DEAR WRITER: Your simple, S.M.A.R.T. and sexy writing career plan - Part III - Forcing vs. Inspiration

Now, you’ve gotten clear about your desires.

You’ve made them into S.M.A.R.T. goals.

And you’ve identified how you want to feel and don’t want to feel.

Now, we’re going to dig into action.

But not all actions are created equal.

Sometimes the main reason we flame out on our goal isn’t because of the WHAT but the HOW.

So, here we’re going to talk about taking inspired action rather than forced action and get real honest.

PART THREE: FORCED ACTION LIST

1.  Identify some forced actions that come from a more pain-forward (lol) approach. These should be things you REALLY don’t like doing or you’d have to really force yourself to do. These actions would probably elicit wah-wah-wah, I hate this sh*t type feelings.

(i.e. wake up at 3 am everyday to write even though I’m a night owl and send out my work to every publication that will have me without doing research on the kinds of magazines they are, being a member of a local writing group you hate.)

PART THREE: INSPIRED ACTION LIST

2.  Identify inspired actions that would elicit pleasurable emotions. Think you feeling good, fulfilled, and centered. (i.e. read for 10 minutes every day during my commute, schedule a hotel writing retreat once a month, send my essay to Electric Literature, etc.)