Excavating a really BIG idea Day, Stamina Challenge Day 2

Welcome to the second installment of the 7 Day Stamina Challenge.

I arose a half hour earlier than my regular time, at 4:00am, just like yesterday.

I can hear some of you now (I know who you are!): “Are you kidding me? What is the point? 4? People actually get up at 4? It’s dark at 4. Really, really dark.

Besides, my bed is calling to me in its sweet, siren song, “Don’t leave me. Come back and let me wrap you in my warm, cozy bedding. Rest your weary head on my soft pillow, and let your mind drift again to sweet dreams.”

Go. Sleep my darlings, sleep.

For the rest of us who are weary  of that tired promise that never delivers anything more than lost time and opportunities, I offer Day 2:

Admit it – Before you get dressed, write in your journal for a minimum of five minutes. Specifically, write about the big, embarrassing idea that you want to make happen. Describe in great detail how you will feel when this happens.

Put in some first person details – describe what you see as you are in the scene itself.

Don’t think about what to write. Just write.

Woohoo! Can we say “easy breezy”? I was a wee bit concerned I was going to have to get up at 4am and run 5 miles through the woods in the pouring rain while being chased by a bear.

Writing for a minimum of 5 minutes is very, very doable, because I journal most every morning anyway. I have mulitple notebooks filled with scribbles,  junk, possible posts, gift ideas, goals, joy, anger, hurt, sadness, confusion, resolve, broken promises to myself, and more.

The writing I do is for me. Just me. I can shake myself out onto the page, letting go of all of the trash and treasure that is somehow packed in my mind.

However, within those pages, I unearth gems that have been waiting patiently to be discovered and then polished to brilliance.

Today, I must be a bit more purposeful in my writing, as it is time to excavate the Big Embarrassing Idea. (Ed. note: Is it going to be counterproductive to be purposeful in my journal? Why is it embarrassing? Is it because it is so huge in scope no one would believe it would be possible, so I am embarrassed to suggest it? Because no one believes in me? Because I am embarrassed at the magnitude of the potential for failure this represents? Ding! I think that is the winner for me.)

I made my coffee in one of my Winnie the Pooh mugs, settled myself at the wooden dining room table, grabbed my college-ruled, spiral bound notebook and proceeded to dig write for 5 minutes. Then 10, and 20 minutes and more, and when I finally hit the idea with my virtual shovel, I was 8 pages further into my journal and hour deeper into my day.

Do not despair and assume that you, too, will have to spend an hour. Our oldest daughter, who started us journaling years ago (Thank you, honey!), commented to me recently that she was working on an issue, and it took her four pages to get there.

I guess my take-away on the journalling is this: It doesn’t matter how many pages it takes to get there. The bottom line is that the journal provides the vehicle I need to get to my idea, my solution, whatever it is for which I am searching. If I write, I will find it.

I wrote about lots of things, but nothing grabbed me until I started down this path:

So, no big idea yet. Am I afraid to commit to paper? Just don’t know. I shouldn’t be.
Is it just a simple idea? Just a nugget, like “writing a pivotal, instrumental book”? “Hosting a very impactful seminar?”

Hmmmm.

How about the Traditions book I have thought about writing? Could I write that in September?

A page a day?

Whoa.

There’s a big idea.

Book. Rough draft. Done by October 7th.

Yikes. That’s a Big Idea.

Too funny. I travel near and far, searching, and where does the road lead? Here. Back home again. Diamonds in my own backyard.

Can I commit to this?

So there you go, dear readers. A peek at my journal and inside my thought process.

What is amusing and thought provoking to me here is that a couple of months ago during a morning prayer time, the recommendation came to me, seemingly randomly, that I needed to get this particular book completed by the end of this September. In all the busyness of my life of the last few months, I had forgotten about that moment and had not actively been working on the book.

I also continued to work on the idea and possible roadblocks, as well as what it all looks like when I have accomplished that goal:

OK. Book done. Can feel excitement in my chest as I hold the book in my hands. Tears of joy form as I re-read some of the text, walking down familiar paths of wonderful, warm, funny and poignant memories, and I hope and pray that this book encourages moms to take action, to bring more traditions into their families’ lives, to strengthen those bonds between parent and child.

I encourage you to appropriate one of the spare notebooks you bought for the kids and just start writing every day, wherever it fits for you, even if its just a short paragraph or two. There are days that all I have time to write are a few stray sentences, and other days I am able to spend more time. It’s all good.

I also invite you, dear readers, to join us in this challenge, to stretch the boundaries of your comfort zone into something more roomy and spacious.

Share a bit of your journey as well, if you are so inclined.