Are You Actually Working It?
***I’m hosting a half-day retreat on Saturday, December 5 — be sure to sign up here to get all the info in a couple of weeks— space will be very limited!). More info about it and how to register coming soon!***
So…random fun fact about me: I never learned to touch type.
I changed high schools a few times (Navy brat!) and somehow managed to weasel my way out of the requirement.
It might be my number one regret from high school, which, for anyone who knew me in high school, is saying a lot. *cough*
I began to really understand the folly of that oversight when I was in law school and I watched the students in the row in front of me basically transcribe every lecture while I struggled to listen and catch enough in my notes via the hunt-and-peck method to jog my memory when I went back to fill in the blanks later (you know, while those same students had already moved on to actual studying).
So I downloaded my first self-directed typing course and began to do lessons.
But…inevitably, the press of taking notes or responding to email meant that I would abandon what I’d been learning and fall back to my old habits.
A few years later, while looking for “bridge work” while I was beginning my photography business, I kept seeing job postings for data entry positions that paid well and would let me work flexible hours. Perfect.
Except that it only paid well if you could do the work quickly…aka type at least 80 words per minute. Whomp whomp.
So I went back to typing lessons. And the same thing happened.
Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat.
Until recently.
You see, as I’ve mentioned here ad nauseam, I decided to write a novel this year.
And I’ve been working my butt off at it. I recently crossed the 100k words mark and I have to tell you— I’m seriously proud of this work.
I love it. I love working on it and thinking about it and talking about it (just ask my friends and family…I’m noticing that they’re all beginning to run and hide when they see me coming).
I’ve committed to getting the full manuscript finished no later than Thanksgiving. Which is no small feat.
Here’s the thing…you guessed it...
My fingers are simply incapable of keeping up with my thoughts and it’s been driving me batty.
So I recommitted to learning to type.
I’ve done the lessons every day without fail for a couple of weeks now.
Plus— the game changer— I’m forcing myself to use proper technique every time I have to type anything.
I know— duh.
But it’s working.
Drafting everything is taking me a painfully long period of time as I remind myself over and over to adhere to the rules in the lessons.
But it’s working.
I’m up to an inconsistent 30 words per minute (which is slooooooow!) and it’s pretty ugly as I make a lot of mistakes.
But last week I could barely make 20 words per minute. #improvement
I was telling Justin about my progress and he reminded me of a phrase they used when he was leading groups at a drug and alcohol rehab center years ago.
It’s attributed to Alcoholics Anonymous, and it’s likely one of the greatest bits of wisdom ever:
It works if you work it.
Wait. Let’s hear that again.
It works if you work it.
Whether it’s typing lessons or a meditation practice or a fitness regimen or a time management program, it comes down to those six words:
It works if you work it.
Looking for “how” to do something is our favorite way to procrastinate doing whatever it is we’re trying to do.
It lets us feel productive without asking us to deal with the grind of slogging through the work of changing or growing.
Because change and growth are hard. And scary. And friggin' uncomfortable.
Even when it’s something as simple as learning to type.
Your personal trainer or coach or the dude loading in new typing lessons every week can’t do the work for you.
You can phone it in.
You can fake it. You can look like you’re doing the work to the letter without embracing the spirit of it.
You can insist that nothing works for you, that you are uniquely challenged and that there is no conventional system under the sun that will help you reach your goals.
You’re welcome to do that.
Just don’t blame the systems or the people creating them if you don’t get the results you’re after.
Pick your “how” and keep it as simple as you can.
Then go work the crap out of it.
I’m here cheering you on, so tell me what you’re working on!
I promise I’ll reply, even if it takes me a really long time to properly type it out! :-)
Stay curious out there, my friend.