We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the center: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork, you must make a decision.
C. S. Lewis
In last week’s Cup of Joe, Joseph Michael talked about “How to Finish One Project (Without Starting Six More)”, Joe recommends taking one project and focusing on it for the next six weeks. Ignore the others.
Joe quotes, Jack Heffron from The Writer’s Idea Book:
My advice is to commit to one, for now. And it’s not easy. In fact, it’s often the case that as soon as we commit to one project, the other’s we’ve put on hold seem to offer so much more potential, seem much riper with possibilities, far more publishable, far more fun. Don’t fall for this “grass is greener” syndrom. In most cases, it’s simply a way to keep yourself from committing to a project, from taking the emotional, intenllectual, and literary risk of going down deep in your creative explorations.
Heffron says to give yourself a deadline or an endpoint for that project.
But…but…but…
So, I narrowed it down to one project that I’m working on. Details aren’t important, but I’ve given myself six weeks to focus on this project. If I’m successful, I’ll have a publishable work in a month and a half.
To be clear, I’m focusing on that one project.
Well, that and this blog, and the 100 Day Project. With Easter, I’ve finished that part of the church season and I don’t currently have another in the works.
But there are other projects.
At least once a weekend I make a l?ist of all the shiny projects that are calling for my attention.
The Write Side Shop
I have to let them go for now. I have one project to focus on. And reality is, I can finish it in six weeks.
Well, five and a half weeks because I set the deadline beginning Saturday.
Don’t @ me Carol. We just had Easter weekend and I had yesterday’s procedure.
Even as I’m writing this there are other things calling my attention. Other writing emails I need to read. Other resources I need to pay attention to.
Makes Note: Order Heffron’s book.
While I can’t just drop everything, after all there is a day job still, and while I’ll keep up with the blog and finish The 100 Day Project, I am focusing on one additional project.
My apologies to the six or seven unfinished novels on my shelves, to the art projects, to…well, you get the idea.
I like to tell myself that if I could retire right now I’d have time for all of these projects.
I might, until I found more.
In a sense, a decision was made here. Along with the routine stuff, I will focus on one extra project.
The decision that was almost made was taking, yet another, break from the blog.
But I think I need this discipline. I need this accountability.
One of these days I’ll get all of this right.
One project at a time.
American singer-songwriter and producer, Luther Vandross, was born on this day in 1951 (d. 2005)
THINGS YOU SHOULD READ
‘Never Too Late To Admit Your Mistakes’: 16 States Urge Biden To Reopen Keystone XL Pipeline Daily Caller
The letter, sent to Biden on Monday and signed by 16 state attorneys general, reiterated past calls for the president to rescind a January 2021 executive order nixing the Keystone XL permit. Several of the top state officials, including Republican Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who led the letter, joined a legal challenge against the executive order in March 2021. Read More
Here’s a dozen times Joe Biden played a role in son Hunter’s business dealings New York Post
President Biden and the White House have repeatedly denied that he and Hunter Biden ever discussed the first son’s controversial overseas business dealings — yet there are at least a dozen times when Joe Biden had to know what his son was doing. Read More.
BORN ON THIS DAY
1889 – Adolf Hitler, Austrian born German politician, Führer of Nazi Germany (d. 1945) (no matter how ugly, we should never forget history)
1914 – Betty Lou Gerson, American actress (d. 1999)
1920 – John Paul Stevens, American lawyer and jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 2019)
1937 – George Takei, American actor
1941 – Ryan O’Neal, American actor
1948 – Gregory Itzin, American actor
1949 – Jessica Lange, American actress
1961 – Don Mattingly, American baseball player, coach, and manager
BENEDICTION
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
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In last week’s Cup of Joe, Joseph Michael talked about “How to Finish One Project (Without Starting Six More)”, Joe recommends taking one project and focusing on it for the next six weeks. Ignore the others.
