One Hundred

How to Spend the Final Days of the Year

Photo credit: Dwight Fincher

September 13th marked the one hundred remaining days of 2024. I wouldn’t have known except for an email promoting a workshop devoted to “a hundred days of writing.” It was a painful reminder of just how little of my time in 2024 involved anything of the sort.

This year, rather than any creative endeavors, I have instead focused on something else entirely— building an offshore sailing resume. I had wanted to get out and sail on the ocean, and while my log of blue water miles accumulated, my creative endeavors seemingly dried up. (I’m glad to have accrued those miles, but I suspect that sometime in the future, sailing will become less important and that my less nurtured creative self will need to sustain my days.)

In terms of planning for that future, perhaps a little attention spent on creative endeavors would be merited. (Thus far, seen from a bird’s eye view, my writerly efforts amount to a pile of abandoned projects cast aside and thrown into the unused second bedroom of my life. Bury any writerly ambitions under a million other activities, close the door, and forget about it.)

It’s always there, though, the writing. There are always narratives going through my head with characters whose behaviors and motivations I study.

When it comes to writing, opportunities abound. One such is upcoming, November’s National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, thirty days spent penning a novel.

Luckily, I’m not a novelist, so that’s an easy ambition for me to dodge, but as a former fifth grade teacher who loved to teach writing, I sometimes fantasized about how great it would be to give youngsters the opportunity to take a stab at writing a novel in a month, to experience the highs and lows of the trade.

In the end, I signed up for the ‘100 Days of Writing’ seminar on Zoom. Once on the call, the two facilitators guided dozen of writers around the world through a goal-setting process.

First task: Select five words to describe a future self.

I chose:

• Athlete- without question, I want to finish fit, strong, and as flexible as possible;

• Partner- freedom is great, but all the science lines up behind being together;

• Author- if not now, when?

• Explorer- what else is there? My joys are all related to discovery, most often outdoors;

• Citizen- community counts.

Second task: Identify three guiding principles to steer toward this future self.

I chose:

• Persistence- challenging for the distractible and depressive, but essential;

• Kindness- no arguing this one;

• Connection- science and data concur; Isolation is perilous.

Next, identify either a ‘gap’ or a ‘gain’ goal. With a ‘gap goal’, one sets a target and charts daily progress on closing the gap toward that goal. A ‘gain goal’ measures the step by step requirements for realizing the desired outcome.

After that, brainstorm potential projects for the next one hundred days.

I chose:

• Publish ten Substacks.

Then, why is the project important?

I said:

I don’t want to give up on my writer self.

After that, write up a page something along the lines of:

By December 31, 2024, I will have published a Substack approximately every ten days. [Gap Goal] or, alternatively, a gain goal. Every day I will dedicate twenty minutes to writing.

Next:

When will I do the work?

The facilitators asked us to visualize a possible daily or weekly schedule. For example, I could write for twenty minutes each day during one of the online Writers’ Hours sponsored by the London Writers’ Salon, or I could write during morning coffee. [Essentially a fail.]

After that, the leaders asked us to forecast obstacles that could interfere with our projects:

I predicted:

• Travel

• Sailing

• Fatigue

• Negativity

To help counteract any obstacles, the workshop leaders advocated for some form of accountability. I opted to have friends keep me on tract. Friends and a spreadsheet. (Crazy how much this free-wheeling Italian major loves her Google sheets. Accountant dad would approve.)

Penultimately, the leaders asked us to determine what was at stake with this project. Would we use the proverbial carrot or the stick to create forward momentum? They suggested creating rewards or alternatively, negative consequences, such as contributing to a cause we despised, if we failed to achieve our milestones.

I did not address the issue of stakes. [Critical error?]

Finally, the facilitators asked the writers to detail the first step.

I chose:

• Text my accountability partner- [fail; nor did I write for twenty minutes on Day 100.]

On Days 99 and 98, however, I wrote. I wrote in excess of the daily twenty minutes, making up for Day 100’s deficit. [Yet, more than twenty days have passed since the goal setting session. By that measure I should have published two Substacks already. Oops.]

The biggest obstacle?

Negativity.

I argued loudly in my head that the topic was of no interest to anyone.

The second biggest obstacle?

Sailing.

Trying to keep myself accountable for two trainings I enrolled in takes up time.

Which guiding principle might help?

Kindness, in this case, to self.

Kindness and persistence might carry the day.