How to Write When You'd Rather Netflix and Chill and the 15 Steps to Get There.

You’ve made progress on your novel. You’re on your second draft and past the halfway point. You can’t believe it. Once you’re done with this, the novel will need work, edits, polish, maybe even one more rewrite.

The second draft is coherent in a way that the rough draft was not. The rough draft was a mess. Once you have finished the second draft, you have finally finished a book - a novel that needs work, but still a book.

Then your monkey mind starts swinging through the trees and your ADD goes off the chain. You can’t focus.

You remember you forgot to pay the electric bill. Then while you’re on your phone to pay that bill, you see 2 Facebook Messenger notifications, and wonder who is reaching out to you?

You open them only to find out it’s a nudge to say hello to your latest Facebook friend and another is an annoying group chain.

You leave the conversation and scroll through your feed only to find garbage. You wonder why you don’t have the nerve to disable your Facebook account because the bastards are violating your privacy anyway.  

Then you remember that you forgot to pay the frigging garbage bill, and if you don’t pay it today you’ll be charged late fees. So you actually pay the bill, and suddenly, watching your favorite Netflix series sounds like the perfect reward for paying that garbage bill at the 11th hour.

But wait a minute. You haven’t written your pages today. You didn’t write your pages yesterday either, or the day before. You feel the stirrings of panic in your belly and guilt weighing your shoulders down into the I-hate-myself slump.

You lose momentum when you miss writing days. You know every day you miss writing only makes it worse because then the Shame Monster comes to life and laughs in your face.

“Slacker,” the Shame Monster chortles. “You’ll never finish that book. I knew you didn’t have it in you.”

I like happy endings.

So in this version of the story, your will resurrects from the dead and comes to the rescue.

Step 1) Tell the Shame Monster to go *%$# itself;

Step 2) Grab a notebook and pen.

Step 3) Write every bit of nonsense and distraction you can think of, every random thought that comes to your head. Write freely and keep your pen moving. Write until you feel calmer, more focused. If you want to time yourself, go ahead.

Step 4) Have a light snack. This step is optional.

Step 5) Open your laptop (or typewriter, some people still use these) and get to the last chapter you were working on when you got distracted. Read that chapter out loud.

Step 6) Any awkward places or light editing that comes to mind, go ahead and make those changes. That gets you back inside your story.

Step 7) When you get to the last lines of the unfinished scene, WRITE. Even if your writing is clumsy, KEEP WRITING until you finish that scene or that chapter.

Step 8) If the writing sucks, allow it. That’s what rewriting the next day is for.

Step 9) Have a light snack.

Step 10) Keep writing. If finishing that scene or chapter didn’t bring you to your minimum word count goal, continue writing the next scene or chapter until you have.

Step 11) If your writing sucks, allow it. That’s what rewriting the next day is for.

Step 12) Write past your minimum word count goal. You’ve slacked off and you need to push through that resistance until you’re in love with yourself and your writing again.

Step 13) Once you feel complete, close down your laptop.

Step 14) Do a happy dance.

Step 15) Netflix and Chill without shame.

For more advice on how to discipline that ADD monkey mind, click here.

4 Things You Can Do Every Day to Get What You Want!

Calling in the year 2014 was the most powerful New Year’s of my life. The Inspire Truth New Year’s was a two-day event, dedicated to healing, magic, the arts, all things creative, and meeting our potential as human beings.  

The New Year’s Eve spectacle took place at the Portland Art Museum, with various dj’s bands, dancers, performers, and all around magic happening on various rooms on 3 floors, and this party went on until 4:30 in the morning.

On the main stage on the top floor, Alex and Allyson Gray, and Eric Nez were the artists who made fresh paintings on either side of a stage as the dancers, performers, djs, and bands changed every hour. There were also at least 1000 people in that room hooting and hollering and dancing, along with loud music. The party was on fire. Their concentration was formidable, and damn, if they didn’t have a fresh work of art done at the end of the night!

At the side edges of the stage, crowds of people watched, enraptured at the artists at work, especially in front of Alex Gray. He was the psychedelic superstar who maps intricate details of the body along with energy centers, and sacred geometry. He is a psychedelic superstar, and it was an honor to watch him work.

The splendor of that night is impossible to describe, just like it was impossible to experience everything offered that night. I had a magical time from beginning to end. Even the Max train ride back to my part of town in the early hours of morning was incredible.

Yet, as spectacular as it was to call in the New Year, what made that event powerful were the offerings on New Year’s Day. These events were low-key.

Of course, I was exhausted. I didn’t make it to the Yoga Sun Salutation of doing 108 Sun Salutations to start 2014. After a few hours of sleep, I came for the Ecstatic Dance, and made it to the talk that Alex and Allyson Gray gave on New Year’s Day.

They talked about all kinds of things. But the part of their talk that I have never forgotten was the best, the simplest, and the most elegant advice on resolutions – New Year’s or otherwise – I had ever heard.

“You can have anything you want,” said Alex Gray. “But there are 4 things you must do to make what you want happen.”

So here are their simple, elegant, and effective 4 steps to manifesting anything you desire.

1)    Define your goal/want and write it down. Keep it simple. By doing this, you do this, you take your goal/want out of the ethers of your coulda-shoulda-woulda and make it real. Again, keep it simple. No more than 1 sentence. You only have to do this once per goal/want.

2)   Do something towards that goal/want EVERY SINGLE DAY. You can’t make your goals and manifest your wants if you don’t actively work on them. But some days can be light. For instance, researching something or reading a book that gleans knowledge and helps you gain information about your goal/desire counts.

3)   Before you fall asleep at night, reflect on 3 challenges you met or overcame. 3 things that went well, difficulties overcome, etc. EVERY SINGLE DAY. This doesn’t have to be centered on your goal/desire. This can be about anything. What I like about this step is that it builds empowerment, a belief in yourself, and confidence.

4)   First thing when you wake up in the morning, as soon as you remember to do it, is to think about 3 things you’re grateful for EVERY SINGLE DAY. The gratitude that ends this list and starts the day kicks the brain into a positive thinking mode immediately, and cuts out negativity. It works. Even if I woke up mad or moody, I remembered 3 gratitudes and immediately felt so much better. By the way, this step is the most difficult to remember and the easiest to neglect.

So there you have it. This can be applied to anything. Do these four steps EVERY SINGLE DAY, and achieve all your goals and manifest all your wants. Alex and Allyson Gray swear by it and they have enjoyed a mad level of success.