So last week, I took time out for the first time to Ride Wild Donkeys. In my morning pages, this is what my soul said on day 3: “Thank you for showing up 3 days in a row to Ride Wild Donkeys. Thank you for trusting in your (our) ideas. Thank you for moving forward without knowing how it will turn out. Thank you for your courage, your faith and your trust in me. Thank you.”
You’d think showing up to Ride Wild Donkeys (take product creation ideas forward) would be fairly easy huh? But as that comment from my soul shows, it takes courage, trust, faith and focus. It was fascinating how tough it actually was! On Day 1, I LOVED it, at the end of the day I wanted to spend all day every day creating new stuff, and I was mentally SPENT! My soul cup had been well and truly emptied!
Day 2 wasn’t quite such a success, I’d had a bad night’s sleep so didn’t get to work as early as I wanted, so I started the day with self-criticism on full blast. That wasn’t so much fun…and is NOT helpful for Wild Donkey Riding – if you manage to get on the Donkey at all, your self-abuse makes you fall off! So, I had to spend an hour sorting that out first before I could really get into it! Day 3 was only half a day, and as I so often do, I tried to squeeze too much into that half a day, making it almost impossible to be satisfied by the end of the day!
What was great was how much I learned about how I Ride Wild Donkeys…and how to support myself the best in it. Sometimes we try an experiment and if there’s some negatives, we view it as a failure. But it’s not. It’s given you lots of feedback about what works and what doesn’t, and will help you do better next time. So, from the one great day and one ‘meh’ day and one ‘too short’ day’s Wild Donkey Riding, here’s my ten top tips:
1. Log out of facebook, twitter and e-mail. If you have to log in for a specific task, do said task and LOG OUT again. If possible, wait until the end of the day to do that task. Social media and e-mail are too tempting and too distracting.
2. Bring your journal/morning pages to the party – write before you start, write when you get stuck, write when you feel you need to move through something, write when your inner critic pops up, write when you want to give yourself a hi-5, write to clear your mind and focus your mind and encourage your creativity out to play.
3. Take time to meditate – this will help clear your mind and bring wonderful creative ideas to the fore.
4. Go with the flow of your energy – if your energy is dipping, get up and dance, or stretch, or get outside for a few minutes – do whatever you need to do to re-energise. Don’t just keep your nose to the grindstone…it’s counter-productive!
5. Put your phone on silent – it’s another distraction, get rid of it.
6. Choose which donkeys you will ride…if new donkeys show up, write them down for the next donkey riding day. In my half-day of Wild Donkey Riding, I realised it was stupid to try to ride all 3 of the Wild Donkeys I was working on – it spread my energy and time too thin.
7. Cover up the time on your computer, hide your clock. ‘What time it is’ is another distraction. If you need to stop by a certain time, set an alarm.
8. Keep a list of things to do AFTER so they don’t distract you DURING. It’s so easy to get distracted by one random thought after another. When you’re riding wild donkeys, don’t do anything else!
9. Have fun!
10. Switch off your inner critic. Seriously, give them a day off!
Although I am a fan of the ‘chipaway’ method of getting stuff done, when it comes to getting product ideas off the ground, Riding Wild Donkeys is a great way to get started or make big progress on a project! When you work this way you can really immerse yourself in the project, following the wonderful energy of creation without having to stop every five minutes to tick off another thing from the to-do list! There is no place to hide when you’re working on something exclusively.
So many times last week I found my fingers itching to open facebook or twitter or e-mail to distract myself from an uncomfortable feeling, a fear, a sudden dip in confidence, a mind-blank. Because I couldn’t, I worked through a LOT of stuff! Having no place to hide can also feel like a bad thing, but if you want to achieve more in your life, it’s good to hold your heels to the fire occasionally (metaphorically, DO NOT do this in ‘real’ life!)
When you immerse yourself in a project (or 3!), shit gets done! OMG does shit get done! Once I’d stopped beating myself up for everything I hadn’t done last week, I realised just how much progress I’d made. In 3 days, more progress than I had in the previous 3 months! Ouch.
Another good thing is the use of sparkly pens and post-it notes! That could just be me, but the Riding of Wild Donkeys did take a lot of stationery love from me!
And of course, your soul cup is empty at the end of the day. Because you haven’t been piddling about on Facebook/Twitter/ E-mail/the endless to-do list, you are really giving everything you have to your creative project. Ok, by the end of the day you’re SPENT, you’re at the cutting edge of your comfort zone, and none of the busy work gets done…which can be a great thing…honestly, for me it’s unsustainable on a regular basis, but I like taking the time at least once in a project to ride wild donkeys. The rest of the time, I have a major focus and work on that at least for a couple of hours a couple of times a week.
You have to find what works for you – so try Riding some Wild Donkeys and see what happens. It may be your ‘go to’ method of getting shit done all the time, or you may just keep it in your toolbox to start, accelerate or finish something as I do.
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16 responses to “Tips From A Wild Donkey Rider”
Lol Cassandra – I hear ya! If I remember just one thing from this, it’ll be ‘switch everything off but what you’re working on’! x
You are welcome Toni! Yep, think I need to put it on my to-do list every day! x
Right on point here, Donna! The internet is my nemesis when I’m trying to get stuff done. One minute I’m writing a blog post and the next I’ve gone 20 minutes on Pinterest. Sheesh!
Hi Donna,
Awesome post!!!
I really must remind myself to turn off my inner critic. Today you have reminded me!!
Thank you
mwah x
Thanks Dominee! Let me know if the tips help! x
Love, love, love! This post is awesome because I get distracted so easily, definitely bookmarking this one!
Fabulous! Thanks Goddess Jacqui! Seems like I hit a nerve with a few people on this one. Hi5 me! Good luck! Can’t wait to hear about your sparkly donkey riding! x
Ok, so my paddock is PACKED with wild donkeys … and I have to admit, I’ve been standing at the gate for ages, trying to decide which one to ride first!
So you, gorgeous Donna, arrived in the nick of time!!
I’ve decided to choose the ‘nearest’ donkey … ie the one that’s most pressing and will ride it till we are spent.
Thanks especially for the tips on how to clear the distractions out of the way, and what to do with the sparkly new donkeys that inevitably show up mid-ride!
I’ll report back on how it goes.
Bliss-ings and huge admiration,
the goddess known as Jacqui
Woohoo! Thanks Savannah – good luck with your project! x
Thanks Yiye! You wouldn’t believe how many Donkeys turned up to be ridden! Lol. And as for my inner critic…well, she’s usually pretty constructive, but this exercise threw her back to full be-atch mode! 😀 x
Lmao Shannon! That’s so funny. Ok, so in case you’re still procrastinating (or having a break!) – let me highlight tip 2. Write about it. Find out what is causing the distraction so you can get past it! GOOD LUCK with your wild donkey ride…and let us know how it goes! x
Awesome tips! I have a writing project to do this morning and you have inspired me to be more FOCUSED 🙂
Thanks for sharing Donna! I love the tips, especially 6 and 10!!
much love
Hi Donna,
Just reading about your Wild Donkey riding exhausted me! I’m having to focus on that today, myself. All I want to do is distract myself with ANYTHING else, and yet I can’t. I’ve even taken the day off to do this, so it’s ON. I HAVE to do this. No other option. And here I am procrastinating by reading blogs…lol. BUT this one is important because it kicked my butt and motivated me to go go go on that wild donkey ride today. Thank you for that. 🙂
You’re very welcome! I am delighted you joined in! That is interesting noticing…I was so glad to hear you were mentally spent too – it’s not just me! That’s a great idea to do the Donkey rides later in the week… I can’t do that, but I’m going to pencil in recovery time too. I wonder if when we do this regularly, we’ll build up mental muscles and be able to Donkey Ride longer and recover more quickly? x
Tried having a wile donkey day last week and loved it… however I sat down to work on my book and a totally different pack of donkeys showed up to the party. So not one to argue with what shows up, I hopped on and got some critical planning work on projects I’ve been putting off for some time – loved it. I managed to write in the afternoon session.
The things I noticed? I was exhausted – as though my brain had just run a mental marathon. Also, the day after when the typical day began it was very hard to get into the mundane tasks of business after floating around in the creative space for a full day the day before. I will be scheduling wile donkey days at the end of the week from now on, so I can recover and have time for the left over drippings that seem to seep out after the ride is over.
Thank you Donna for the inspiration! Loving it!