Tuesday, November 15, 2011

November is NaNoWriMo

November is NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month.  Weird, huh?  It is a month where people challenge themselves to write a whole novel starting 1Nov and finishing before midnight on 30 Nov.  1667 words per day. 

The interesting thing about this is -- if you want to succeed in getting that much down on paper, you have to let it all hang out for 30 days.  You have to ignore your inner critic because there's barely just enough time in the month to write -- there won't be time to rewrite.  And there sure won't be time to spend any time stuck on a blank page (fear of not being "good enough" is a usual cause of writers block).  Actually...fear the cause of much of the inaction and non-decision making I see everyday.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is all about getting your novel born -- not to create the next best seller in 30 days.  Stellar quality and cohesiveness aren't what participants are striving for.  Their goal is to practice ignoring Lizzie and get something done in 30 days.

Great goals! 

What if we took that approach with our weight management?  What if, instead of undertaking the pursuit of perfection, we set our sights on practicing mindfulness for EVERY bite that went into our mouths for the next 30 days?  What would it take to make that happen?  Commitment....to yourself.  A willingness to know that the way you accomplish this task might not be pretty (and it certainly won't be sustainable) and that you will make a lot of mistake but also improve EVERYDAY! 

You may learn that sometime it is important to get a volume of practice under you belt before you expect to see the results.

No comments:

Post a Comment