Be The Person Of Your Dreams (My Blogging Challenge)

I ordered myself a book about writing for Christmas. I had a feeling I would be kicking things up a notch this year. I just have this feeling about 2015 — the groundwork has been done. The foundation is there. And now it’s time to GROW.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this quote that Gabby said one time, one of my favorite of her quotes.

“Don’t dance around the perimeter of the person you want to be. Dive deeply and fully into it.”

I’m feeling that a lot as the new year begins.

So I started flipping through the book (You Are A Writer – So Start ACTING Like One by Jeff Goins) and there are so many things that go along with my 2015 focus of living a better story.

You can apply this stuff to anything – not just writing.

“Believe you already are what you want to be. And then start acting like it.”

“The world is full of people longing to do meaningful, inspiring work. There’s just one problem: they’re not doing it.

It’s a choice, writing is. One that belongs to you and me. We get to choose it (or not) every single day. So whether the world hears your message – whether you leave the impact you were born to make – is entirely up to you.”

“Embracing your identity as a writer is mostly a mind game. It’s about tricking yourself into becoming who you are.”

Of course, not surprisingly, he references Steven Pressfield, author of the War of Art (another must-have-on-hand-if-you-want-to-create-things book), saying “you have to turn pro in your head before you can do it on paper.”

Jeff says that with a few mere words (“I am a writer”) and the action that flowed from believing them, he started to get better at his craft.

Do you relate to this? Because I could have written it myself:

“Once a month, on a Saturday, when the wind was blowing just right and I felt inspired, I would write. I’d write for hours at a time…I would come up with long lists of imaginative ideas and potential projects – websites and communities and brilliant creations. Some of them I’d actually start. But I finished exactly none.

Do you know what’s really at work here, when we thrash around with countless projects, never finishing any of them? FEAR. Fear of picking up one thing and finishing it. What if it’s the wrong thing? But what really happens (when you start and actually finish something) is you learn. You grow.”

Yeah – I do this. A lot. Story of my life, it seems. UNTIL NOW. ;)

The point — JUST BEGIN ANYWHERE! You have to take the actions of the person you want to be as if you already are that person. You are! Who cares if what you’re working on isn’t the “absolute perfect project”? Once you learn how to finish something, you’ll be able to start again (and finish again). Over and over. This advice is like gold to me.

I got this email today from the universe (notes from the universe) and it was so spot on.

Jenny, today, be the person of your dreams. See life through THEIR eyes. Make decisions with THEIR mind. Let every thought, word, and action come from THEIR perspective, as if you had already arrived, and just watch how 2015 warps into the kind of year you talk and laugh about forever and ever and ever.

And THAT’s what I’m talking about, my friends.

BE THE PERSON OF YOUR DREAMS! All you need to do is take the actions that person would take.

I literally DREAM of being someone who writes every day. I have all the time and resources necessary to fulfill that dream. So…wtf? It’s mind-boggling, really, how insane us humans are most of the time.

DAILY PRACTICE BUILDS HABITS. Habits eventually become an effortless part of your daily life. These habits and actions become WHO YOU ARE.

So the reason I’m basically spewing the entire book into this blog is because this is how I feel all the time and I know a ton of you guys feel it too.

In the book, Jeff suggests that if you’re a writer…you should be writing every day.

I’ve been “wanting to be a writer” for my entire life, but not sitting down and actually writing every day.

It’s weird. From the time I fully realized the potential of this whole “lifestyle design” thing and got into the mindset that “I don’t have to work every day,” I got into the habit of only working when I felt like it. And it’s been a really cool few years experimenting with that kind of freedom. But now I want my lifestyle design process to be about doing MORE work – work that I LOVE, every day, because this is important to me. I love writing and I always have, so why wouldn’t I do something I love every day? #doh.

I want to really step into it and stop waiting for that “someday” when I become a “real writer.” That day is today. Who knows how many more days we have here!?

So I’ve decided to post a blog here every single day for the month of January. That’s 31 blogs, published. It will take some serious effort and discipline on my part to make that happen. I may actually be an insane person. In fact, tonight and last night I wrote blogs from bed because I procrastinated it all day. Resistance is a tricky little monster.

So along with my hydration challenge (and exercise/fitness), blogging is what I’m gonna be focusing on this month – because if my intention is to live a better story this year I’ve gotta start somewhere — by catapulting myself into the arena.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say “in the arena,” I’m not talking about Hunger Games (although ya know, that’s actually pretty relevant too). It comes from this Theodore Roosevelt quote which I first read in Daring Greatly.  (Click the image to enlarge).

Awesome right?

So. 30 days of posting here. My skin feels prickly as I say that, because I’m scared to do it. Or, I guess scared I’m not gonna actually do it. But saying it out loud makes it way more likely.

I don’t know what I’m gonna write about, it’s a magical mystery ride. It’ll be interesting to see what happens on the days I really don’t feel like writing. That’s where the real busting through obstacles happens, I think. I’m not sure yet if I’m gonna write in bulk and schedule things out or truly just try to WRITE every single day – I’d like to do the latter. I’m leaving Jan 29 for an international trip where I’ll be traveling through airports on a few different continents for 3 days straight to get to my destination…so it’ll be fun to see what I decide to do for the Jan 29-30-31 posts. But HEY that’s all part of the challenge, right?

Ok – what is it that you want to fully become that you’re not fully stepping into? Be honest with yourself. Are you ready to just get in the arena this year for what you really want in life? Maybe it’s the perfect time to create new habits around whatever it is you really desire.

Man. 2015 is gonna be great. :) I can feel it brewing.

Thanks for reading. And thank you for getting into the arena with me. This year is gonna be an exciting ride for all of us.

Love,
Jenny

P.S. As a side note, something funky is going on with my comments section on my blogs right now. I’m getting all of your comments and I can see them on the backend, but for some reason they aren’t showing up as visible on the site. Rest assured that if you are leaving a comment, it’s there, I can see it, and it will be published / I’ll reply to it soon — I’m having some techie people help as we speak. :) Thanks for your patience, you’re the best.