Vary the Routine Every Now and Then

Here's to varying the routine every now and then to keep life fresh, the spirit spontaneous, and the mind awake ~ Jill Badonsky

Routines are essential to achieving most of life's tasks, professional or personal.  The idea of creating person routines was introduced to me nearly fifteen years ago when I worked in cash services for a large commercial bank.  We always coached the employees to develop personal routines to help them achieve their accuracy when handling large amounts of currency (upwards of one million dollars per day!). 

I took this idea of developing a routine and applied to my job at the time and have employed it every position ever since.  As a corporate trainer, I had certain administrative duties that had to be completed after each class and usually only had Mondays to complete them.  As a call center supervisor and manager, I created routines to ensure all my tasks are completed in a timely manner.

Routines are important when you're working on a dream journey.  Since many of us on a dream journey are also juggling other responsibilities like a full time job and family responsibilities, routines help ensure our dream journeys continue amidst our everyday lives.  Routines also help our family, friends, and supporters understand how important the time is to you and understand that their time is coming soon, and in your plan.

At the same time, sometimes it's just fun to mix things up every now and then.  For example, instead of setting a goal to just sit down and write, I am breaking up my writing time into bits and pieces.  This morning, I went ahead and did my workout, sat down and completed half my writing goal on A Place to Call Their Own, took a break to play on Twitter, wrote out this blog, and then I will return to the novel to complete my writing for the day. 

For me, sometimes it is just easiest to get the writing done and out of the way.  Sometimes it's nice to break it up, either because I'm struggling with a section or because during the breaks I might be doing something else I don't like, such as chores around the house.

I hope your routines are helping you achieve your dreams and goals this year.  Vary them every once and a while and I'm sure you'll get a new spring in your steps towards your dream journey.

What are your thoughts?

Here's to the Initial Feeling of Stepping into a Sauna



Here's to the initial feeling of stepping into a sauna ~ Jill Badonsky

I can't tell you the last time I got to sit in a sauna.  But this toast resonates with me because instead of thinking of stepping into a sauna, I love to visualize living my life in our dream house.

A couple of years ago, we found a rough floor plan of our dream home in a magazine while waiting at a doctor's appointment.  I tore the sheet from the magazine and we've had it hanging on our bulletins board ever since. My dad has even started working the blueprints and we have drawing of what it should look Ike that hangs above the mantel.

Visualizing your success at the end of your Dream journey is important.  So whether it's the materials things you might be able to realize at the end of your dream journey or the intangible rewards, visualize yourself reaching your goals and living the dream.

Here's to the classic movies we never grow tired of - The Awe-Manac by Jill Badonsky

Even if you claim that you only watch movies one time, I think everyone has at least one movie they can watch over and over again.  If you're like me and have lots of favorite movies that you watch over and over again, it's hard to define "classic.". Do you remember the first time you were possibly "forced" to watch some of those movies?  Only to discover later the art and beauty of said movies?

The routines we follow to achieve our dreams are much like some of those movies.  I remember reading about writing, and blogging every day.  The writing on the novel part excited me very much, blogging, not so much.  I didn't understand Twitter and the importance of presence there.

Now my day isn't complete without working on the novel, writing a blog post, and keeping up with Twitter.  These routines, recommended by other successful authors, are now a part of my day and I don't feel complete without working on them.  It's just like watching The Sound of Music Thanksgiving weekend or The Wizard of Oz in the spring around Easter.

What favorite routines do you look forward to on your success journey? Or, what are some of your favorite movies?  I'd love to hear about both, have a great day!

Here's to an Abundance of Art One Finds in Nature

Here's to an abundance of art one finds in nature. - The Awe-Manac by Jill Badonsky

What a wonderful toast and how appropriate. I'm tired of being frustrated with my bouts of insomnia, either at night or during the day, so I've been claiming those times for productivity. This morning, I pounded out 718 words from 2:00 am to 3:00 am. I have to tell you it felt pretty good.

This toast of the day grabbed my attention because I wrote about a particularly pastoral scene and thought about the beauty of the scene and the survival aspect. Yes, the whole humankind against nature theme. Then, I was able to write great paragraph where one of the main characters reflects the events as they've happened thus far and build some foreshadowing of events to come. I pick up a great example this while reading Motion to Kill by Joel Goldman. I love taking devices that work well in crime and mystery and using them to make my historical fiction piece even better.

Earlier today we went for a walk and found a beautiful memorial garden in the heart of our city. We've only lived in Kansas City for a little over the year so we're still discovering what our new city has to offer. Just taking a few minutes away from the house and getting outside has energized me enough to want to get home and get some productive writing done this afternoon. I would like to get some future blog posts started and I need to return to A Place to Call Their Own this weekend as well. 

What about you? If you're a fellow writer, how has nature inspired you? For my other followers, how has nature inspired you on your success journey?

Here's to Getting a Hairstyle You Really Like!

Here’s to getting a hairstyle you really like and here’s to good hair days! - The Awe-Manac by Jill Badonsky

I love getting my hair cut, approximately once a month. After a haircut, at least for a few days, I look a little different: most of the time (I hope) that’s fresh and renewed. And isn’t it nice when someone notices that change about you?

Over the weekend, I took a fresh look at my manuscript. I was back on track writing and in the middle of writing a great new action scene, I had remembered something about the setting in which I was writing. It was like setting down a book and then picking it back up again. Sometimes, I have to go back re-read sections to remember character’s names, relationships, settings, etc. That happened to me while writing on Friday morning: I suddenly remembered something to make the story so much more interesting at the time and it was burst of creativity that I was able to pour into that section of writing.

Now there are thousands of coaches out there that can teach you how to get your manuscript written in shorter amounts of time. I’m going on three years with A Place to Call Their Own and not even half way through it. There have been some pretty sizable breaks in my writing process, so it’s not been consistent. I’ll be the first to admit that. But I do tend to think, I had I not taken this time to savor this writing process, I don’t know if I would found the creativity to write some of the plot lines and characters into the story.

I do take breaks if I get a burst of creative energy for another project. Whenever that burst comes, I take the time to outline or even write out the scene that pops into my head. This has helped me return to my original novel, usually with fresh eyes and a fresh direction to continue.

It really is my goal to make A Place to Call Their Own my debut novel. In addition to this, I have two other WIP’s that are outlined and have about two thousands words each written.

What about you? Do you think that taking too long to accomplish your dream/goal helps you or do you think that it hinders the process? I’d love to hear your comments!

Here's to The Amazing Tricks That Technology Allows Us To Do!

Technology helps me to keep my routines and maintain some balance between work, writing, and some personal relaxation time. I have loved my iPhone since I've had it and now my iPad 2 just makes life even easier (this is my first blog post done completely from the iPad).

My favorite writing app is My Writing Spot. I use this great app to organize and sync all my writing documents. There is web access or smartphone access. You can color code the documents that work together. For example, I have all my chapters for a Place to Call Their Own in one color, all my blog posts are another. Anytime I have a brainstorm for a new idea, I pound it out and then it's saved there for future reference, under it's unique color.

Everything is synced in one place and it's saved on the server, not on a hard drive that could crash or a even an external drive that could get damaged (which I almost did this last week!). Anytime I have a few minutes and my iPhone, I've been able to work away at my latest blog post, current chapter, or pound out the latest idea for the next project.

In addition to keep up with your writing goals, having Facebook and Twitter is awesome as well. As a writer trying to develop a platform, being able to tweet and post status updates is both fun and productive. How else would I have known that I hit 1000 Twitter followers around 4 AM this morning?

Here's a link to My Writing Spot:

http://www.mywritingspot.com/

What is your favorite technology/app/web site that keeps you productive or on your road to reaching your goal? I'd love your comments!

Here's to Feeling a Peak Experience in the Creative Process!

Today's blog title comes courtesy of the Toast of the Day from The Awe-Manac by Jill Badonsky.  And what fitting title it is.  I wished it was because I had reached a peak in my creative process and that A Place to Call Their Own was done.  That couldn't be farther from the truth.  Today I wanted to talk about writer's block and my experiences of it in my writing journey.
I've been blocked from progressing my novel for a few months.  I have slowly limped back into it last week, partly from just reading some helpful articles.  Most of the advice, is "just do it" and so I have been setting my timer, set down at the computer, and hammered away at the chapter I'm working on.
At first I thought my block was coming from exhaustion at work.  This was my first Holiday Season at my new job and it as quite exhausting.  Then the opportunity came to start a new project at work.  That meant changing to a third shift schedule and I jumped at the chance, hoping to fit more writing time in my day.
But then I realized that my block is coming from my story being so, so incredibly boring at this point.
 Yes, I need to spice things up a bit.  And that is still the question of the day that I'm working on.  But in the meantime, I wanted to share some links to some helpful articles that have helped me at come to this conclusion, and at the same time, keep steadfast in my writing (click to open in a new tab or window or the link will appear over the blog):

Here's an inspirational article that really speaks to me about the art of being a writer:

http://mfainabox.com/blog/the-wannabe-writer-12-27-10/

I applied this article to my business writing this last week.  My (male) boss recently told me I write well in emails, but way too much!

http://networkedblogs.com/fz0ny

And this is the article that helped realize what I was writing was boring right now:

http://writersdigest.com/article/3-secrets-to-great-storytelling

And here are links to The Awe-Manac on Amazon and Barnes and Noble:

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Awe-manac-Daily-Dose-Wonder/dp/0762431253/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1300719612&sr=1-1

Barnes and Noble:  http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Awe-manac/Jill-Badonsky/e/9780762431250/?itm=1&USRI=jill+badonsky

And here's Jill's Website: http://themuseisin.com/

What most of these articles have done is helped me remember my vision and long term goal:  to be a novelist.  My specific goal for this week is to remember my vision and get the novel moving again.  Have a great day, everyone.