Good morning Crickets, it’s time for another update!!! It’s day number eight teen, and I have to admit that my enthusiasm is starting to diminish. That’s not to say that I’m losing interest, but I do feel my energy levels starting to drop since I currently feel like I am just going through the motions at this point without any burst of encouragement that might come if I felt that I was making more progress.

I’m aware that this is an inevitable phase, as I fully expect for there to be many ups and downs throughout this daily year-long challenge, I mean, I am bipolar after all. I think the fact that the early assignments in the Achieve Anything… book aren’t all that challenging, by design, only plays a small part in why I’m starting to feel a little blue.

I feel that the more significant contributing factor for my lowered mood stems from the fact that I spent four months straight busting my ass to get to not only complete a shareable draft of Chuck Norris Would Never Write This Book, but also to write a brand new novel for this year’s NaNoWriMo. My days were chalked so full of work that I didn’t have the time to get depressed.

Currently, I can get all of the things that HAVE to be done by around one or two in the PM. Though I have several other tasks that I’m trying to develop into habits, the fact that these tasks are optional makes me feel like I’m wasting my time. I desperately need to figure out a way to make a living on my terms, and these frivolous tasks just don’t help, at least when thinking short term.

At the same time, some of the assignments actually do bum me out since they have me revisiting efforts that I’ve already given up after decades of trial and failure. For example, yesterday’s assignment was to study my goals and question whether or not my ambitions are high enough. If anything, no matter how much this book says it’s impossible, part of my problem is that my aspirations are way too high.

Sure I have reasonably achievable goals, but they are mixed in with big picture, “if only” plans that if I were to share with anyone, I’d come across as a megalomaniac. For example, in my daydreams, I picture the idea of adapting all twenty-five-plus of my feature-length scripts into an epic series of novels, which I’m going to attempt to pull off until I die. Meanwhile, in reality, all that I want is one or two novels to be successful enough to afford a plot of land and a studio apartment-sized house somewhere where both are affordable enough to manage on an unguaranteed income.

For a lot of people, writing a novel seems unachievable on its own so this assignment to recheck my aim with the suggestion that it might be too low makes me feel like I have to justify my efforts when I’ve already got most of the legwork done. It almost feels like the book is telling me that I’m not trying hard enough when in reality I’m giving it my all.

Yes, I’m aware that this is just a book, so I don’t really take any of these assignments that don’t relate to me as a personal attack. At the same time, it does get me in a bit of a defensive mood as once again I have to justify that my lack of success is not based on a lack of effort. My problem is that I don’t have the confidence to promote myself or the plethora of product that I produce.

So, in response to yesterday’s assignment, the answer is no. Though there are areas like promoting my work, where I might not be putting in the proper amount of effort, as far as my goals go, there is no way that I could ever say that my aim was too low and if anything it might be on the high side.

Today’s assignment is a bit of a bummer as well since it a lesson in how vital humor is when it comes to achieving goals. Again, you’ll have to wait for tomorrow to hear my full input on this topic but here’s a cliffhanger, as I’ve grown older, I’m beginning to feel that my sense of humor has ended up hurting me more than it’s led to any gains.

I’ll be sure to clarify what I mean when I check in with tomorrow’s update. Until then, it’s now that time for me to say, good day and good luck to you and all of your projects.

Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,

The Wicker Breaker

P.S. Below are links to my novel, which I plan to promote as part of Operation Achieve Anything, as well as a link to where you can buy the book that is providing the structure to this project in case you would like to purchase it in order to play along.