Operation Achieve Anything: Day Thirty-Four, Dateline 2-3-2018
/
“[John F. Kennedy] relished notable writing, and has ever since he started collecting examples of good prose and putting them in a bound book, which he was still doing when he started running for president.”
Hey Crickets, welcome to day number thirty-four of Operation Achieve Anything. If you’ve been following my progress then you know that I’ve been a bit annoyed with the assignments as of late. To recap for those of you not playing along at home; my main issue is that I didn’t expect the Achieve Anything… book to be filled with so many overstated self-help concepts that have been around for decades.
I was under the impression that I was going to be picking a goal and then given assignments that actually focus on said goal instead of generical advice to get me in the right frame of mind for success towards achieving things in general. I’m also getting to be a bit annoyed by how some of the assignments feel like recycled tasks that lead me to write repetitive posts of my own.
For example, last week was filled with tasks aimed at teaching me not to pass up an opportunity. Several assignments felt very similar to where I got the point after round one. The rest of the assignments felt rather monotonous when I want to feel more challenged. Again, this is mostly my fault because I went through a phase where I listened to a lot of self-help audiobooks in an effort to improve the character development in my writing so I’ve already heard most of this stuff many times before.
This week’s theme seems to be the notebook that I had to buy on day one for jotting down thoughts and keeping a daily journal. Not only is this a common practice in the self-help world but I had an entire class on journalling back when I was in a film school’s writing program. Counting today, the last three lessons have been about things that you can put in your notebook in case you don’t know what to write.
Since I do know what to write and have already been aware of the advice given in the lesson, I feel like I’m continuing to just go through the motions without learning anything new. I’m very surprised that these lessons did come up right after I bought the notebook so it would have at least felt less like the Achieve Anything… book was rehashing old tasks instead of moving on to something new.
Two days ago, the assignment was pretty much to continue using the notebook and since I never stopped using it from lesson two on, as it was assigned, I had absolutely nothing new to report on. Yesterday’s assignment was to have fun with the notebook, meaning, write jokes, doodle or even attempt to draw. Since I normally am more fun with my notebook entries, this assignment wasn’t all that new to me either but, I haven’t drawn anything in a while so I thought I would take this opportunity to draw a Bigfoot.
Note: The Bowtie was supposed to be his chest but when I drew in the shoulders, the proportions were out of control so I had to shift gears in order to complete this mess of a sketch.
Today’s assignment is similar in that it is notebook based with more suggestions as to what to write. Today’s assignment is to find three quotes and jot them down in my notebook then share how the quotes make me feel. Again, turning to quotes to drum up inspiration is nothing new when it comes to the world of journaling, but I do like how this assignment has a specific task to do.
Not only do I like this more specific task, but I also like how this lesson ended by checking in on my progress on an assignment that was given a week ago. This assignment was to create an opportunity and make the first step toward achieving it. Based on an earlier assignment where I had a week to complete a task only to never have the book not mention it again, I was half expecting for the book to never reference this task again as well.
Though I’m glad the book actually did ask for an update, the news I have to share is rather dull. The opportunity that I attempted to create was to get in touch with an old friend about a potential future project. I did make contact and they liked my idea but neither of us are anywhere near getting started, so I’d consider my attempt to be a fail but then again, the assignment wasn’t to succeed, the assignment was to put in the effort which I successfully did.
Alright, there’s my update for the day, stay tuned for tomorrow when I will share my three quotes and feelings in order to fulfill today’s assignment. Until then, it’s now that time where I 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.
