It lies on the horizon. Shrouded in mist, more of a mirage than anything real. Yet, when I squint, the fog falls away, and my imagination conjures missing details, adding color, definition, and clarity. It seems incredibly distant. It mocks me, hovering tantalizingly beyond my reach. The universe is fickle and refuses to divulge the roadmap. There are no instructions, no listicles of the exact steps to take, no hint of a path, or any sign anyone has ever passed this way before.

Inaction is not my friend. I cradle my ephemeral vision in kid gloves, protecting its fragile existence as I shoulder the impossible, and set to work. Obstacles arise, and I discover my own insecurities created the hurdle I must navigate. Facing unfounded worries, paralyzing fear, and self-destructive thought patterns, I stumble forward with relentless determination.

There are mountains to move, valleys to cross, and rivers to ford. My friends call me crazy, but I am prepared for the challenge. The long hours lead to unexpected discoveries. The difficult work imparts a sense of satisfaction, and it fuels my resolve. When I look up from my task, I imagine my goal is closer.

Do you see your dream on the horizon?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I have a Sunday ritual. Sometimes I carve an hour from a lazy afternoon, or as I watch a movie in the evening. The crucial point is, I never sleep until I finish, even if it means sitting in bed to plot my schedule. Turning the page on my calendar, I begin front-loading my week. Front-loading is placing my most important, time-sensitive, deadline-driven, most hated, or least fun chores on Monday and Tuesday.

I treat these two days as my crunch times. While my coworkers’ transition from their weekend, I close my door, hit the ground running, and eat those nasty frogs. I focus on completing my project, but I don’t push beyond my peak productivity levels. When I feel myself fading, I allow myself to switch to another task, or I take a break. Depending on the size and complexity of the assignment, it may leak into the latter part of the week. But my goal is to accomplish the bulk of the job, as soon as it is feasible.

Tasks assigned to Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday have less significance, and I often have nothing listed on Friday.  This approach allows me to meet my deadlines with a polished presentation and absorb unexpected setbacks and emergencies. The big payoff happens when I complete my work sooner than I thought possible. In these found hours, I can launch new initiatives, develop pet projects, or reward myself, and coast into the weekend without guilt.

How do you organize your workweek?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Holidays shouldn’t happen mid-week. It is saner to amend them to a weekend in a reasonable, structural manner. Even then, it is preferable to schedule them beginning on a Thursday to allow for a reprieve from an inevitable Monday.

In the last two weeks, I have experienced four miserable Mondays. After multiple calendar checks and confirmation with other sources, I discover another one looming. My body tells me it should be Thursday, while the data confirms it is a Sunday. I am confused, discombobulated, disoriented, and a tangled mess without my schedule.

They have disturbed my typical sleep patterns. I don’t know if I am staying up late, waking early, or collapsing from exhaustion and taking a nap. Festive cocktail parties, wrapping presents, negotiating traffic, and adhering to pressing deadlines can take their toll. After braving family dinners fraught with complex dynamics, and taboo topics, raising a glass or two on New Year’s Eve is as much about saying goodbye to the holiday season as it is about welcoming the return of my normal, crazy routine.

Are you happy to resume your familiar, predictable, everyday life?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Will and desire alone, do not ensure success. I have an intense desire to be a billionaire. I bet you do too. However, no matter how many lottery tickets I purchase and scratch, I don’t see it happening anytime soon. I can set goals, and plan to buy a ticket every week, but my chance of hitting a big jackpot remain basically unchanged. We need a path with better odds.

The good news is we have examples, role models, and breadcrumbs to follow. The bad news is, it requires work. You must be willing to do what others refuse to attempt. Don’t expect encouragement from friends or family, pats on the back, or high-fives and attaboys. No one will be there, as you toil in the darkness. There will be stages in the process you will hate. If you are lucky, you will find a trailblazer who validates your journey.

The desire to succeed must fuel your competitive nature, and sustain your drive, as you create your anchor and inch forward. One small step helps you prepare for the next one, and the one after that. It is grueling, thankless, and imperative. This is the path that prepares you for the lucky break and unlocks the door to your success.

Will you dare to find your path to success?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Count down from five.

Fear can paralyze us. Fear stops us in our tracks, prevents action, progress, and derails the fulfillment of our destiny. Some days the most difficult task is getting out of bed. Try counting backward from five, then go. You can’t wait until you feel like doing something, because… surprise… you are never, ever going to feel like it.

Your goal is to exercise every day. You planned it, schedule it for 9am. But when the clock strikes 9, you waver. Neuroscience has calculated we have five seconds to act before our brain kills our best intentions. Exercising is risky, you might injure yourself, and develop sore muscles. Your instincts are trying to protect you, keep you safe, and encourages to you pull the blankets over your head.

The five-second rule helps break the impulse, it gets you moving and pushes you into action. You may know there is nothing dangerous about going for a walk, making a phone call, writing a story, but when you hesitate, you have five seconds before your brain convinces you to stop.

Instead, you must take control, rule yourself, start counting, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO.

So far, it’s been working.

Will you take five seconds to rule your world?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

I love January first, with its new baby smell. Today encourages us to forget the past, look toward the future and consider limitless possibilities, and vast horizons. There are wonderful opportunities, unimaginable miracles, and glorious sights waiting for us to discover.

On this New Year’s Day Birthday, I hope you find a fresh beginning, time to pursue your true purpose, grand endeavors, and lofty goals. May you move forward with confidence and courage on this great 365-day trip around the sun. You are precious, unique in the entire universe. The probability of being born as you is about 1 in 400 trillion. Those numbers confirm it, you are a precious incarnation. You are a blessing and an inspiration to the people whose lives you touch.

Here’s hoping your life’s potential accelerates, blasting you into the stratosphere, taking you where every wish is fulfilled. To infinity and beyond. Set a course. Engage.

Are you ready for a year to remember?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Bang! Fireworks explode louder than a starter’s gun, and I panic. Am I ready? Have I compiled my New Year’s Resolutions, and do I stand any chance of completing them? Or will I trip, fall, and gasping for breath, collapse on the ground before I reach the quarter-mile mark?  I bet some won’t make it off the blocks. They say most people abandon them by February. I suspect the problem lies in only preparing for a 100-meter dash instead of the marathon our self-improvement laundry list demands.

My checklist is short, simple, and stacked to ensure victory. I also have a one or two-word annual theme. My mantra for 2020 is “success.” I developed my resolutions by asking a single question–How can I find success this week? My writing goal is to write 1,000 words each week. Not 52,000 words this year. My brain sees the big number, and immediately says, “no.” But 1,000 words? Sure, it is doable in either a marathon sitting or spread across a few days.

I rely on a habit and a little encouragement from my friends. Every Sunday afternoon, I schedule the coming week’s tasks. Can I walk five miles, lose one pound, plan a healthy meal, spend less money, transfer $50 to my savings account, organize a closet, or read one chapter in a book?  Chances are, if I start, I will do more than I planned, multiplied by fifty-two. That’s how we win marathons.

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The countdown has begun. Only hours remain before we say goodbye to the current year, and mark another decade’s passing.  Every year presents us with highs and lows that sometimes create more screams than the newest roller-coaster ride. The universe packages other years with enough melodrama, theatrics, hysterical tears, and lusty infatuations that even telenovelas seem positively boring.

I am overcome with excitement and anticipation of a clean slate. 2020 holds promise, potential, and bright shiny possibilities, with an equal guarantee of hard work, difficult decisions, and unexpected obstacles. I listen to the words of the Dalai Lama, when he says, “Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.”

With optimism, we can navigate barriers, trust ourselves to make sound selections, and realize there is a reward for perseverance. Hope and strength are its allies. Pessimism is shrouded with doubt, fear, and gloomy desperation. They evaporate when you turn toward the sun and insist on placing one foot in front of the other. Those around you can’t help but catch your enthusiasm.

I raise my glass, thank 2019 for the lessons it taught me, and meet 2020, face to face, with a smile. I wish you a year loaded with inspiration, achievements, health, and happiness.

How will you greet the New Year?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

It appears innocent and unassuming, fragile, thin, and benign. As a popular culture icon, it is formidable. It induces anxiety, fear, panic, and feelings of inadequacy.  The blank page reduces creatives to blithering idiots, incapable of action. Alaa Al-Aswany expresses it well in the following video when he says writing is the “conflict between what you want to say and what you could say.”

Perhaps we should shift our thinking, channeling Michelangelo when he said, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block before I start my work. It is already there; I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” Maybe our story is there, fully written, and waiting for us to release it.

Staring into 2020, with its unlimited possibilities, we can find ourselves frozen, afraid to move. Any good writer holds their story’s plot in their mind before they face the blank page. Likewise, goals serve as the structure for our lives as we take bold strides forward. Step by step, we advance, aware only of an ephemeral dream, an imagined destination, and an image of what we are meant to be.

What path will your goals create in the new year?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

This quote made me laugh. Who among us has mastered time? Is there a secret society of time masters, hoarding their magical ways? We study time management techniques, perform time audits, eat frogs, create to-do lists, apply the 80-20 rule, use batch tasking, set S.M.A.R.T. goals, learn to say “no” and do more by doing less. Even with those tools, we fail.

We stand on the brink of a new decade, and Tony says we underestimate what we can accomplish in the space of ten years. It seems impossible, but when I look backward toward 2010, I am amazed by the path that brought me here, and how different my life is today. So, as I sit to plot and plan my intentions for 2020, I wonder if I dare to dream bigger and imagine where I might be when I turn the calendar to welcome 2030. How much more may I realize if I broaden my event horizon? Will my progress exceed light speed?

There is a shift in my normal goal setting exercise. A mere 365 days is too short. I have always complete five- and ten-year targets. While I finished them, they were cursory, never fully formed, or completely embraced. This year, their significance has surpassed my annual ambitions, and I can’t wait to see where this alteration leads me.

How do you master time?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer