I just finished the first act in the next Jordan novel. It feels great to finally, after writing ten of these things, feel like I’ve figured out how to make consistent daily progress. What’s working for me is to set a daily goal, one that’s almost impossible not to hit. Steven King writes 3,000 words a day? That’s cool, I’ll aim for 500. John Grisham writes for three or four hours a day? That’s awesome; I’m going to aim for 30 minutes.
So far the plan is working and I’m much happier with my work output. I can already tell that I’ll have much less rewriting to do. We all want to accomplish so much, but small daily wins is the best way to get there. Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.
In the game of chess, you don’t speak. You just act. The only time you speak is when you say, “Checkmate.” It’s so easy to tell others about our hopes and dreams, the big things we want to accomplish. We post it on Facebook. We broadcast it to the world. We get likes and comments and praise. But when we sit down to do the work we stall.
Because announcing it was our reward. And I think it’s a trap. That’s why I share just enough so you know where I’m headed, but I also like to keep my cards close to the chest. Because sometimes it’s best to work in secret. Act quietly and keep achieving.
Your achievement is your checkmate.
Today marks the end of the first half of the year. The Independence Day holiday is when I like to take a step back every year to reassess my goals. Am I halfway there? Have I made progress on the right ones? What about the goals I haven’t started yet?
Six months are gone but six month are left.
It’s not too late to end the year with a checkmate. -Ken