Category: Writing

General category of writing

NaNoWriMo* – Day 19 of 30

Posted on by Cheryl

If you’ve been following along with me during this 30-Day Challenge, you may be wondering if I abandoned my running and training plan.

I’m happy to report that I am still running and training!!!

My current 30-challenge; however has revolved around developing the discipline to write every day. So that has resulted in a jumbled set of posts that don’t really follow any pattern, but I am so thrilled that to-date I have posted EVERY DAY for the last 19 days!!!

That in itself is a win for me, since I usually am very good at “issuing challenges”, but not necessarily great at execution and follow-through! So with 11 days remaining, I hope you will stick with me and understand that I am mainly writing with a “stream of consciousness” approach. Whatever comes to mind that particular day is what ends up in my post 😎

But about the training… today Coach Amy instructed me to run 3 miles EASY with a 2-minute warm-up and a 2-minute cool-down. Not only did I accomplish that, I did it pushing a stroller (with our grandson – a super cute running partner)!!!

Stay with me, I’m about to turn the corner and see the finish line!!!

*NaNoWriMo is an annual event that challenges you to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month! Crazy right? Not everyone uses the challenge to write a novel – we are called NaNoRebels. For example, I challenged myself to write one blog post every day for a month and that is what you are seeing in these NaNoWriMo posts!!!

NaNoWriMo* – Day 16 of 30

Posted on by Cheryl

Beat back the doldrums with a run.

Amp it up more by inviting your best buds to run with you!!!

Although I consider myself a mostly positive person, there are days where things are just kinda blah. I think I’ve noticed a pattern. It seems like the doldrum days tend to follow a day or a period of great excitement.

It may be a day or so after a race or other type of event, when the afterglow has worn off and I’m left with just some sore legs or a muscle ache or two. Or when we’ve just gotten back from a vacay and the smell of the dirty laundry is overpowering the lingering memories of the fun we had.

When I find myself in the middle of a doldrum day, I push myself to move!

There’s nothing like a bit of movement to shake off the blues, whether they be Monday Blues or any other day blues. Which reminds me – in an earlier post I talked about a survey I am doing to report on whether the “Monday Blues” are a real thing or just an opportunity to jump on the bandwagon of shared misery.

I am still gathering responses and would love to include you in the survey. Choose from the following four answers to my “Monday Question” and include it in the comments below. Thank you to those who do – I really appreciate it!!!

Which statement best describes your view of Mondays…

1 – I dread Mondays. It means the start of another long work week, with the weekend seeming so far away.

2 – I look forward to Mondays. It’s always great to get a fresh start to a new week.

3 – I am a bandwagon rider. I’ll bemoan Mondays with the best of them, but I don’t really mind Mondays at all.

4 – I am ambivalent. I don’t really dread Mondays, but I don’t necessary get all excited about a Monday either.

Cheers to Mondays! Cheryl

*NaNoWriMo is an annual event that challenges you to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month! Crazy right? Not everyone uses the challenge to write a novel – we are called NaNoRebels. For example, I challenged myself to write one blog post every day for a month and that is what you are seeing in these NaNoWriMo posts!!!

NaNoWriMo* – Day 8 of 30

Posted on by Cheryl
What my imagination says I look like when I start running.

Day 1 of Training is in the books. Here’s how it went down…

Yesterday, my Garmin Watch Coach ( Coach Amy – who BTW, seems super nice after watching the recorded training plan introduction video) instructed me to warm-up for 2 minutes by jogging easy, then run hard for 5 minutes and then cool down by jogging easy for 2 minutes. Piece of cake right? I almost threw up.

Are you the competitive type?

Well, as much as I try to just chill and take it easy, I can’t help pushing the envelope in ways that are probably not in my best interest. Maybe it was because when I started out jogging “lightly” in my neighborhood, I had to pass two neighbors and I didn’t want them to think a 10-minute mile was all I had in me – right?

So my light jog, turned into more of a “threshold pace”, that’s runner terminology for the pace at which your muscles start fatiguing at a rapid rate.  Not a good way to start my benchmark run. Plus, it meant that the 5 minutes of “running hard” was going to have to be faster, so I got myself into a predicament by letting stupid pride get in the way. Note to self… remind myself that I am no longer 26 🙂

Anyway, with my breathing elevated (and no easy warm-up), I had to move into “running hard” which was unfortunate because like I said, I already was running hard. Now I had to run harder… for 5 long minutes!!!

To make matters worse, MORE neighbors out walking and waving, while I am beat red, sweating profusely and clearly working harder than I should be. Thankfully, I was able to force a smile and pass them before they could offer to call me an ambulance.

Five grueling minutes later, I was able to move into cool down mode – this time with no choice but to jog lightly. Thankfully, no more neighbors to impress.

And, there it is, in the books, Day 1 of my 20 weeks of training for my March Half-Marathon. How is your training going?

*If you’re wondering what NaNoWriMo is… it stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is an annual event that began in 1999 as a challenge to writers to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month! Whew, crazy right? Not everyone uses this challenge to write a novel. Take me for example, I signed up for NaNoWriMo and challenged myself to write one blog post every day for a month and that is what you are seeing in these NaNoWriMo posts!!!

NaNoWriMo* – Day 7 of 30

Posted on by Cheryl

Put me in Coach, I’m ready to run!

The last time I ran a Boston qualifying time was in 1986. I’ll save you the calculation – that’s 34 years ago! A lot has happened in those 34 years, but I thought it would be fun to look back at that year and see how I set up my training. If it worked back then, why not give it another go!

I ran one half-marathon in the Spring of 1986 – it was the Lake County Half-Marathon and it was in April. I remember it was the weekend we changed our clocks for daylight savings, because we got 1 less hour of sleep that night.

Searching for upcoming spring races in North Carolina, I found a half-marathon March 27, 2021 that hasn’t yet been cancelled. The Sunset Beach Half-Marathon. At the very least it should be scenic! It will be interesting to see how my current running compares to my much younger self 🙂

Once you have a race goal in mind, if you can, sign up and pay for it! This will give you extra motivation to put in the necessary work.

Now that I have my target race, I can setup a training plan – you should too!

I love this easy Date Calculator. I typed in today’s date and my selected race date and calculated the difference to be 140 days. That’s 20 weeks. Most coaches suggest training for 14 – 26 weeks, depending on your race, experience, pace goal and running base, so I should be in good shape having 20 weeks to train.

You can browse through several different training plans in the Running Resources Tab to find a training plan that suits you.

Training starts today – I’m so excited!!!

*If you’re wondering what NaNoWriMo is… it stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is an annual event that began in 1999 as a challenge to writers to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month! Whew, crazy right? Not everyone uses this challenge to write a novel. Take me for example, I signed up for NaNoWriMo and challenged myself to write one blog post every day for a month and that is what you are seeing in these NaNoWriMo posts!!!

NaNoWriMo* – Day 6 of 30

Posted on by Cheryl

If you’ve been following my NaNoWriMo posts over the last 5 days, you may be wondering if I will ever get to the subject of running, seeing as that is the supposed focus of my blog. Well, here we go.

You know how sometimes…

You get all excited about a race that you worked hard to prepare for and then something happens to derail you? Maybe it’s an illness or an injury or a family event or a world event or a sudden feeling that you’ve reached a bit too far beyond your current readiness. Whatever it is, the excitement has now been turned sideways and you are deciding how to proceed.

So that is the state I find myself in right now.

I was planning on running Chicago 2020 in my next attempt to qualify for an entry into the Boston Marathon. If you are not living on a secluded island (and maybe even if you are), you know that 2020 turned sideways for a lot of people. In my case, it’s only a setback. I know that others’ lives have been truly devastated in far more significant ways and for those people I will always feel an incredible sadness, yet I too feel a sense of sadness and loss.

For me, I know I have to create a strategy for moving forward. Taking what I’ve learned from my research into why I don’t finish things and my research into strategies for changing that, I need to analyze my goal and put it through a few tests.

First, I’ll examine whether this is a goal worth pursuing…

1 – Is this challenge around something that I love? YES RUNNING!

2 – Will it be easy? DEFINITELY NOT!

3 – Is there intrinsic motivation? That is, will I enjoy the journey, even if I fall short of the finish line? With help from readers like you, I think I can say YES! I’m hoping to connect with other like-minded goal-seekers who are stretching to reach a life-long goal and that in itself will be hugely rewarding!

If you apply these same 3 questions to your goal/challenge, make sure that if it’s not going to be easy, it is around something you love AND that you’re confident you will get joy from the journey!

Next, I’ll apply some strategies to increase the odds that I will finish…

1 – Estimate how long it will take to reach this goal and multiply by 3. Interesting. When I first thought about this goal in 2017, I thought it would take me 1 year of hard, focused training and then by running the 2018 Chicago Marathon, I would punch my entry ticket to Boston.

What happened you ask?

I did start training in 2017 and I did run the 2018 Chicago Marathon; however, I injured myself 5 weeks before the race (that’s a story for another post) and my time of 4:31 did not come near a qualifying entry.

Following this advice, I need 3 years of training and 3 total attempts at qualifying. I think this is sound advice as I’ve found that my training “base” hasn’t been as easy to build as I originally thought. Ok, I’m down with this. Chicago to Boston qualifier in 2 more years. We can do this – notice how I’ve already added you to my team 🙂 I want to be a part of your training team too, so comment below what you are training for!

2 – Based on the estimate above, decide if it’s worth starting (or in my case, continuing). I am locked and loaded and definitely committed. I think the journey with others who are stretching themselves to reach a long-term, lifelong goal will be worth all the time and effort. How about you?

*If you’re wondering what NaNoWriMo is… it stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is an annual event that began in 1999 as a challenge to writers to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month! Whew, crazy right? Not everyone uses this challenge to write a novel. Take me for example, I signed up for NaNoWriMo and challenged myself to write one blog post every day for a month and that is what you are seeing in these NaNoWriMo posts!!!

I’d love to here the exciting journeys you are embarking on!!! Let me know in the comments below!

NaNoWriMo* – Day 5 of 30

Posted on by Cheryl

Words of Wisdom for those Down Days

When I am in danger of falling into the doldrums, I stop and take 12 minutes and 44 seconds to re-watch this TED Talk. I always changes my day for the better. Maybe it will for you too.

This video was from December of 2013.

Sam Berns, was 17 and a Junior at Foxboro High School in Foxboro Massachusetts when he passed in January of 2014.

He had Progeria, a rare, rapid aging disease which was diagnosed when he was just 2. He is featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary Life According to Sam. That HBO documentary premiered 2 days before his 17th birthday on October 21, 2013.

He leaves behind wisdom that transcends his age.

His words of wisdom summarized…

1 – Focus on the things you CAN do, instead of those that you can’t.

2 – Surround yourself with people that you truly enjoy being with and appreciate each and every one of them.

3 – Keep moving forward.

BONUS advice from Sam – never miss a party!!!

Thanks Sam – truly great advice for living a full and happy life.

*If you’re wondering what NaNoWriMo is… it stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is an annual event that began in 1999 as a challenge to writers to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month! Whew, crazy right? Not everyone uses this challenge to write a novel. Take me for example, I signed up for NaNoWriMo and challenged myself to write one blog post every day for a month and that is what you are seeing in these NaNoWriMo posts!!!

NaNoWriMo* – Day 4 of 30

Posted on by Cheryl

After determining the WHY it’s time to explore the HOW!

So, in my situation, I’ve determined that boredom is one of the biggest reasons I end up shelving various tasks, projects or challenges that I start. See Day 3 of NaNoWriMo for the details!

A little research turned up these 3 strategies for increasing my odds of finishing things…

STRATEGY #1 – Apply a little psychology

1 – Search for patterns in past unfinished projects.  List every past project you can remember. Note why you started the activity, and when and why you stopped. Notice any reoccurring themes? (This would take me WAY too long, so I skipped this tip.)

2 – Research your next project before jumping in.  Try to identify what others have experienced when attempting a similar goal. This can help with recognizing unrealistic project goals. (Probably not going to take the time to do this one either.)

3 – Know yourself and be realistic. Setting goals you can’t possibly achieve, while insisting you can, sets you up for failure. (This is at odds with my personality, because my favorite quote is “Shoot for the Moon, even if you miss, you will land among the Stars.”)

4 – Make a timeline or list the steps needed to finish the project.  Focus on specific efforts you can apply towards the ultimate goal, like so many words per day, hours per week, etc. (I do see the value in this one – will try to put this one into action.)

5 – Identify intrinsic motivations for achieving this goal.  Identify the rewards that you will get from the journey. This will help if it’s taking longer than expected to complete things. (I have an inspiration block in my office that states “The Journey is the Reward”, so this definitely aligns with my personality; unfortunately, It hasn’t helped me finish my projects so far!)

STRATEGY #2 – Find an Accountability Partner

The American Society of Training and Development found that people are 65 percent likely to meet a goal after committing to another person, and their chances of success increase to 95 percent when they schedule ongoing meetings with their partners to check in on their progress. (I do agree with this because in the past when I’ve done this, I definitely had a higher completion percentage!)

According to Jocelyn J. Jones of “Faith on the Journey” (and most people would probably agree), too many of us fail to take this crucial step when starting out on a new venture. Having friends and mentors in your life help to make sure you keep the promises you make to yourself!!! (100% agree – will implement this as well)

STRATEGY #3 – Start fewer things and kick the perfection habit!

Taken from ideas in the book “Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” by Greg McKeown..

Most people would agree that starting new things can be exciting. Our brain sends us feel good signals when we are starting something new. And of course because it feels good, we repeat the behavior that results in that feeling. Unfortunately, once the excitement fades we tend to lose interest in things we don’t really care about, so we set them aside, half-completed. There they sit on a “to do” list or haunting us in some other way, leading to guilt and then stress.

McKeown suggests that we can break that cycle. How? “Count the full cost,” he says.

When we think about how long it will take to complete something, or how much it will cost, most people grossly underestimate the investment. Been there done that A LOT!

Mr. McKeown suggests that whenever you estimate your investment – multiply it by three. While that sounds like a lot, I feel like from my own experience, it’s pretty spot on. McKeown himself has found this little trick to be “absolutely” accurate when making realistic estimates.

Making more realistic estimates of how much time or money this “new thing” is going to cost you will help you be more selective of what you decide to start, leading to you starting fewer things! Fewer things started, fewer unfinished projects. Wow – this makes too much sense 🙂

Once you’ve identified that the task, project, challenge or goal is “worth the full cost”, how do you increase the odds that you don’t abandon it the first time you come up against an obstacle to completing it?

One of the big reasons we hit obstacles is that many of us seek perfection (I’m definitely guilty of this). So kick the perfection habit and go for… DONE, FINISHED, COMPLETE.

Summary of what will help me finish more of what I start…

  • Do a mental calculation of how much time a new venture will take and multiple it times 3!!!
  • Based on the cost, decide if it is worth starting! If it’s a go, continue with the next strategies.
  • Make a timeline for the project and list any steps required.
  • Focus on enjoying the journey!
  • Find an accountability partner to keep me honest.
  • Kick the perfection habit and finish.

Let’s go finish some stuff!

*If you’re wondering what NaNoWriMo is… it stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is an annual event that began in 1999 as a challenge to writers to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month! Whew, crazy right? Not everyone uses this challenge to write a novel. Take me for example, I signed up for NaNoWriMo and challenged myself to write one blog post every day for a month and that is what you are seeing in these NaNoWriMo posts!!!

NaNoWriMo* – Day 3 of 30

Posted on by Cheryl

What did I get myself into, AGAIN?

You may be thinking this too if you joined the NaNoWriMo challenge this month or any other challenge, commitment, program or whatever. For me, it’s Day 3 of this 30 Day challenge and I am already wondering if I have it in me to cross the finish line.

This isn’t a new phenomena for me. A typical scenario plays out like this…

See shiny object >>> Chase shiny object >>> Get excited for a day or 2 or 3 >>> Get discouraged, disinterested or otherwise less than enthused about committing to this latest “thing”.

I have done this with the Whole 30 – mine lasted a Whole 6 days.

I have done this with writing in journals. At last count, I have 8-10 started journals, some with as many as 30 days worth of entries, but most with only a page or two.

I have done this with weight-training, running, walking, reading and eating. You name it, I’ve started it and not completed it.

WHY AM I DOING THIS TO MYSELF???

I’ve read countless books, articles, blogs and listened to podcasts, friends and family and still have not been able to break through and finish what I start. So what am I missing?

Your thoughts please?

While I am waiting for you to weigh in on this, I did a little research and here’s what I turned up.

I STARTED WITH WHY. Why am I not finishing things?

Joseph Ferrari is a professor of psychology at DePaul University. He wrote the book Still Procrastinating: The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done. and poses three potential reasons for why…

1. Fear of failing to impress.
“People don’t want to have their ability judged, they’d rather have their effort judged,” says Ferrari. Prolonging the completion of a task or project could be a way of avoiding the fear of having their work harshly evaluated. Not sure this applies to me.

2. Fear of setting the bar too high.
Sometimes success that makes people avoid completing a task or project. According to Ferrari, if you “do too good of a job the first time around, you might set yourself up with impossible standards for the future.” Not sure this applies to me.

3. Not wanting to put an end to the fun.
If you’re having a good time working on a project or task, finishing can be disappointing. This definitely does not apply to me.

So, back to my question – Why don’t I finish things?

According to Ferrari, starting a new project is like falling in love. It’s exciting, emotionally arousing, and infused with the natural motivator of novelty. This can even lead us to become obsessive about this new activity. We only see the positive parts of this activity, event, challenge, project or whatever is it we are embarking on.

We turn a blind eye to potential obstacles or downsides that may accompany this new love.

After some time goes by, the activity turns into harder work than we expected – this is me to a tee! Maybe it takes longer to complete than we’d hoped, or there’s some not so fun or exciting tasks involved. At this point, we realize maybe we aren’t so in love with this new “thing”.

Stuck at this point, we grind to a halt. We usually don’t recognize that we’ve essentially quit trying. We just put off the “getting back to it” until such time as we imagine it will be effortless again.

This shelving of the project could be fueled by perfectionism or a host of other reasons. No matter, the fact is that almost inevitably, we simply stop moving forward. Laziness may be one small piece of the problem, but few of us are lazy when it comes to doing what we love, what’s easy, and what’s intrinsically rewarding.

So…I need to find things that I love, are easy and intrinsically rewarding. That may not be as easy as it sounds 🙂

*If you’re wondering what NaNoWriMo is… it stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is an annual event that began in 1999 as a challenge to writers to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month! Whew, crazy right? Not everyone uses this challenge to write a novel. Take me for example, I signed up for NaNoWriMo and challenged myself to write one blog post every day for a month and that is what you are seeing in these NaNoWriMo posts!!!

NaNoWriMo* – Day 2 of 30

Posted on by Cheryl

IS THIS YOU???

OR IS THIS YOU???

Mondays definitely get a bad rap.

Maybe it is deserved, maybe not. I decided to do an informal survey and see where people align with how they feel about Mondays. Is it that we are simply following the crowd in its collective dread of Mondays but secretly we are more likely to be excited about the possibilities that exist at the start of a new week?

I’ll report back next Monday with the results of my study. In the meantime, here are three fun facts about “Monday” taken from “22 Facts About Monday To Kickstart Your Week“…

1. Monday is the only day of the week...
that is an anagram for a single word. That word is ‘dynamo’.

2. A study completed in 2011 reveals that…
the average person moans for 34 minutes on a Monday, compared to only 22 minutes the other days.

3. When scientists recorded emotions of people during each day, they found…
Monday to be no different from Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. However, when they asked people to REMEMBER which day was most stressful, they always said Monday. This apparently is due to a larger emotional shift from Sunday to Monday, than there is between Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Happy Monday Everyone!!!

*If you’re wondering what NaNoWriMo is… it stands for National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo is an annual event that began in 1999 as a challenge to writers to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month! Whew, crazy right? Not everyone uses this challenge to write a novel. Take me for example, I signed up for NaNoWriMo and challenged myself to write one blog post every day for a month and that is what you are seeing in these NaNoWriMo posts!!!

NaNoWriMo – Day 1 of 30

Posted on by Cheryl
hand, finger, turn on

The Relaunch

I must have started and re-started this blog a gazillion times. Will this be the time it sticks? I sure hope so.

It’s November 1st, 2020, a happy/sad day. Happy because it’s my Mom’s birthday and that makes me smile. Sad because this is her 5th birthday in heaven and I really really wish I could give her a big birthday hug in person.

Because I can’t do that and since my Mom was such a lover of reading, I thought I would honor her by starting the NaNoWriMo writing challenge. If you haven’t heard of NaNoWriMo, let me fill you in. It stands for “National Novel Writing Month” and it’s been happening every November since 1999. Their site explains it better than I could…

It’s a wild, fast-paced creative writing event where the challenge is to write 50,000 words of the first draft of a novel in just 30 days. That’s 1,667 words (or about 6.5 double-spaced typed pages) a day! For comparison, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is 50,061 words and The Giver by Lois Lowry is 41,905 words.

Source… nanowrimo.org

Because I am not writing a novel, I am challenging myself to writing one blog post a day for the entire month of November. This is Day 1 of 30 – I hope you will stick with me and see where this month takes me 🙂 For fun, I’ve invited some family members to join me in this challenge. You can start your own NaNoWriMo challenge too! If you do, let me know what your challenge is and how it’s going – I’d love to support you in your writing goals as well!

Let’s do this!