photo credit: sun dazed

Remember the bumper stickers that said, “I’d rather be shopping”?  Well, I’d rather be talking.  I’ve always been a natural talker.  I didn’t realize that I was such a character until I got the opportunity to be in the chorus of Wonderful Town my sophomore year of high school.  You need to understand that my only motivation for trying out was that there would be boys there.  I was attending an all-girls high school (do I really need to say Catholic?) and there were no boys on campus… except during the play.  Well, when the curtain went up on opening night all my parents could say was “You’re such a HAM!”  I didn’t even know what that meant.

My last semester of junior college I had to take a speech class to fulfill one of the graduation requirements.  Like everyone else, I had avoided this until the last possible moment.  Maybe they’d get rid of the requirement.  FAT CHANCE!

I slaved over that first speech.  We were taught a basic outline for an informative speech – central idea and three main points to support it.  I was TERRIFIED!  Somehow, I survived and we moved on to persuasive speeches.  Again, I slaved and was TERRIFIED.  After the second speech, the instructor asked me to stay after class.  He wanted me to join the speech team!  Say what??? Well, what can I say?  I’m such a HAM!

Give me a captive audience and you need a hook – or better yet, a gong. (Remember that show?)  Several years later I joined the American Society for Training and Development and found out that there were people in the profession who didn’t like to get up in front of an audience.  GREAT!  Get out of my way.  Let me at ‘em!

But for me, writing a blog is a whole different story.  For one thing, it is a solitary task.  There’s no audience smiling up at you.  No one laughs at your jokes.  You sit at your desk and type until something works.  This may take hours or days.  The stuff that takes longer may never see the light of day (or the internet).

80% of Most Things – Including Successful Writing – is Showing Up

One of the most challenging things about having committed to posting new articles five days/week on a blog is the daunting reality of coming up with something to write on a regular schedule.  When we first started, it was relatively easy because we hadn’t written anything yet and pretty much everything was fair game.

Now, we’re several months into this process and sometimes the well seems to run dry… not that I ever shut up if you’re with me in person, but sometimes the blank screen stays blank for a very long time before the fingers start typing.  And sometimes, there’s a whole lot on the screen that ends up being deleted.

This is when I really learned the meaning of the saying, “80% of success is showing up.”  Writing is the discipline of sitting down, regularly, and committing ideas to paper – no matter what.  Some days it’s easier than others, but the cold, hard facts are that you just gotta do it.  (Ellie’s writing candle that she talked about in yesterday’s post says, “The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.” – Mary Heaton Vorse)

20% of Success is Taking a Well-Timed Break

With everything that we’re learning about how the brain learns, it becomes more and more evident that the way to get to Carnegie Hall is practice, practice, practice.  Actually, that’s the way to get good at almost everything.  Showing up really is a large part of the process.

BUT, we need to alternate practice with breaks.  Especially when we’re working on a creative process, we need to walk away for a while to allow our subconscious to bring forward the answer that we haven’t found yet.  Most skill development involves some problem solving.  We want to serve that tennis ball closer to the line.  We want to reduce our slice.  We want smoother transitions when we give a presentation.  Each of these requires first the intention, then showing up to do some thoughtful practice and then a break.  When we take our attention off the task we’re working on, that’s when we often make the most progress.  Think of how many problems you’ve solved on the freeway or in the shower.  By teaching ourselves to take that break and focus elsewhere we increase our skill.

The Myth – Work Harder

And that is where myth comes in.  We believe that if we just work harder we’ll find the answer.  We’ll solve the problem.  When you are on deadline, the hardest thing in the world is to take that short break because the pressure is sooo intense and we believe hard work is the answer.  Yet, according to Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz in The Power of Full Engagement, “The key to mental recovery is to give the conscious, thinking mind intermittent rest.”

I think that this is one thing that smokers got right even if they can’t take credit for the win.  Once smoking was banned from buildings, the smoker was forced to walk outdoors and take a break while I was still working, no excuse not to.   Admittedly, the cigarettes weren’t good for them, but they took a break and RELAXED.  We can learn from that.

Can we force ourselves to keep working?  Absolutely!  You’ve done it a million times and will probably do it a million more.  But, consider an alternative.  Taking a break from a difficult task doesn’t mean you have to go on vacation, you can choose to slip in a smaller simpler task as a break.  When I was working in an office, this was usually when I got another cup of coffee  or ran copies or went to the ladies room. (Some of my best ideas have come to me in the ladies room.)

So choose to show up… and then break for a little while.  Relax your brain, it’s the biggest muscle you have.  Like all muscles, it will perform better after a break.  And you’ll be happier with the result.