09 Mar 30 DAYS OF WRITING DAYS 11-20
30 DAYS OF WRITING DAYS 11-20
Welcome to my 30 day challenge. Here I’m hosting a video blog / diary to assist me in my writing process. The challenge is to do at least an hour of writing or working on my book every day for the remaining 20 of these 30 days. I can tell you that I have written every day but on 3 of those days I’ve only put in an hour. Creating, producing and publishing these little video clips seems to take an average of 2-3 hours per day so that’s cutting into my writing time a little. But I’m OK with that because it’s the creation of these videos that is keeping me writing. Enjoy the videos and contact me if you’ve got any questions. I’m available to deliver talks and workshops on creativity and innovation.
Day 11 Travel To Shape Your Life
I used to be addicted to traveling. I would get up and move to a new country at the drop of a hat. I once cycled across Canada with a days notice with a complete stranger just because I needed to shake things up. Travel has been a wonderful part of my life that has helped shape me into the person who I am today. I owe a great deal to the many individuals who have shared their life experience and helped make me learn how to become a better person.
While writing this book on Unexpected Connections many of my travel stories have surfaced. It’s become clear that traveling can offer an individual experiences and knowledge that are priceless. So in today’s accountability video the message is:
Day 11 Travel To Shape Your Life
Day 12 Use Your Voice Share Your Story
During today’s writing I couldn’t help but think about how important it is to share your story. It seemed fitting to make that the message for today’s video as I had the pleasure of attending the MoMondays event here in London.
As expected there was a huge crowd and the speakers were fantastic. I had a great time bumping into some colleagues and some new friends.
MoMonday’s is a great place to share your story. It’s been around for over 3 years now and I’ve been fortunate to speak on MoMonday’s stages in Toronto, Barrie, Buffalo and London. I hope that you enjoy the video.
Day 12 Use Your Voice Share Your Story
Day 13 Keep Going
Today was challenging. This project is challenging. I’m not as far along as I’d hoped by this time and it’s been getting frustrating. There are quite a few other things going on in my life besides this writing challenge so it’s tough to make the time. But that of course, is what makes it a challenge!
When things get tough, don’t just roll over and give up on yourself. As my father used to tell me, “Keep going”.
Day 13 Keep Going
BONUS MESSAGE – Juggling Is Like Life
Day 14 Missed This Day
As can happen from time to time, I overbooked myself on this day and regrettably did not do my writing effectively breaking the 30 day challenge. But to be honest, I really didn’t feel like doing the writing work and don’t expect I would have come up with much useful content anyhow. So I’ve forgiven myself for taking the needed break from it, and I put together a little video for Day 15 that explains where I am now.
Day 15 Ask For Help
Feeling totally overwhelmed with this project while working on other things in my business and life I really felt prepared to throw in the towel. But I decided to take my own advice, and just ask for some help. So I had a call with my excellent editor and explained to her how I was feeling and she really helped me out a lot!
Sometimes we just need to get things off our chest before we can move forward.
She gave me some practical next steps and really helpful guidelines on how to get my vast content into more manageable sections or (can you believe it?) …. chapter outlines!
This has given me the much needed boost to keep on going and here is my message for today:
Day 15 Ask For Help
Day 16 Find and Join Your Community
Today’s festivities included a really enjoyable photo shoot with Cirque De La Nuit in Calgary. While having my (added) hair and makeup done by these talented professionals I thought about how this really is a community. I’m very fortunate to be a part of this community as I have been able to do some performing at some of their incredible shows.
Community relates to writing in that you must have a community of people around you to support you with such a big project. It’s just not something that you can do on your own. My recent discouragements have been short-lived because I’ve been able to build a community around this and am learning to ask for help when needed.
Day 16 Find and Join Your Community
Day 17 Get Your Story Out Of You
Just a short little piece today. If you have a story within you, be sure to get it out of you. Sure it might be a lot of work, or take a lot of time, but isn’t it true that the things we most value in life require some effort? You likely have experienced this with friendships, relationships and rewarding careers to name a few.
My story is about these Unexpected Connections. I experienced another one today and will touch on that tomorrow. Here’s my brief writing accountability video from today.
Day 17 Get Your Story Out Of You
Day 18 An Unexpected Connection
Here we have an Unexpected Connection! I met Hugo yesterday and we’ve spent some time together during his brief visit to Calgary. He needed a place to stay and I had a place. I’ve learned some interesting things about his life and lifestyle and he’s learned about mine. We’ve created a new friendship and who knows what possibilities lie ahead?
That’s the power of Unexpected Connections!
Day 18 An Unexpected Connection
Day 19 Hang In There
Everybody gets discouraged from time to time with big projects that we work on. That’s totally normal. The trick is you have to learn how to pick yourself back up when you get discouraged. And one way to help with that is to remember that often really good things can follow really low moments. So the message for today is to just hang in there. Here is my accountability video with an Irish twist.
Cheers.
Day 19 Hang In There
Day 20 Bumped Into a Friend in Japan
Today’s writing included going over some material from when I lived in Japan. At the time I was an English teacher with the JET Programme which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to teach abroad. I was there from 2002-2004 in Iwate Prefecture about 550 kms north of Tokyo. Although my village had just 7000 people in it and one stop light, I loved it. Those were the two best years of my twenties.
A highlight was being surprised by a very good friend who I had not seen in several years. He literally bumped into me on top of a mountain and that was the material that I was enjoying today. This stuff will make it into my book. Here is today’s video.
Connections were made and some good life was lived.