You may recall that a little over a week ago, I decided to take a break. I was burned out, in pain with a broken foot, and just plain exhausted. And so, with the exception of a very few necessary e-mails and a couple of unnecessary but irresistible blog comments, I managed not to write for an entire week. It was wonderful.
The idea, suggested by Carol Logan Newbill, was based on reverse psychology: If I was not allowed to write anything AT ALL, then maybe I would come back with a burning desire to get back to the keyboard.
That’s not what happened.
What would you do if I sang out a tune…?
Can’t remember the rest of the words, but that song just popped into my head along with this thought: What would you do if I — stopped blogging? Because I’m at that stage again [yes, I’ve done it before]… only the cycle has accelerated. Which means that pretty soon I should feel like writing again, right? Right?
God, I hope so. Because I’m getting depressed.
I don’t know which came first, the writer’s block or the depression, but it came back with a vengeance as soon as my week was up. And I’m here now, in the pit, and I don’t even feel like crawling out. I just want to give it all up and go back to what I did for six years: knitting, embroidery, and obsessively watching TV. Now THAT’S depressing.
Obviously, I NEED to write, if only for my mental health.
[Update to clarify: So I’d better keep doing this, because I’ll just get depressed all over again if I don’t. Plus, it feels sooo good once I get going. :)]Well, what am I going to write about, then? I need to get some blog posts done for Speak Clearly Online. That shouldn’t be too hard — all I have to do is go through my voice coaching mind map and flesh out each point into a complete blog post. And I will have at least a dozen posts all done and ready to go. Then just schedule them for once a week, and then come back here and focus on The Complete Flake—
As if!
If I go back and look at what has worked for me in the past, in terms of productivity, I can think of one word: deadlines. Deadlines, and a concrete task. I absolutely need to know exactly what to do. Vague is not an option.
But — I know all too well that I ignore my own deadlines. What I need is outside pressure [but not too much!] and accountability. So I guess the best thing to do is go to the accountability area in Dave Navarro’s Group Mentorship forum — and go public. Hold on a sec…
Done! Here’s what I posted:
Okay, I’ll play — because I need to be publicly accountable or I won’t do it. So here is what I need to get done, in a fairly short time frame so I don’t lose focus:
- Work through Dave’s Product in a Weekend workbook to create — a group voice coaching webinar! Because I’m a big dreamer.
Deadline: Tuesday- Then figure out who to approach for joint ventures (following Dave’s fabulous advice in the Influencer Project to JV with people who have your audience but sell something else) and…
- Start approaching people. (This one really scares me, so I’m going to dig into Chris Garrett’s Shy Networking for help with that. It’s been sitting on my hard drive for two or three weeks now, sigh.)
Deadline: Thursday.
So now I’m committed. That’s good. Scary, but good.
Interesting: now that I’m starting to write something, my depression is gone. Yay! But it wasn’t just the writing — it was the publicly committing. Now comes the hard part: following through.
But really, it shouldn’t be too hard at all. I have the mind map all done, I have used it for numerous voice coaching sessions already, so all I have to do is use that and Dragon NaturallySpeaking to dictate an extended version of my voice coaching sessions, and I’ll be home free. And I’ll be able to use parts of it for blog posts too.
AND — I think I’ve just written a blog post for Complete Flake — win-win! Amazing how easy it is to nip a depression in the bud with just a tiny bit of productivity.
Want to make a public commitment to something you’ve been stalling on? Make it in the comments below, and we can cheer each other on!
Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I’ll get a small commission. Image credit: aussiegall
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…would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your ear and I'll sing you a song and I'll try not to sing out of key. I get by with a little help from my friends.
Yep..You just did.
Your old friend called “public commitment” just rocked you through another blog post. Just blasted you through a low point.
And when that doesn't work, you always have me to kick you in the ass. Just like you do for me.
So glad you're back and a part of my life, LaVonne. #gottaloveyourfriends
Ohh, you made me cry! Thank you, sweetie. It's so nice to know you've got my
back. And I've got yours. #sniffle
I totally agree with the outside pressure! It's not just the pressure though, it's the motivation that comes along with it.
Miss Lisa here is very good at that, getting me all excited about a website!
Nooooooo! Don't stop writing! LaVonne, when I wade through my Twitter stream and see you have a new blog post, I ALWAYS click it because I know it will always be worth reading. And if I'm one person telling you that, there are probably numerous others who feel the same way and just aren't speaking up right now. 🙂
I do however, beg to differ that knitting and embroidery are a bad way to spend time, but I suppose it depends on if you're doing it in that repetitive, tune-out-the-world way or as creative expression.
Your blog and voice coaching business are such wonderful expressions of who you are. Please don't deny the world all you have to offer!
Sue, thank you so much for that. You make me feel all warm inside. 🙂 I
should have made it more clear that I realized in the course of writing the
post that NOT writing/blogging is the cause of my depression. Ergo, I need
to do it for my own mental health. I made an update to the post so others
don't misunderstand.
Miss Lisa is very good at a lot of things. And so are you. 🙂
Thanks! And don't forget yourself 😛
Lovely my dear. Accountability to action is what most people pay really big bucks for — they are no different than you or me of course, they just pay to have someone hold them accountable. That someone is often called a coach. Coaches aren't necessarily any smarter than the average bear, and usually have our own messes to clean up, right? But, accountability to action. You rock. You just got yourself a whole team of accountability coaches…rock on.!
Forgot to respond to the knitting/embroidery comment: I'm so sorry I gave the impression I think they're a bad way to spend time — I don't at ALL! And I love doing them. I'm just not very talented/patient, and I was using them more for tuning out the world than for creative expression. Thanks for catching that. 🙂
“You just got yourself a whole team of accountability coaches…rock on.!”
Who knew? And thanks for pointing that out. 🙂
Lovely post LaVonne, that level of self-awareness is really admirable. It's inspiring to see how you spotted a pattern repeating itself and took the steps necessary to change it.
p.s. and I echo Sue's point: it's always worth reading what you write 🙂
Yes, I got that but it made me nervous that you had been resisting writing because I want you to keep producing good stuff for me to read. 🙂
Aww, thanks Hannah!
LaVonne, I’m so sorry I didn’t read this until now. I’m so glad you’re back! Like someone earlier said, I also always read the posts you Tweet about (even if it sometimes takes me a week).
I am with you on the accountability thing. That’s a very “P” trait – we want to keep our options open and remain open to future possibilities, so it takes a serious deadline to spur us into taking any decisive action. I remember how you posted for a week or so about having to write a sales page and feeling such pressure because you had been interviewed and it was going to be published on a big name blog soon. Maybe you need to guest post more often? Knowing that others will be regularly checking your content here might spur you on.
I also connected with what you said about realizing that not writing was actually the cause of your depressed state. I go through cycles where I get depressed, and invariably once I realize I’m trapped in the cycle again I can trace it back to not engaging with people enough. For some reason, working hard on a project in my office – even a project I’m engaged with – lowers my energy instead of raising it. The more people I visit with, the happier I get.
Sorry this is long (you didn’t ask for a guest post, let alone in your comments!), but I’m glad you’re back. I missed you.
Wendy! I’ve been waiting for you – didn’t realize you were waiting for me, lol. I’ve been scared of doing guest posts because of the whole commitment thing – worried I won’t be able to come up with a decent piece, but I know you’re right. Once I’m committed, that will motivate me and I’ll get it done.