A Preponderance of Ps by Bob Jones

This piece is presented on April 29th as a result of a profound amount of procrastination. I’m 21 days late because I put off pressing the publish button. That was a product of being a perfectionist. 

Preponderance

 

When I failed at crafting the perfect post, I postponed long enough that I completely failed to perform. I could proffer excusing my faux pas because I was preoccupied with preparation for a prolonged trip to Ukraine but I’ll pass on that proposition. 

 

On April 9th I was a guest professor in a seminary class in Lviv, Ukraine, teaching Pentecostal History. Surprise! I received a polite reminder from Wendy MacDonald about my missing post for April 8th. 

 

There was utter pandemonium in my thinking as my perfectionist personality wanted to throttle the procrastinator in me.

 

PhD kind of experts offer a perspicacious perspective: procrastination is really an avoidance of perceived future pain. There is a high probability that this quality is proliferate among creative perfectionists like those who populate this blog. If that’s your position, start before you're ready. 

 

As a plus, plan something pleasant as a panacea to persist in completing your project.

 

And one more “p”. 

 

Palindromes are numbers or words that read the same backwards and forwards like racecar, madam, 2020 or… Bob.

 

I am off to have a piece of pecan pie as a prize for persevering.

 

It was my pleasure to have you read this pithy post. Please point out "p" words I could have put in.

 

Read more of Bob's pieces at REVwords.
 

P is for Possibility by Lorilee Guenter

 Prose, poetry, passion, project and prayer. I have bounced between these word possibilities for a month or more. Some words have been added, others discarded before they made the list. Every time I think I have chosen the theme for this month, a new idea or possibility presents itself. Even as I write this, possibilities play calling for my attention.

I have many unfinished projects because my tendency to procrastinate kicks in as soon as the ideas start to accumulate. I don't want to lose an idea so I make a few notes, or a concerted start, then I move on to the next. This year I challenged myself to kick the procrastination habit and finish some projects. It is my hope that this will open space mentally and physically to pursue some new project ideas without shelving more partial pieces. I plan to start next week, or the week after, because I have a new piece of poetry to polish. While at times it is fun to poke at my procrastination and the chasing after every possibility, I find it in fact hinders my opportunity to pursue those ideas. The more passionate I am about my current work the easier it is to follow through. However, my brain never seems to stay still. 

I am working on curbing my procrastination this year. It is a hard habit to break. Like all change, the key to progress is prayer. I am not doing this on my own. I never have to work on my own. This fact gives me encouragement. It renews my strength the days nothing seems to go the way I expect. Some days it would be easier to package up all my pens and gift them to someone who could make better use of them. Those days procrastination and mental mess obscure the possibility inherent in every day.

The more I work on consistency and following through on the ideas I am passionate about, the more I recognise that prayer and possibility are partners. I know this. I have known this. Somehow that knowing grows as I work. I am a writer who doesn't have the words to describe the phenomenon of ever increasing certainty that comes as I soak in a truth.

It is my hope for all of us that we, through prayer, will recognise the possibilities that God has prepared for us along the path He leads. I pray that we continue to let Him guide our thought as we sit, pen in hand, ready to tell His story. He is the author of every good possibility. He has promised to partner with us as we follow Him.

P is for Procrastination by Carol Harrison

 

P is for Procrastination

Procrastination. I am good at that. Do you ever struggle with procrastinating?

Procrastination is the act or habit of delaying or postponing some task that needs to be done, whether it is around the house, at work, or in our writing. I have always tended to procrastinate some things and I am in a season right now where procrastination seems to loom large in everyday life. Tasks appear to be larger than they really are. The tiredness due to health concerns and grief make motivating myself difficult. What causes you to put things off?

Some of the causes of procrastination for various people include:

-        Fear of failure

-        Lack of clarity about the task

-        Lack of structure

-        Perfectionism

-        Laziness

-        Allowing good reasons to become excuses once the reason is no longer valid

I’ve been reading (another way I procrastinate) about ways to overcome these various causes of procrastination. Even good things can sometimes become those excuses to delay doing a necessary task such as reading. It is a good thing for writers to engage in but I’ve found myself reading so much other things get left undone.

Fear of failure:

-        Start with small steps that are manageable as you work towards a larger end goal.

-        Build your confidence by taking small steps

-        Listen to what others have said about your writing. Read critiques you received. Sometimes our mind only sees the negatives and forgets to look at the positives.

Lack of clarity:

-        Can you break down the task into smaller steps – stepping stones to reaching the destination of a job completed?

-        Having deadlines to work towards gives a clearer vision of necessary timelines for your goals. I seem to work better when there are deadlines, even self-imposed ones.

Lack of Structure

-        Find a place that works for you to concentrate on your writing – a dedicated space if that is what works for you.

-        Figure out a designated time of day that is optimal for you to accomplish some writing or editing.

-        Remember that editing and marketing are part of the writing journey too.

 

Lack of Motivation

-        Is there some physical reason for lacking motivation? Is there a health concern or a need to step back from tasks for a short time due to circumstances?

-        Get an accountability partner. I have people who ask me how my writing is coming, what I’m working on, and how I’m feeling about the entire process. They also pray for me as I write or speak.

-        Accountability partners can also help with goal setting or breaking those goals into smaller steps on your to-do list. My one daughter reminds me to look back at what I’ve crossed off the to-do list and get a picture of the done list to see what I’ve managed to accomplish.

There are likely many more tips you’ve encountered or that work for you regarding this topic of procrastination. It has been a good exercise for me to take a look at why I procrastinate and get some ideas about how to overcome it. Now to put them into practice sooner rather than some time in the future.  

 

 Carol Harrison writes and often procrastinates from her home in Saskatoon. She loves exploring other adventures through spending time researching family history and reading.

 

Reflecting on God's Goodness by Steph Beth Nickel

As writers, we may look back over the year and reflect on what we've accomplished or what we've failed to accomplish.

Either way, there are benefits to reflecting on our writing and writing-related goals through the lens of God's goodness.

When we made our plans w-a-y back at the end of 2021, we didn't know what the following 12 months would bring. And for some of us, that's an understatement to say the least.

Every year, I make plans and set goals. (This is one of my favourite things to do.) Throughout the year, I update those goals. 

I, unlike many people, don't mind dreaming big on paper (or the computer screen) and then bumping things to the next week, month, or even, the next year.

For several years, I've dreamed of indie publishing two or more books annually. Could I? Quite possibly, but it hasn't happened yet. And that's okay.

The good news! I've gotten back to writing the YA spec fiction I started two or three years ago during NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month. A number of individuals have encouraged me, although they only recently found out about the project. Never underestimate what a kind word to a fellow writer might mean to them.

What will happen with this book, what I hope is the first in a series? Only God knows. But I need to push past "the murky middle," where my enthusiasm for a project typically dies out, and persevere. Those encouraging comments by a couple of individuals went a long way to motivating and energizing me. God used them to spur me on.

As I mentioned, I'm great at dreaming big. However, I also put the "pro" in PROcrastination.

I'll do better tomorrow—or next week. This thought runs through my mind a lot.

Sometimes, I fail to achieve my goals because I put too many things on my To-Do List. Sometimes, it's because I've become an expert at procrastinating.

Still, as I reflect on the goals I achieved—and those I didn't—it's important that I do so prayerfully. As I set my goals for the coming year, I intend to let my imagination soar. But I also intend to ask the Lord for wisdom, so I can know what projects He wants me to focus on in 2023. 

While I began working on my coauthor, Paralympian Deb Willows, on the follow-up to her first memoir, Living Beyond My Circumstances, an embarrassingly long time ago, we have made strides forward this year. We have begun to meet online every 1-2 weeks, and I did have the opportunity to spend the best parts of a week with her, working on the book and enjoying our friendship. 

God caused our paths to cross, and Deb has been an inspiration and an encouragement to me over the years. She has had an especially rough go of it over the last few years. Because of it, the book, tentatively titled Keep Looking Up, will be much different than we originally intended. On the positive side, it has the potential of impacting readers in a powerful way. 

So, even though I didn't work on this project as diligently as I would have liked to, I see God's hand in it all. Learning to balance my understanding of God's sovereignty and my responsibility to accomplish the tasks before me is an ongoing endeavour.

Although I haven't achieved anywhere near what I had hoped to this year, I have seen God's goodness at work in my life. How about you?

What is one writing goal you've made steps toward accomplishing this year?

What is one unfinished project you would like to complete in 2023?

What is one specific priority you believe God has for your writing life?

Whether 2022 has been incredibly productive or filled with unexpected challenges that have kept us from accomplishing the goals we set for ourselves, let's ask ourselves how we can see God's goodness through it all.

Do You Have Commitment Issues? by Nina Faye Morey

Do you struggle with unfinished writing projects? A survey by a popular writing blog revealed that 72% of writers answered “yes” to this question http://thewritepractice.com/finish-projects/. I can certainly count myself among them. Several unfinished Works in Progress (WIP) patiently wait in my computer files for me to return to them and revive our once loyal and loving relationship.

I start out with the best of intentions when our relationship is fresh and uncomplicated. I make a solemn promise to stick with my current WIP through thick and thin. In spite of my strong commitment, it doesn’t take long before things go wrong. The WIP begins to display its faults and no longer looks as attractive to me as it did when we were first courting. Once our relationship starts to fall apart, I begin to have doubts about whether this WIP is the right one for me.

Before I know it, our relationship has slid further downhill as my WIP grows stubborn and irritating. I find myself becoming more negative and critical towards it with each passing day. Soon I’m easily tempted to stray whenever other appealing ideas whisper seductively in my ear. It becomes increasingly difficult for me to resist the urge to throw myself into these promising new relationships. After all, if I tie myself down to this WIP, I’ll be passing up the chance to take advantage of all these other wonderful opportunities.

However, by now I’ve started to feel rather guilty about breaking up with my current WIP. Perhaps I should shoulder some of the blame. So what do I need to do to avoid this temptation to stray and stay faithful to my current WIP? Well, perhaps I need an attitude adjustment. Maybe it’s my behaviour that needs to change if we are to be successful in sustaining our relationship. So I decided to do some research to discover what was at the root of my commitment problem and develop some strategies to deal with it.

My research helped me recognize that my tendency to flirt with seductive new ideas was the result rather than the cause of my commitment phobia. Two particularly persistent troublemakers were those evil twins, procrastination and perfectionism. Together they conspired to keep me from remaining faithful to my current WIP. Their bullying behaviour was disruptive and dispiriting. It distracted me from my WIP and deterred me from achieving my goals. Fortunately, two of my oldest and dearest friends, patience and persistence, showed up to rescue me from their clutches and set me back on the “write” path.

In addition, I discovered it would take a lot of dedication, determination, and discipline on my part to maintain and nurture my relationship with my current WIP. However, there’s no need for me to struggle with all of these commitment issues on my own. Fortunately, I know that I can pray to God and ask Him for help and direction. If I listen for His voice and trust in Him, He will guide me along the “write” path so I can fulfill my commitment to the WIP He originally chose for me.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left,

your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying,

“This is the way; walk in it.”

~Isaiah 30:21(NIV)

So now when those tempting new ideas come calling, I politely take note of them. However, I keep my promise to stay faithful and ensure that my heart and calendar remain open to fulfill my commitment to my current WIP.

Resetting Our Spiritual Time Clocks by Sharon Espeseth

Don't forget to reset your clocks tonight!

A Mini-History of Lent

On March 1, we observed Ash Wednesday, an important day on the Christian liturgical calendar, which officially begins the season of Lent. In brief, Lent is a time to repent of our sins, renew our faith, and prepare for Easter when we see Jesus risen from the grave.

Researching the etymology of the word Lent, we find that Lent in many languages implies "forty" which signifies the number of days Jesus spent in the wilderness with God the Father. When the six days of Easter week are added to the forty, the season of Lent becomes 46 days.


Historian and priest, Norman Tanner SJ, in his article "A Short History of Lent," points out that the English word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word meaning "lengthen." Norman Tanner explains that Lent is ". . . a time when we can stretch out and grow in the Spirit."



To read more of Norman Tanner's explanation about the joy of Lent, see
www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20110315_1.htm.

At this site, we read Tanner's explanation of how God's grace can work in us, if we but cooperate with God in the process of growing our faith. God cannot grow our faith without us.

Lent is here. What does that mean to each of us? 

In Isaiah: 58:1-9a, God tells us that he doesn't want us to wear sack cloth and sit in ashes.That's not the kind of fasting he wants to see. Rather he would have us be active in making ours a better world by loosing the chains of injustice, untying the cords that bind people, setting the oppressed free,  by helping to provide food and shelter for the needy. . .

This we can do by loving God and loving our neighbour as ourselves, by doing charitable deeds, and by spending time in God's presence. Saint Teresa of Calcutta has said, "We need to find God, and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness. The more we receive in silent prayer, the more we can give in our active life."

Finding Our Own Wilderness

Without going to the wilderness for forty days as Christ did, we can retreat to the quiet of our bedrooms to pray. We can turn off the television and other technical devices to read God's Word and spend time in prayer. We can put on sacred music or listen to tapes of Scripture or faith messages while we drive, go for a walk, or do household chores.

Resetting Our Spiritual Clocks

"Lent comes providentially," Pope Francis says, "to reawaken us from our lethargy."

For those of us living in a province where the time changes in spring or fall, this is the weekend for resetting our clocks. We can be creative and individual in how we reset our spiritual clocks.

Lent may be the best of times to "breathe new life," as Sandi Somers says in her blog, into one or more of our unfinished writing projects. Our writing, if surrendered to God, may bring a life-changing message to one, or more, of our readers. Whatever our genre--essay, fiction, memoir, blog or poetry--someone in this world may be waiting for what God leads us to write.

Listening

Remember the movie, "O God" with actor John Denver. Although this movie was "theology lite," the writer of the story made a good theological point. A fictitious God, acted by George Burns, gave a  non-religious, young, assistant manager of a supermarket the message that the world can work with what he, God, has already given us.

St. Augustine is credited with saying, "God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but he has

not promised tomorrow to your procrastination."



Whatever your message, remember the Chinese pro
verb that says, "The best time to plant a tree (or write a book) was twenty years ago. The second best time is now."




* Clock photo from Pixabay.

The Irony of Writing by Tandy Balson

The irony was not lost on me.  I had been putting off writing this month’s blog post because I couldn’t think of anything to say.  Our prompt is to write about a time we were stripped bare and not able to write.  My difficulty was coming up with a specific time this has happened to me.  My subconscious mind shouted, “How about right now?”

My deadline was in mere hours and I needed to focus.  No ideas were coming but I had fifteen minutes before I needed to leave for an appointment so knew I should at least get a thought or two down on paper. Instead, my gift of procrastination took over. I set up the ironing board and worked on making my husband’s shirts wrinkle-free! I know I’m in avoidance when I choose ironing over writing!

As I ironed, I remembered a quote I’d seen on a t-shirt.  It said:  Irony – the opposite of wrinkly. I’d been looking for a place to use this quote and realized I’d just found it. My mind was wrinkly and thoughts were getting caught in those deep crevices.  If I could smooth out my thoughts I knew the words would come.  Perhaps the irony was just what was needed.

My writing mainly consists of short inspirational pieces that are posted online twice a week. Inspiration for these comes from events in my life or conversations I overhear. As an observer of life, there is usually plenty of material. In the times of creative abundance, I write as much as possible and save the extra stories in a file marked “Draft” on the computer.  This file is like an insurance policy. I know there will be occasions when I am not productive. For one reason or another, I am unable to string words together into a cohesive story.

Knowing I have backup material relieves the pressure of having to come up with a new idea. Sometimes I use one of these stories. Other times just looking through the titles springboards me into a new thought to write about.  I also have a file of pictures I’ve taken.  More than once I have looked through the pictures and been inspired to write about one of them.

These solutions are good when I can choose my topic.  Writing to theme is always more of a challenge for me.  Maybe what I did today works best.  First I engaged in a mindless activity and let my subconscious come up with an idea. Next, I sat at the computer and invited my subconscious to connect with my fingers.  Before I knew it, words had formed.  In order to write, I had to free myself of the need to write.  That plays directly into my sense of irony!