I’m now being “NAGged” by the ProNagger every morning to get me moving on my goal to create a membership site.

Not long after that #ideaparty, no fewer than 4 different free presentations on how to get a membership up and running literally fell in my lap. I’ve listened to 2 so far and am anticipating the big 4-day teleseminar coming up soon.

So this is REALLY new to me – that is actively asking for support (my success team & ProNagger) – and actually seeing it develop into something really cool.

Stay tuned – I’ll announce it here. If you want to be notified by email, sign up here.

1. Move in the direction of your dream
   Just because you don’t know exactly what to do next doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do something. Feeling your way along is still making progress. So–decide to do something. You’ll know after you do it whether it was right. If it wasn’t, you can make another move. Make it a practice to fail forward. Keep a list of all your ideas. Whenever you feel stuck, re-read the list and choose one idea for action.
2. Ask and you shall receive
   I’ve garnered a wealth of other people’s wisdom just by asking. After locating the contact information for an author or publisher, I craft an e-mail with the subject line “Requesting a courtesy.” I ask if he or she would be willing to spend a few minutes talking with an aspiring writer, and I offer to pay for the call. It has never failed to elicit a positive response.
3. Be open to the possibilities
   Warning — wild ideas will come to mind! Don’t dismiss them out of hand. Because I was self-publishing my book, Living a Life of Significance, I assumed I would have to bear the entire cost of the project. After all, wasn’t that why they called it self-publishing? Just then a wild idea raised its goofy head. I pitched a kind of “joint venture” to a colleague with similar interests. He had access to funds to pay the book designer — not an insignificant sum. This infusion of cash freed up some dollars to invest in marketing the book.
4. Ask “what if?” to transform your thinking
   Who knows what may develop if you spend a little time asking yourself the question, “What if…?” As I began working on my book, I asked myself, “What if I could create a book customers would want to buy in quantities of 25, 50 or more, instead of just one at a time?” That led to the concept of selling my book to organizations and offering to customize the covers to include the organization’s name. The books could then be used as gifts and relationship-building tools. It worked! My goal is to create a continuing series of books, which organizations can purchase each year.

Originally published at Write Directions

photo by Linden Laserna

Barbara Sher cries bull. You don’t have to change yourself first before you can go after a dream. All you need is a kick in the ass. And since you probably can’t do that on your own, you should probably find a few other dream builders to help you on your way. Accountability is a big reason why we do stuff. We did our homework because we’d get a bad grade otherwise.We go to work because we’d get fired if we don’t, and we probably need the money.

That’s where her quote “Isolation is a dream killer” comes in. The main point in her book Wishcraft: How to Get What You Really Want is to gather a group of like-minded individuals, those who are pursuing their dreams as well, and keep each other accountable. These are, in Barbara Sher’s world, called Success Teams. Surround yourself with those who are interested in your dream (and you in theirs) and you can do just about anything.

I’ve been listening to a seminar called “Making Dreams Happen” and all I have to say is that I *love* Barbara’s look on things. I’m notoriously self-deprecating and have a really below-average sense of self-worth. But when I believe in something, when it means food on the table or none, and when I have people checking up on me, I do things. I did fantastic in school because bad grades were a very good negative reinforcement technique. I finish work-related projects because if I don’t, I don’t get paid (and I feel like a big jerk for flaking).

If positive thinking and stuff of that ilk do you good, then by all means do it. But Positive Thinking never got me anywhere because when I fail, I feel like even more of a worm than I already do. I can accomplish stuff even if I feel like crap, hate my body, and wake up grumbling… Because when I have the right people by my side, it works.

Now time to find my success team…

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who are alive.

-Harold Whitman

So now we’re in the midst of a good Plurk about what people have been writing about their ideal days. If I get permission, I’ll be posting a few of them here over the next few days.

Why don’t you join in? Just post a comment adding your ideal day or what your ideal life would look like. Nothing is impossible. Write down your deepest wishes, no matter how improbable they may seem. Maybe it’ll get you moving in a different direction!

Avoidance
The task that I procrastinate on is so painful or boring or difficult that I just don’t want to do it until the very last possible minute. Unfortunately some of these tasks are rather important — mostly to others. Sometimes this ends up with me scrambling at the last minute or just letting it slip, which doesn’t really look all that great to employers or clients.

Fear
Fear of success is another thing that occasionally drives my own procrastination. Sometimes I don’t know what I’ll do with myself when I actually accomplish something. Maybe they’ll expect me to do something else, too. And then another thing. And another. Pretty soon they’ll be expecting way more than I feel I can deliver. And don’t ask who “they” are. I’m not quite sure myself.

Rewards
Sometimes the rush of adrenaline I get after scurrying to get 5 articles done in 3 hours is its own reward. I, in fact, accomplished this very task recently and felt so elated it took me hours to come down & finally sleep. My heart was racing, hands were shaking, breathing quickened. I felt like I took a decongestant (Ok – so I haven’t done any hard drugs – if a decongestant can make me feel like I’m on 10 and vibrating like a sugar-crazed 10-year old, then I don’t want to try anything else). Yes, I came down and crashed hard. Maybe the hurry-up-deadline-is-45-minutes-away rush is mildly addictive?

Proven Successes
I had been agonizing for a month over the concept and script for a 30-second video ad for an art journaling class I’m teaching soon. I had several weeks to figure out what I wanted to do, even more time than I had originally since my film maker friend had to reschedule twice. Twenty minutes before I was supposed to meet him to shoot the video, The Idea came, and the video’s a big hit. I’ll post it when I can get a copy. So this was a success that could only be attributed to my procrastination. I had no idea what to do until that last 20 minutes.

As far as people “working best under pressure…” The jury’s still out on that. So is procrastination a good or a bad thing? There are some people that say procrastination is good, something that allows us to live life to its fullest. others say it’s not – that it’s a bad coping mechanism and ultimately results in work that’s not your best.

What do others say on procrastination? Here are a few articles I’ve read lately:

• Structured Procrastination: an entire blog devoted to making procrastination work for you
• Ten Things to Know about Procrastination: Psychology Today has loads of articles on procrastination
• The “Unschedule” at 43Folders: “looks like a normal schedule… Instead of scheduling work you have to do, you fill in everything you want to do.”

So, are you a procrastinator? Why do you procrastinate? Feel free to leave some comments for discussion. In the future I may explore some ways to deal with procrastination, but don’t hold me to it.

So with that, I welcome you to The Alternating Current. This is a blog by, for, and about Renaissance Souls or Scanners — people who are more like Benjamin Franklin and his multifaceted life of exploration and learning than Mozart in his dive-deep pursuit of excellence.