I’ve had my second book finished for nearly two years, but haven’t managed to published it. There are many factors. Publishing is big business, and I don’t have the network contacts to navigate that very easily. I’ve also had a lot of distractions. My dad was in hospice for almost a year, in another state, and that required a ton of travel and health care management. Then my income diminished so much that I had turn my house into a rental and move somewhere else. Those distractions were pretty big deals. But then there are the smaller things. Some days I just feel like I need a rest, and would rather read books and do crossword puzzles than take on anything big. At what point do those “distractions” become an issue? When do they become avoidance?

Several years ago, when I finished chemo, I had trouble motivating to do anything. To help myself, I set up a weekly calendar. I used it to schedule every activity in my day, including exercise and meals and naps. I scheduled writing and networking time where I thought I would have the energy to do it. When I did not follow through on a scheduled activity, I wrote what I did instead in my calendar. The point was not to beat myself up for failing to follow through, it was to look at how I was choosing to use my time. This was illuminating. Responding to an emergency with one of my kids is obviously a no-brainer in the excuse department. But scrolling through facebook or reading books instead of working on my scheduled goals is not.

Our lives are built around busy-busy task accomplishment as status symbol. It’s important to have down time. That should be in the schedule too! But down time can’t regularly displace quality attention to my important goals. I’m going to have to go cold turkey on crossword puzzles.

I also need to remind myself that I have made progress. I got my first rejection notice this month. I’m taking marketing classes and working on writing a book proposal (ten-page paper of support for my book). Anyone out there know of a good publishing connection with someone who would understand channeled writing??