What is your definition of “Impossible”?  Something no one has done? Or something you don’t think you can accomplish? I couch my “impossibilities” as problems seeking answers. That interpretation creates solvable equations and solving them requires effort. If the goal is doable, it’s a matter of completing the required work. Climbing Mt Everest is possible, over 4,000 people have reached it, but it comes with a price. Your hope of attaining the summit may cost you your life.

Naming the Impossible’s entrance fee leaves the rest to you. Are you willing to pay the ante? The solution’s phase two is commitment. You must find your burning desire, bolster your resolve to complete the work that will advance you toward your goal. Don’t expect others to support you because chances are, they won’t. Grow accustomed to failing. Soichiro Honda once said, “Success is 99% failure.” The key is picking yourself up and continuing the journey.

Another trick is to stop doing stupid stuff. Any unnecessary activity is an excuse, a self-sabotaging barrier. Try cultivating your inner parent. You must cultivate a voice in your head telling you to quit playing games and get your homework done.

Life presents daily challenges and without impossible challenges where would humanity be? I prefer to take charge and transform my world from a guided tour to a self-directed adventure.

What is the cost of your “impossible” dream?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

As a writer, I spend hours in various local coffee shops, presumably writing. But sometimes, when the muse is mute, I observe the baristas. An adorable male barista repeats his customer’s orders.

“A tall blonde, no room, for a tall blonde. I should have guessed,” he jokes, and everyone chuckles.

“Venti double shot espresso on ice?  You know, they should call this one ‘The Jackhammer’,” he says as he shakes and jumps his way to the caffeine machine. His customer laughs until he reaches the exit where turns to wave with a shaking hand.

The other barista on duty is having a bad day. He sighs, he rolls his eyes. He laments he always gets the cranky customers. But, as I watch the patrons, their orders and the interactions, the only difference is the barista’s attitudes. The first one loves his job, or maybe he’s just decided to have fun while he works. His coworker is marking time, watching the clock tick away the moments remaining on his sentence.

Attitude is everything, and it is completely within our control. How might a change in your point of view affect your outlook or your business? Life is crazy, and it’s easy to succumb. I use what I call my 30-second meditation. I close my eyes, taking a deep breath, I hold it all inside. Then in one sweeping movement, I release it all and smile. Attitude adjusted; I opt for fun.

Maybe I’ll give The Jackhammer a shot.

What attitude do you choose today?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Life presents limitless choices, so many, we can become paralyzed, unable to move forward. Sources suggest we make a staggering 35,000 choices each day. Theoretically, we can achieve anything we set our mind to accomplishing. But making a choice means we deny ourselves hundreds of alternatives. Performing the task requires time, and time is the limiting constraint.

Daily, you will need to eat, sleep and perhaps commute to your employer and eight hours of work. Those activities will consume two-thirds of your day. Your free time, the remaining eight hours you can play a game, watch tv, go for a walk, or write your novel. Priorities set in your discretionary hours are the ones which may define your life.

These precious hours I manage and control, optimizing each second. I limit and constrict my other obligations so I can push more time into doing the things I love. Writing, reading, expanding my mind, spending time with family, they are the non-negotiables in my life

How do you manage your priorities?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

The advice to do whatever comes next sounds easy, but it may be more difficult than you imagined. Life is complex and fluid not static and simple That complexity creates beauty, and unique individuals. So, how do you determine your course of action? You can apply logic, plot a path, construct a timeline, and develop detailed plans. Your map shows you exactly how to proceed. Still, you hesitate, claiming your heart isn’t in it. You might be correct.

Having doubts may signal a misalignment between your head and your heart. These are the moments to return to the drawing board and reexamine your motives. Why are you rushing? Do you need to heal? Do you lack information? Or are you afraid of taking the first steps and committing to your project? The way forward calls for clarity of your intentions and motivations. Consult with others, a mentor, a parent, a therapist or a trusted friend, knowing they can’t answer your questions. Rather use them as sounding boards to help you sort your emotions. Write, journal and make your thoughts visible, then contemplate the validity of your words and seek your truth.

Be kind to yourself and drop self-judgment. Making great wine requires grapes, a recipe, and with the work completed, what remains demands patience and waiting. It takes as long as it takes. While you wait, distract yourself with other activities, clean the house, go to the gym, create space for the answers to unfold.

What is next on your list?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Stacked in the corner, tattered notebooks, torn paper scraps, and stuffed file folders threaten to topple and fade into forgetfulness. Browser windows with countless open tabs, mock me. Word docs hold accumulated I’s and O’s waiting for their sunny day.

Each holds a mishmash of ideas, epic tales, half-baked notions, diamonds in the rough and unique connections. They linger, hoping for development, nurturing, processing and completion. There are also duds, fragments of a hollow framework, derailed trains, forgotten whispers declared dead. they lie dry as dust.

They are far from silent. I am continuously interrupted by guilt and subtle reminders of my dereliction. The price I pay is self-sabotaging my productivity. I struggle to remember the exact story, justifying the story’s delayed conclusion, I force my mind to concentrate on my current darling.

Distracted by today’s bright shiny object, I realized I have started too many things, bitten off more than I can chew. I should turn over a new leaf and focus on the process of finishing what I have begun. Concentrating on the highest priority stories, I work on moving through to ‘Done’ before considering another project. I must go on to the end.

The time has come for the Harrowing of Hell.

How do you manage your work in process?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

We face hundreds of choices daily. We make mundane decisions without a thought. What to eat for lunch the route we take to work may be inconsequential. But we often opt to pursue a new career or move halfway around the globe, life-altering moves, taken with little regard to consequences. Large or trivial, each decision has the potential to impact the quality of our world. Conscious reflection leads to a developed philosophy as opposed to relying on emotions and gut instinct. Writing, reasoning, and contemplation allow us to lead an examined existence, one worth living, they say.

The process boosts my rational mind. It composes my thoughts. Through my work, I discover clarity and direction. It helps me develop a phenomenal vision of the future. Cultivating extraordinary farsightedness grants me the ability to imagine a destiny built on intention. Living in a manner aligned with my core values crystalizes as I compose. The more I write the more self-fulfilled I feel, which feeds my reasons for continuing my ritual. Now there is a nice Catch 22.

Why do you write?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

For us creative types creativity is not just something we have, it is how we live. We can’t imagine a life where we are not creating things, it is essential to our existence.

In the book Artistic Creation: A Phenomenological Account by Jeff Mitscherling, and Paul Fairfield they state Victor Hugo’s advice to other writers was to:

“Steep yourself for a few days… in the new world whose master you are to become. Lock yourself up with your characters and look them in the eye. Do not be afraid of the vague approximations that come to your mind… The outlines always swim about just before the work finds its feet and begins to walk.”

These instructions are fun, and they offer a glimpse into the workings of the creative process. Sometimes. It is not unusual to play with a concept for days, weeks, or months. A few ideas marinate for years before they coalesce.

Other times the idea springs to mind fully formed and ready for prime time. The exact transformation is not important, we chase the thrill to create.

How do your ideas come to you?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

If you want to be a surgeon, a concert violinist, an artist, an engineer, a baker, a writer… there are specific skills you must learn. Some of those skills take years to master, requiring hours of “deliberate practice”. People who excel, typically put in the time and do the work.

How many times has Yo-Yo Ma practice scales? How many jump-shots did Michael Jordan practice? How many math problems did Einstein solve? Deliberate practice requires you to be fully engaged in the skill you are trying to learn. You also minimized distractions. Dave Grohl is on to something here.

What are you doing today to learn your craft?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

Writers tread in giant footsteps forged by literature’s titans. They face great expectations, brave colossal odds and wear many hats. They cast a critical eye on their initial story idea, countless drafts, rewrites, edits, and elicit further criticism from beta readers, editors, and agents. They fearlessly build their author platform and tackle marketing. It’s a wonder any books get published. The entire process is a test of imagination. A writer must imagine their reader, flipping through the pages of the finished work and trust they will be transported into the author’s alternate reality.

It requires vision, perseverance, and diligence. It is not an easy road. So, why do we writers, write? The answers are varied, as different as snowflakes. Authors create stories to aid understanding of a confusing world, to experience unlimited freedom and to share unique ideas with people we will never meet in person. We pen deep emotions to encourage others, to heal, to start transformations and help interpret our own minds. A finished work gives us a sense of accomplishment, of a job well done. Oh, I suppose some novelists are writing only for the money, but it’s not their first consideration.

What drives your writing?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer

How many times have you heard someone lament they just want to be free? What does that mean to you? Is it the ability to do whatever you what whenever you wish? The ability to act or change without constraint. The reality is so much more. Everything we say and do has consequences. What happens rests on our shoulders and if there is blame to be cast, we must blame ourselves.

There is a secret to attaining the freedom you seek, it comes when you first take responsibility and hold yourself accountable to the highest standard. Freedom and responsibility are the embodiment of inseparable and contradictory opposites. They are Yin and Yang, darkness and light, young and old. Holding one requires that you maintain a balance with the other.  To be free, we must also be in control. Freedom and responsibility are not granted by the powers that be. They are taken. We must use them with virtue, knowledge, and compassion. If we are lucky, those qualities transform into wisdom and we can truly fly.

What will you do with your freedom?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer