of fiction. I haven’t read a book in years. This is worth correcting, because the reading experience is different than the listening experience. It is a mistake to rely on one form and abandon the other for the sake of multi-tasking. Mistakes are what this post is about. I realized a few minutes ago that I’d missed an extremely important meeting for a project I’m engaged in presently. I missed it because I had it on my mental schedule for Thursday, though I hadn’t written anything down. I am getting better at having and following a daily list, but I still make mistakes. I made the mistake of not writing down when the meeting was, and now I need to deal with the concequences of that failure.

Mistakes are a part of life. Mistakes are also a part of a cycle I find myself going through as I start to fall into a positive rhythm of work and success. It always ends up the same way. Part Imposter syndrome (which is why I wrote that last book) and part failure to maintain that rhythm. I know that I can do it if I keep myself driven, but often something happens that makes me fall out of step and things cascade from there. Generally the cascade part begins with me feeling like I failed everyone and then getting in my head about it to the point that I do fail. So, I am working on not falling into the trap of that first part where I feel like a failure and a Imposter. It is easy to feel that way when something goes wrong. It is harder to remember all the effort you put in to get to the level you’re at–how much you’ve earned the success and how much more you have in you. Mistakes are going to be a part of life, but you have to remember they aren’t the end of life as you know it.

Tomorrow I’m going to apologize for missing the meeting, explain the context, and get back to what I am really good at doing: Creating.