The New Year’s just around the corner, and that means you’re probably adding “make more time for writing” to your list of resolutions. There’s a reason resolutions don’t stick around, and I’ll tell you why:
they need more glue! (aka: a connection to the REASON the resolution was made in the first place.)
I’ll break it down. Say you want to go on a diet this year and embrace an exercise program that will burn away 10 to 15 pounds from your frame. Cool. Sounds great. But, what’s the incentive? What would losing 10 to 15 pounds do for your self-esteem, your body image, your mobility? Would it make you feel youthful, or in control of your life, if you took conscious care of your health? Would it give you confidence, knowing you can change your habits to ones that serve your ideals? Maybe it’s as simple as feeling sexy again after having a child. Get to the grit of it. Why the hell does being thinner matter to you?
THIS is the energy you must channel when you are making any sort of resolution. Even writing it down alongside your chore-like version (write more; lose weight) will help facilitate a true change.
Applying Dieting to Writing
If you want to make more time for your writing in 2014, become a two-year-old again for a second, and follow up every statement with a “Why?” What would “writing more” give you? “Progress on my novel,” you say. Why does finishing your novel this year matter so much to you? “It would give me a sense of accomplishment, knowing I can commit to transferring the elaborate stories that, so far, only exist in my head.” Keep badgering: What does this commitment spark inside of you? Joy? Excitement? Confidence? By making writing a priority, does it accomplish an expansion of your sense of Self? Would it enhance your current level of writing and ability to connect with others through words, and bring you closer to being published? What about being published would light you up?
Tapping into your own psychology for why writing is important to you is the only way to make a significant change regarding its presence in your life. Do you only write when you’re sad, but wish that you could write all the time, moods aside? Is there some wall you keep hitting in your storytelling that, with a little bit of discipline or outside guidance, could catapult you to the level you know you’re capable of?
Make realities of your wishes by connecting with the heart of them!
For questions around this subject, please feel free to comment here, or e-mail me at Kimmerlyaj@gmail.com. If you feel like you’re ready for a major breakthrough and need some one-on-one guidance, I’d love to offer you a complimentary 20-minute phone session on how to make that possible.
Polished Pear Creative Editing 
great post! i’ve had several people over the years ask me how I manage to keep writing/ working out/ eating healthy. they try and fail, they say. I say to them: you have to want it enough. if you give up because it’s “too hard”, or “not fun”– then it clearly does not matter much to you. if you seriously wanted to lose weight, you would endure the diet and exercise. if it matters enough, the will power discipline comes naturally. but as you say, at the foundation is WHY. integrity helps, I think. for it to matter that you keep promises and commitments. to keep your word.