A Relaxed Attitude to Goals

Over the weekend, I signed up for NaNoWriMo – the National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you write a 50000 word novel in a month. What caught my attention was the ‘rule’ that you just write, you just get on with it, you don’t edit or start again or stop or take time to wonder if it’s any good. You just write 50000 words in a month.

Yesterday morning my ideas woke me up heckling me to write them, which was quite funny and I got about 4000 words done in one day. I’m off to a flying start, and I have no doubt that at some point I will stall and maybe not even finish. But do you know what? I don’t care. If I do it, great. If I don’t, it doesn’t make me a ‘failure’ – it just means I didn’t do it. I am not apathetic about it, I am just relaxed.

There is a big difference between the two. Apathy guarantees that you won’t do a thing. Relaxation guarantees that you’ll enjoy what you do, and that you won’t beat yourself to death with a stick if you don’t do. NaNoWriMo might not appeal to you, but you’ve got 60 days left of this fine year – what could you adopted a relaxed attitude to achieving your goals for the year? Remember if you do it, cool! If you don’t, cool! But if you don’t even start, you definitely won’t get anything done!

Love

Donna.x
PS If you’re doing NaNoWriMo, let me know!