5 Question Coffee
A surly woman sold me a cup of coffee today. When I approached her I asked for a small french roast. She followed up with 5 questions.
“Would you like to try our Sumatra? It’s the only thing we have right now.”
“Sure, thanks.” I said.
“Would you like to have a grande size for 20 cents more?”
“No thanks.”
“Would you like room for cream.”
“That’d be great.” I said thinking this would be the last question, but she had more up her sleeve. Her piercing dark eyes staring me down.
“Would you like a cookie or a cupcake?”
“No, that’s okay.”
“Would you like to use your discount card today?”
“No, I don’t have one and don’t want to buy one, thanks.”
A few minutes passed before the woman behind the counter handed me my coffee. I felt like I had really earned this cup, it was not handed over easily. I dubbed it my cup of “5 question coffee.” I would enjoy it, just like I enjoyed thinking about how I might annoy this woman the next time she sells me a cup of coffee. I would have 5 questions for her:
1) “Would you like me to take out my wallet now?”
2) “Would you like to choose a bill denomination? I have a 1, 5, 10, and 20.”
3) “Would you like exact change? (I could again recite the coins from my pocket, penny through quarter.
4) “Would you like to smile when you sell me coffee?” (She didn’t smile the whole time, not once)
5) “Would you like me to smile?” (because I feel like giving you the finger!)
I write this blog post with a smile because I can’t help but do so when I think of my own 5 questions. I also have to take a moment of gratitude to think about all the other simple $ transactions I take for granted. Sometimes it takes an experience like this to notice.
Ahhh… 5 question coffee.
Challenges Met, Competitors Vested, Obstacles Overcome
If you’d like to look back on a life of achievement, as I know I most certainly would, here’s some advice that I think can help you out. There is a method I’ve discovered for achieving most goals that I find effective, and that involves committing to what I call the “doable minimum”.
The doable minimum involves setting aside a small amount of time each day to do a specific task. For example, if you want to create a giant quilt, devote an hour every other day to sewing small pieces of material together. Even if it takes a full year, you’ll eventually have something that covers a king size bed!
The doable minimum is a process that involves taking baby steps, much like what’s shown in the video I did here, how to rip a phone book in half. The idea is to break things down into sizable chunks and before you know it you’ve accomplished something significant.
Presently I’m devoting 4 hours a week to writing my novel as well as 4 hours a week to art. I do these activities in one hour sessions. Sometimes I enjoy it and want to go longer, other times I simply fill my time requirement. Either way, an hour is something I can commit to, a doable minimum.
Consistent commitment is key in this process. Through consistency over time, distance toward my goal is gained. For example, I’ve been doing the second draft of my novel for almost 2 months now and I’ve noticed a significant progress that’s been made. As of writing this, I am almost half way through round two, and I’m happy with that!
Having someone else keep you in check with a common goal can also help keep you going. For example Rachel Thomae, a professional writer and I did a writing contest called Nanowrimo this year. We are now motivating one another to take our rough drafts to the next level and get them ready for publishing. When talking to Rachel she had a few things to say about the doable minimum.
“Kinda like working out. I know I can get to the gym three times a week, but not five. Five would be great, but I’d quit!”
Rachel speaks a lot about diet and exercise on her blog. She also has a good article about setting goals.
So there you have it. Find your own doable minimum, something that is comfortable for you, and commit to it. An hour every other day works for me in most cases but everyone’s different. So if you have a goal in mind that you’d like to achieve, just make it… ya know, doable.
How to wake up early in the morning
Having recently completed Nanowrimo, I decided to do this blog post on how to wake up early in the morning. For those of you who don’t know, Nanowrimo is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. It’s a feat I don’t think I would have accomplished had I not learned how to become an early riser.
Here are five tips:
1. Decide to wake up earlier – This is the decision that drives you out of your comfortable bed and into the cold morning air. You’ve got to decide to do it and stick to that decision. I like to do meditations on decisions like this, it can sometimes help me stay serious about it.
2. Have a goal that you’re working on – When you have a goal or a purpose, you have something to do. It helps to have something to look forward to when you’re making yourself leave your cozy bed. In my case I used writing a Novel as my goal. I broke it down further by trying to get 2000 words every day.
*3. Get up when you wake up – This is the big trick for me because I like to make things as easy as possible. Most people have natural times when they wake up in the morning. They wake up and usually go to the bathroom and then go back to sleep. If you are like this, use it to your advantage.
Pick a time, say after 3:00 in the morning. If you wake up naturally at this time, stay up. Don’t go back to bed. Do this for several nights in a row. If you feel tired the next day, it’s usually psychological and you can push through it. Eventually you’ll stop feeling tired and waking up early will come naturally.
4. Put out your clothes for the next day – This is a good idea because it’s usually dark in the morning and turning on the light will wake a significant other. Not having to dig around in your closet and drawers for clothes, allows you to put more mental focus on getting going in the morning.
5. Set your alarm clock – This one sounds obvious right? Well, if you do all of the above things then the alarm clock is just a backup. Ideally you will wake up before the alarm clock and turn it off before it starts to blare at you.
So that’s how I woke up early for the month of November, which allowed me to get my project done. I highly recommend these five tips, with a special emphasis on number three. If you follow them one by one, you’ll have a pretty strong handle on how to wake up early in the morning.
Nanowrimo finish line
I made the Nanowrimo finish line with about 54,000 words. I’m about 3/4 of the way done with my story so I’ll keep writing into December. I plan to finish up around 70,000 words but we’ll see. Then it’s time to read what I’ve got and start editing.
This was my first experience with Nanowrimo and I must say it was great. I had no idea what it would take to write a novel and now I know. Having a word count that I had to stick to, helped me overcome perfectionism and procrastination. These two P’s are things that can really flatten your tires on the writing road.
Honestly, at the beginning of the month I didn’t think I would make it. I had several 0 word days and they were offset by several 5000 word days. Mostly I stuck to a 2000 word a day schedule and it worked for me.
I’d like to get a marketable book at the end of all this. It’s going to take a lot of editing and revising. If I don’t have a salable novel, at least the experience was fun and educational. Hats off to Nanowrimo!
Mid Nanowrimo Word Count
Nanowrimo 2009 Screenshot
We’ve reached the midpoint on Nanowrimo and at 18,755 words, things are coming along nicely. At this point I’m going to go for the full 50,000 words at the end of the month. However I’ll be happy to reach 30,000 words. We’ll see how it goes.
I’ve got to keep writing over 2000 words a day if I’m going to reach the Nanowrimo contest goal. Some day’s that’s not a problem and other days are grueling.
I’ve tried writing on my laptop in public bookstores, restaurants and in different areas of the house. Sometimes the change of scenery is all I need to get the words flowing again. One thing’s for sure, I’ll be pulling every trick I can think of in order to keep the word count high.
By the way, there’s over a hundred and forty words in this post. (Sorry doesn’t count) Got to get back to writing now, bye!
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