Giving Up to Get More

Today’s Ash Wednesday and for this good little Catholic girl, it’s always meant giving up something. Chocolate when I was eight, cigarettes when I was twenty, and that one (very long) Lent when I gave up my favorite adult beverage.

It was all about self-sacrifice and developing discipline; if one can resist the temptation of something little, like chocolate, imagine how much stronger one may be when those BIG temptations come along in life. And sometimes, giving up bad habits for a couple weeks could lead to forming better habits forever. So what has all this got to do with writing? I’m thinking that we can apply the giving up strategy to our writing lives. And maybe, at the end of the month and a half or so, we’ll break some bad habits for good:

The TIME Habit

If you’re like me, you have that one vice that sucks away your time. Maybe it’s piddling around on social media which you justify by calling it work when really, you’re just checking out the latest about Outlander. It started as a book, though (and that's an interesting story in itself!), so technically, it’s totally justifiable.

Anyway, the point is, we probably all have our Achilles’ heel when it comes to wasting time, whether it’s online shopping, social media, or Netflix bingeing. And all those wasted hours add up. So giving up the time we waste to make time to write could add five, six, seven hours or more a week. That’s a lot of writing!

The MONEY Habit

Much like time, we have our personal downfalls when it comes to spending our hard-earned cash. But it’s only one cup of coffee a day, you say. And I say, that’s $35, enough for a webinar. Fine, you say, what about those boots you keep buying? You could take a six-weeks class on advanced writing technique for what you spend on boots.

Noted. But then I say, are you seriously ordering more pillows (curtains, rugs, towels)? You could attend a writing retreat for what you spend on home décor!

So let’s stop this bickering and just agree that we all have some spending habits that have got well out of hand. And giving up spending money on what we don’t really need can free up funds for writing support that we always need.

The ATTITUDE Habit

Oh, this is a tough one, and now that I think about it, maybe I should have put attitude first. Because we all have a negative attitude we can give up.

There’s the “I know it all already” attitude. Or the “I’m not good enough and I might as well give up” attitude. Or how about the “How can THAT writer be so successful when I’m not?” attitude.

I don’t have all the right attitudes; there are times I shut down, sure I’ve heard all the advice before. Probably once a week, I’d rather take to my bed than put my writing out there again. And the green-eyed monster stalks my dreams, too.

But I do know the positive attitudes and I’ll bet you do, too. Like perseverance, open-mindedness, and focusing on my own journey, to name just a few.

So how about we start today? Choose one bad habit to give up and practice it daily. Share it with us in the comments and we’ll have a little accountability, too. And then come mid-April, let’s see if our self-sacrifice and discipline has brought more to our writing. It’s worked for me for more years than I’d like to admit, in the little things and the BIG ones, too.

Well, except for chocolate. I mean, even good little Catholic girls got to have something.

~Cathy C. Hall