on writing

writing

1000 Days

August 24, 2020

I have now written every single day for over 1000 days in a row.

Technically today I am on day 1120. I know, I should have done this on day 1000, but the amazing thing is that somewhere in the 400 – 500 range, it stopped being surprising that I was showing up. I even stopped talking about it on Social Media. (Can you imagine!?)

I am still doing it. I intend to keep doing it. I have now done it so long that it has become a part of who I am and what I do. It’s like brushing my teeth: it would feel too weird not to do it.

I have written about this before here and here, and I have talked about it on instagram and in my courses and offerings, but what I have discovered is that it all boils down to devotion*.

People ask me about it all of the time. Many say that they were inspired by my journey and that they are now on day ____, others just shake their heads and tell me that they ‘could never do that.’ To the first group, I grin and say, ‘YAY! YOU!’ To the second group, I just smile, because as long as they say that, it will be true for them (but I actually don’t believe them.)

You have it in you to believe in yourself and to devote yourself so something that matters. You do. You just have to pick something that really matters and then change your mind – one day at a time.

Here is what I have learned in 1000+ days of showing up for something that matters to me:

You have to do something that matters to your soul. Showing up every day for anything not in alignment who Who You Are will be much much more difficult.
Make it easy. You have to choose something that you can do without making it a big bloody deal. Creating any sorts of complications or fancy rituals or specific rules will just give you something to rebel against or use to make an excuse not to show up.
You have to make it non-negotiable. This was a big piece for me. If you give yourself any way out, you’ll probably find it. I have shown up to write every day no matter what because that was the one boundary/ rule I set. (And this doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do whatever it is every day. But the days you DO commit to showing up? Those have to be non-negotiable.)
Equally, you have to focus on today. If you didn’t show up yesterday it can’t matter. Take the question of why you didn’t show up to your work, but show up today anyway. WAY too many dreams have been shelved because ‘I didn’t do it today/ yesterday/ the month/ this year so why bother?‘ I’ll tell you why: because it matters enough for you to want to do it and to come back to it over and over again. Just show up again today and then repeat that over and over and over again.
Doing this will change everything. You will begin to see your own cycles and patterns and stories. You will bore yourself. You will surprise yourself. You will inspire yourself. You will then bore yourself all over again. This noticing of the patterns and the stories and the cycles will begin to change everything. Your perspective and your beliefs and your world will expand. Keep going.

My own 1000+ Days of Writing has brought me into a place where everything is magic. I can see stories and patterns and allies and a much, much bigger picture. I can also confidently call myself a Writer, because I show up every day to write. That alone is worth the journey of the past three years.

What calls your soul? What do you want to call yourself? What wants to come through you? Start today. Show up. See what happens.

*I have created a 48+ page workbook that will help you get really clear on your own 1000 Days Project (or 100 Days Project, or simply your Soul Work). It is a gift for my newsletter subscribers. So if you are interested in going on this journey and starting with a bit of help and a bit of inspiration and a lot of clarity, just click here to join my newsletter list.

With so much love,

show up, writing

365 Days of Showing Up

July 28, 2018

In my last post I shared with you how I started writing every day and what I head learned from that. But I didn’t tell you about what I learned about the other 1/2 of my Guide’s message.

If you remember, when I asked my Guide for help in understanding what was wrong with me, the response was: “Stop fucking around and show up.” Not only that, but for the next 24 hours, it wasn’t the words, ‘show up’ that I saw or heard four more times, it was, ‘stop fucking around.’

I thought that showing up was my problem. I thought that there was something wrong with me. What writing every day has taught me is that the messages found in the not showing up are actually one of my greatest teachers. Not showing up is actually not a problem at all.

I don’t know who or what my Guide is. I don’t know if it’s just my higher self, or if it’s an angel or something else entirely or what, but I do know that whoever it is, their perspective is one of divinity. From their perch, all of this human stuff must be puzzling: if we are in any way divine, why do we let ourselves get caught up in our fears and our foibles? Why can’t we just show up and do what is best for us? To them it must look like we are just (to use their words), fucking around.

It shows that we must be more, because we ask ourselves those same questions: What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I just…” We can see the possibilities, but we get stuck in the ordinary muck.

One morning as I wrote ‘what’s wrong with me’ (for the thousandth time) the words, ‘where you stopped is a message’ came into my head. That made me stop writing.

Where you stopped is a message.

This felt important, so I started paying attention. When I really had to force myself to show up, I would stop and look at what was going on. Often it would be in a week where I was writing similar stuff over and over again. So I would ask myself: what am I avoiding? And if I persevered, I’d often find a fear hiding under all of that repetition. Then, instead of allowing that fear to stop me, I would take it to my writing.

As I practiced looking the stop in my writing, I also began to look more widely. I would see a book that I had started reading and then never went back to, wonder where I stopped, and open it again, only to see that it was talking about something that challenged me. Instead of putting the bookmark back in, I took that challenge to my writing.

Alongside writing this year, I have been on a journey with Magical Eating, so I tried taking this idea with me into my relationship with food. Every time I realized that I had stopped focusing on that journey, I would check in and see where I had stopped. Almost every time I could trace that stop to a fear. Once I saw that fear for what it was I would take that to my daily writing.

Every time I stopped to ponder the stop, there was a message for me. And every time it was a message about something I was afraid of. Every single time it was an opportunity for healing.

What if every time we stop doing something that we think we want to do, there is a reason for the stop? What if there’s nothing actually wrong with us at all and it’s actually an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and to heal one of our fears? What if the places we stop out of fear are just opportunities to stop fucking around – to clear up some of the human stuff and re-engage with our divinity? What if they are just an opportunity to clean up the stuff we don’t actually need anymore?

I’ve discovered that showing up no matter what is kind of like Marie Kondo-ing your life. You get to look at things, hold them up to the light and say, ‘do I really need or want this anymore?’ instead of just stuffing them back into your junk drawer. (Or sometimes I still just put things back in that drawer for awhile. We aren’t always ready to heal everything, and I really think that’s okay. Seeing it as a fear is still a big step.)

(Here they are: 365 days of writing in 7 ultra-glamorous notebooks.)

So here I am, still showing up. Still writing. Still wondering. Still healing. Still struggling with it. Still hoping that I don’t screw up. Still hoping that I will keep showing up. Still wishing that I had it in me for this to be easy. Still dragging myself out of bed at 11:30 because I forgot to write before then. Still enjoying how wonderful it feels sometimes, and worrying about how hard it is others.

I showed up today as clearly as I could. I listened. I wrote. I wondered.

I showed up today. Today is all that matters.

(And yes, I am celebrating a whole year today too! All of the todays added up to a whole year. Yay, me! I am proud of me, and excited to show up again tomorrow.)

What about you? How did you show up for yourself today? Today is all that matters.

With so much love,

writing

Just Get One Done

November 5, 2015

And So It Begins Meghan Genge

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish. – J.R.R. Tolkein

I have had all of the demons and gremlins come to visit me this week. I’ve had ‘who are you?’ and ‘who do you think you are?’ and they brought reinforcements. Lots of them. I’m writing, you see, and when I am really writing, they all come out to play with my head. But one gremlin is suspic
iously absent this time.

I was reading a fabulous bit of advice in a letter from Brenda at Forest North this morning. In it she writes about the hardness of writing, and what that means. It’s a great bit of advice, and it got me thinking about that gremlin who hasn’t shown up: ‘what’s the point, you aren’t really a writer.’

The last time I wrote a book, that gremlin showed up on a regular basis. No matter how many blog posts I wrote, or chapters I finished, his little voice was there in my head. I’ve heard the same crap come out of the mouths of artists, musicians, dancers, poets, all of them: I’m not really a(n)…

But I did it. I finished the book. And I even let myself be proud of it.

This time, I’m not hearing it or even hearing myself say it. And it’s not because I published something, and it’s not because I am somehow more evolved or easier on myself, it’s because the last time I sat down to write a book, I finished it.

I proved to myself that I was a writer by writing something.

So now every time I sit down to write, I don’t have to listen to that particular gremlin anymore. Because it isn’t true. I am a writer: I have proof.

And that means that there is a lot more room for actual writing.

So advice from the trenches? Finish something. Complete something. Just get one done. Prove to yourself that you are a: (insert favourite label here). Because if you have made art, you are an artist. If you have written, you are a writer.

Own it. Liberate yourself from that particular gremlin. Make room so that you can get on with making more.

Just get one done.

Older Posts

1000 Days

365 Days of Showing Up

Just Get One Done

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish. – J.R.R. Tolkein

Newsletter

New here?

Legal Stuff

My Instagram