Reenergized by Daddy-Daughter Time

Sometimes the most inspirational, re-energizing part of the day comes when you least expect it. (I say this because I loathe getting the kids ready for bed...it's so exhausting.)

Earlier this evening, I took my daughter on a bike ride. She rode her little Huffy Angelfire and we rode side-by-side down the bike path. After getting her ready for bed, we laid down in her "teepee," which is actually just pvc pipe and a sheet held together by a bungee cord. To me, it's a bit silly, but to her, it's a place where she transforms into Pochahantas.

We read the story of Ariel the Little Mermaid and how the two little merbabies exhausted her. I don't think she made the connection that so often she's an energetic little merbaby herself. To top it all off, she gave me one of her famous running start hugs.

It was one of those evenings when I was just glad to be a dad, and happy that I have an opportunity to save these memories.

Don't let yourself get caught up in the rat race, don't worry too much about the "stuff" you don't have, don't regret. Above all, find joy in the mundane and discover something special, even during the time of day that you like the least.

Four Hour Work Week, Part 2

In other forums, I've had lots of spirited discussions about the validity of Timothy Ferriss's The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, and, while some of his tactics may not mesh with all of my principles, a few do stand out. I thought I'd share a few of those with you over the next couple of days. Here's what you could call a "quotable quote" from his book.

"Make the best use of time instead of filling it."

I don't know how to figure out, exactly, how to accomplish my hopes and dreams, I do know one thing right now: I check email too much, and I dink around, looking at web sites I've already looked at twice that day.

I'm a writer, with a full time job, two young children and lots to do each day. I don't think I have time, but if I don't spend so much time wasting the time I have, I'd have more time. Here's my first goal: limit e-mail, and use the time to write instead.

There are other applications of this quote, of course, but the bottom line is that if you want to accomplish a goal, writing or otherwise, you've got to make the best use of your time instead of filling it with mindless chatter.

I Learned These Lessons While Pulling Weeds

My daughter's Taekwondo academy was clearing out some land--pulling weeds, chopping trees, etc.--to create a xeriscaped area. The Master asked for volunteers to help, and my six-year-old daughter asked me to join in the weed-pulling festivities (as if she was going whether I came or not). Naturally, I had to dig deep (no pun intended) to find the enthusiasm the day of.

Still, I learned a couple of life lessons while sweating profusely under the baking-hot sun. Sophie and I pulled two kinds of weeds. The first kind was a clearly recognizable weed. We grabbed the stalk and pulled it out, roots and all. It was easy, and I thought, "We'll get done in no time--before the pizza arrives!"

Alas, the pizza was cold by the time I finished. Because on the other side of the academy, there were weeds that were, well...only the devil himself could have planted them. Indeed, when I saw them, they deceived me. They had pretty purple buds, they smelled like alfalfa, they looked like a plant you would want in your garden. I knew they had to come out, though.

I pulled, the stalks broke. The roots stayed stubbornly in the ground. I grabbed the shovel. I dug. And I dug. And I dug. I'm not sure if I pulled any of the roots out, and I know the deceptively tough weeds have destined themselves to live again.

Here are two applications.

One--our characters need contrasting qualities that are deceptively stubborn and deceptively transparent. When searching for article ideas, we need to solve problems and symptons. All folks have habits they can easily overcome; at the same time, folks have deeply buried habits that require the drastic or tragic to overcome.

Second--as we struggle to write. Or strive to be a perfect father or mother. Or employee. Or boss. Or in any area of life, laboriously dig at the habits that hold us back. When the stalks break, dig again, until we've treated the root of the problem, rather than just the symptoms. Here's an example. I don't have time to write! Maybe not, or maybe you are just checking your email too often. Cut back on the email. See how many more minutes of daylight you have?

Whether you're a best-selling author or struggling writer, we all can strive to make a positive impact in the world. You can't change the world until you change yourself.

Is the Four Hour Work Week Possible?

I've recently been listening to Timothy Ferriss's The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich. Is a four hour work week possible or even realistic?

Dubious is a word that comes to mind, but then again, I work a lot more than four hours each week, and he doesn't. So I'm revisiting my habits (like time spent on e-mail), and trying to figure out how I can work smarter, not harder.

I'm wondering how many of you writers out there have managed to implement any of his ideas (e.g., outsource monotonous tasks).

Whether you eek out a living by writing, freelance your way to a $100,000 a year or hardly earn enough to spit on, I'd love to hear about how you've managed to earn more while working less.

The Iranian Election and Writing

Yes, there is a correlation between the two--actually, there are several, but I'll save the rest for another time.

Anyway, much hullabaloo has been made about Twitter and how it has been used as a tool to mobilize people during their election. You'll find a good article on Mashable.com about the 2 million tweets.

Social networking tools in general are good for the published, experienced writer who is trying to market his or her stuff. It's good for the non-experienced writer who really needs to stop reading books about writing and instead...well, write.

But what's especially cool and pragmatic about Twitter is its unforgiving nature. A 140-character format forces the writer to think about each word intentionally.

What are some of the most poignant tweets you've read?

A Lesson From 'Have Space Suit -- Will Travel'

In the classic novel, Have Space Suit--Will Travel, Robert Heinlein emphasizes (and in a number of his novels) preparedness. Read closely:

"'Luck' is a question-begging word," [the professor] answered. "You spoke of the 'amazing luck' that you were listening when my daughter called for help. That wasn't luck...Why were you on that frequency? Because you were wearing a spacesuit. Why were you wearing it? Because you were determined to space. When a space ship called, you answered. If that is luck, then it is luck every time a batter hits a ball. Kip, 'good luck' follows careful preparation; 'bad luck' comes from sloppiness" (p. 244, 2005 Pocket Books edition.)

Forget about the genre for a minute, put spaceships and spacesuits behind you, and listen to what Heinlein emphasizes: Good luck follows careful preparation.

As writers, parents, teachers--whatever your occupation, whatever your age or stage in life, whatever you're passionate about--you won't travel an inch if you're not prepared. How can you walk through an open door if you can't recognize the opportunity? Look for ways to prepare yourself for future opportunities: read a classic, write a novel, turn off the television set, create attainable goals.

Preparedness will create your own "good luck."

101 Best Writing Sites

If you're interested in additional sites that help you become a better writer or just help you get off your duff, you might want to check out Writer's Digest 101 Best Sites. With tens of thousands of writing and journalism sites, it's always a good idea to find lists from reputable sources and pare search results down into a "best of class." That way, you can write, rather than just spend your valuable time looking for something to inspire you.

Getting Started-itis

I admit it, I have issues. Maybe after working a full day or more, and after the kids are in bed, you just don't "feel" like getting started writing or anything. This has been my problem of late. I just don't feel like doing a darn thing. Maybe that is a bit too melodramatic. I do "things," such as reading. I just finished up with Napoleon and Project Management. (Recommended reading, by the way, for leaders, PMs and others who just want to be an effective team member in the office. ) I'm doing a little Web development. I've got a laundry list of books to read, Web sites to finish planning, hopes and dreams to realize. But lately, even tweeting has been a chore, like going to the dentist. All I want to do is to play a game of Madden football. When you've got that frame of mind, nothing is fun.

How do you get started again, how do you dig deep enough to pull yourself out of the mental muck that you're in? Getting started with writing is particularly challenging--at least until you're able to sink into "the zone" of your work.

If you're tired after work and getting the kids to bed, let me give you a couple of articles to read. Maybe you'll find something to pull you out of your mental doledrums.

One is "25 Non-Random Things About Writing Short." It's sort of an eclectic catch-all list of ways to inspire yourself.

The other is from my other favorite writing guy from Poynter, Chip Scanlan. It's called The Best Writing Tip of All Time: Sit.

Clear Titles Over Clever

Here's an interesting post found--surprise, surprise--on Poyntner. It really made me think about usability and writing for the web. The Web doesn't inspire us to read; it inspires us to scan.

The article on Poyntner isn't just about readability. It's about scannability. People need to scan to see clear headlines so they can move quickly from one piece of information to the other.

But there's another reason why clear titles are important: Search Engine Page Results (SERPS). When Google crawls a site and your great content is indexed, a user will scan Google for the results. You increase your chances of a user clicking on a title that has a straight-forward and clear summary than a title and summary that is unclear. It sounds simple, but it is also a neglected part of building a web site. What are some examples you've seen of titles that are "too cute" for the Web?

Gaining Momentum as a Writer

I read a diddly of an article on Poynter Online yesterday. (If you haven't had a chance to hop over to this site, I think you'd find it to be a great resource. It's geared for journalists, but bloggers, fiction writers and the like would benefit from it's content. But I digress...)

The article I read was called, "What Inaugural Speeches Can Teach Writers." It compares Obama's speech to past presidents and then breaks down portions of their speech to show that with each sentence you can gain momentum, so that when the timing is right, you can deliver the final punch, wowing your audience.

There's also a few exercises at the end of the article. Nifty. Read the article. What do you think about it? What are some paragraphs you've noticed in other speeches? How do you gain momentum in your writing?

Develop an Appetite, Not a Habit

Last week, I heard something that I would call profound; it was certainly a phrase defamiliarized that put a new perspective on habit.

This time of year, we struggle with keeping our habits (I've been only so-so thus far this year). We start and stop again, or we don't start at all.

This is the phrase: "Develop an appetite, not a habit."

I've been chewing on this all week. My conclusion isn't rocket-science: appetites keep you wanting more, but habits are temporary. But this is the phrase that leads to another perplexing question. How do you develop an appetite? To guess, probably just "doing" whether you want to or not. To sit in front of a computer or a blank piece of paper. To read the same words over and over again until the buzzer rings. To shoot baskets or run until your legs fall off. It's applicable to whatever you're wanting to get better at.

While it seems like that takes the fun out of whatever you're doing, at the same time, greatest or even improvement doesn't come without a little sweat.

Recapturing the Wonder, Part 2

My posts from here on out won't be about Ravi Zacharias's book, Recapture the Wonder: Experiencing God's Amazing Promise of Childlike Joy, but it will be today. His book is very thought-provoking and has given me reasons to stop and think about knowledge and wonder.

How often has our childlike wonder--the kind we can remember we had as kids about something--been eliminated? I remember how much I wrote as a kid, how fascinated I was with words, but as I got older, that fascination was replaced, you could say, with what I knew about publication. I stopped writing for the passion and wonder and started writing because I wanted recognition.

When Zacharias says, "Wonder is that possession of the mind that enchants the emotions while never surrendering reason," he is putting these words into a spiritual context. We have to go through life balancing wonder and reason but they don't have to cancel each other out.

At the same time, his definition of wonder is applicable to writing and so many other things. Wonder is essential to passion, passion is essential to making an impact in this world.