Perseverance

I was just sitting by the computer right now. Searching the App Store over for a good journaling app – which means a journaling app review/rundown is probably in the near future. But the point is, I’m not actually doing anything that I’m supposed to be doing. It’s November. November means NaNoWriMo time (see nanowrimo.org for details). I ‘m supposed to be writing.

I’m supposed to have written 13,333 words by now. I’ve written just over 2,000. In fact, this blog post is likely to be almost as long as my entire novel at the moment.

This is my 4th year taking part in NaNoWriMo, make no mistake, this isn’t the first time I’ve very much on purpose procrastinated. There is no other excuse for it, I have been genuinely procrastinating this first week of NaNo. I haven’t had much else besides the occasional class here and there, but nothing to have a genuine excuse for not reaching my daily word count goal. No real reason why I shouldn’t have 13,333 words right now.

The point of all this? It’s perfectly possible to catch up all those words. It’s perfectly possible to still reach 50,000 words by the end of the month. Procrastination is okay… to a point. It’s perfectly normal to procrastinate – especially on things that our minds make harder than the task actually is. There’s nothing wrong with it, on one condition – you do not give up.

The more you procrastinate, likely the more work you’ll have to do, and the more perseverance you’ll need to achieve your goal. It just means that at one point, you’re going to have to be doubly focused on what you need or want to get done.

So if you’re taking part in NaNo – don’t give up. After procrastinating in NaNo in years past, I have written 5,000 words in a hour in order to catch up. So if you get down to the last day and found you haven’t written a word, with enough perseverance, you can actually finish that novel in one day.

Of course, that would be master Yoda writer mind level, and I really, really don’t recommend it. But it’s 2% staying on schedule, 98% perseverance that will get you through. So keep going!

Happy New Year!

So, in honor of New Years, I’m sitting down and writing a quick blog post. It’s probably crazy of me, but I did actually make some resolutions before the clock struck twelve. This year, instead of making a resolution to lose X pounds, I’ve gone for something a little bit easier.

First – and most importantly – I’m not going to make a resolution to do anything that I wouldn’t normally do, instead, for everything I shall do, I shall do it with the utmost passion and to the best of my ability. Whatever I do, I shall do it my best – and then some. It shall be a year of over-the-top performance.

Second, I shall explore hobbies. Because after this holiday break, I’ve realized that I really need to find some hobbies. I need something to do in my off-work hours besides work.

These past few weeks, I’ve been completely lost trying to do something – anything – that didn’t have something to do with work. Very difficult since apparently all of my hobbies are my work.

So, I shall be testing out new hobbies. Going to start with dancing, see if I can get into that… Take some YouTube lessons… Have a hobby that you enjoy? I want to hear about it.

In light of the New Year, I’ve put together a challenge for you all based on my observances. I think it’s a great idea, and I’m even bribing you all to do it – for every successful participant, I’m donating 1 (one) dollar to the American Heart Association. So, head over here to check it out, and get your friends to join in - http://hcpaye.webs.com/partypage.htm

I have so much going on right now, and will be doing a post in the next few days attempting to cover it all. For now, I’ll end it here.

Recommended New Years song – Good Life, by OneRepublic