Let’s do the impossible. You down?

What is the impossible?

It’s whatever you want it to be, but it’s something that requires a helluva lot more energy than usual. It’s a challenge that’s both scary and exciting. It’s something you don’t have to do, but you want to. Like, you really, really want to.

 

I’m participating in NaNoWriMo (one of the Mission Impossibles that I’m working on). In one of the emails they sent, the writer mentioned how she tries to pursue at least one thing that’s impossible every year. 

 

That might be a personality thing because I have to always be working on something impossible, whether it’s eating raw vegan for 21 days, running 25 miles in one week, finishing a novel in a month, selling another 100 concert tickets in less than two weeks, or saving $1,000 by my birthday.

For what?

When I’m intentionally working on something impossible, I ain’t got time for the unnecessary stress of procrastination. Therefore, I better budget my time and energy. And that mini orgasm feeling that I get when I pushed something off until the last minute but still made it happen? It turns into a major release after I’ve ran that 25th mile or reached that 50,000th word count or finished my 21st day of clean eating. 

 

And I walk away from each challenge that much more empowered. I don’t go back to regular-assedness when I’m done. I drink smoothies every single morning because of my 21-day raw vegan feast. The book that I’d been wanting to write, I’m just about finished with now. 

How to pick your impossible?

That’s where a little self-exploration comes in at:

• What area(s) of your life do you want to improve?
• What’s begging to come off the backburner?
• Where you do you need to be more consistent?
• What doesn’t feel good and need a quick script-flip?
• What’s going good, but can be made better?

 

Some general ideas:

• Self-care 
• Diet
• Fitness
• Spirituality
• Finance
• Marriage
• Writing

Tips on tackling it

1. Make sure you’re emotionally connected to it.

 

Why are you doing it? That question will come up again when it gets hard. My sixth day of running four miles per day, I wondered why the hell I was even doing it. Two weeks into my 21-day fruitarian feast, my lil devil was saying, “Girl, you ain’t gotta do this foolishness.” 

 

Establishing your why ahead of time prepares you to handle these weaker moments when you just wanna throw in the towel and say phuck it. When your emotionally connected, your why is loud and clear and better equipped to shush the comfort zone. 

 

2. Know what makes it impossible.

 

“When undertaking the impossible, however, it’s important to remember what actually makes it impossible, because that’s what you have to overcome. The novel-writing part isn’t what makes NaNoWriMo impossible. Time is the only thing that makes NaNoWriMo impossible.

 

It won’t feel that way. It’s going to feel like the writing is the impossible part. But all of the puzzles you’re going to face—plot holes, characterization woes, bad pacing, words ceasing to make any sort of logical sense—aren’t even really problems; this is just what the writing process looks like. So learn to love that process. The actual problem is that most of these puzzles require time to solve.” 

 

What made my running challenge impossible was knowing there’d be days I didn’t feel like running. What makes my savings goal impossible is that I love eating out, but I’ll either have to drastically cut back or make more money. Once I’ve identified the hard part, then I can research tips on making it work. 

 

The author of the NaNoWriMo article, Maggie Stiefvater,  said that to make time work for her, she:

 

• Know my project. I need to know what I want that final project to look like. Where it sits on the shelf, why I’m writing it, how it will make the reader feel. Then I ask myself with each chapter: does this belong in the book I said I was writing

• Never sit at my computer without knowing what I’m going to write. If I’m stuck, I need to stimulate my physical body so my mind can play: drive, walk, shower.

• Unwind each day with thirty minutes of reading something that feels like what I’m trying to make, to remind myself how others accomplished it.

• [brackets]. If I know I need a beat but can’t quite get the details yet, I place brackets around the words [fight here] or [scene], so that I know I can go back and fix it later.

• Move forward and backward. I go back and edit; I go forward and outline. Rereading and scanning ahead helps me keep #1 in mind.

• Ignore word count. I get through the plot first, then I go back and flesh out or cut down as needed.

3. Just commit!

 

That’s the easiest, hardest advice. You’ll want to give up, but don’t. You deserve it. Plus, your self-discipline will be on a whole ‘nother level when you’re finished. When that happens, your life changes for the better. 

Let’s hold space for one another:

The closing ceremony was the most powerful rituals of the Between Words and Water: Spiritual Writing Retreat. We each shared something that we needed to release in order to acquire our deepest desire. We planned to meet up again four weeks later on a video chat to share our progress. In between time, we stored each other’s desires in our wombs and did whatever practices or prayers individually to throw some magic on it.

 

Long story short: We all got what we wanted. The power of women together for a common goal is nothing to be played with. 

 

Respond to this email and let me know how I can hold space for you.