“Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.”
― Eric Hoffer
Many of us have difficulty when it comes to taking a leap of faith. We inherently need reassurance, especially when we seek to make changes in our lives, such as career or personal choices. I get it. Change is hard. But trust is something we learn in early infancy. When we begin our journey through life we are totally dependent on others for food, shelter, physical protection, and human contact. Infants who are not nurtured fail to thrive, and beyond that typically do not survive into adulthood.
Once we become adults and take on responsibility for our lives, the choices, actions and the consequences of those actions, we have achieved maturity. More or less. This is where it becomes important for us to trust others, especially those who love and support us.
During NANO we chose to commit to daily writing in order to finish the rough draft of a novel we all (hopefully) would like to see in print someday.
That’s correct. At the end of the thirty days/ 50,000 words we are hopeful that the rough material will put us closer to our goal of a finished product. Because I am a realist, I know the editing process will bring major changes to the rough draft of any novel. In fact, I expect it to happen.
Let’s talk for a minute about the guy who signs up for NANO and doesn’t make the word count on any given day. What happens to him? or Her?
This is where trust comes in. You have to trust yourself to make up the word counts you miss or work ahead if you’re not available to do word counts on any given day. For example, I do realize thanksgiving is a major holiday, with lots of relatives, partying, elaborate meals, and family visiting and travel taking place during the thirty days allotted to NANO. I have been doing this for several years now.
I also do the majority of the food preparation for the huge feast known as Thanksgiving Dinner.
How do I handle these responsibilities along with meeting the word counts I planned? I plan ahead. I organize my time, and sometimes I write in really small increments.
I start dinner early since I can count on things not going the way I planned, this is also known as “life experience”. I do a lot of the prep work ahead of time, on days when the word count came in over schedule or ahead of schedule. I’ve learned how to delegate (get someone else to do a few tasks for me) and to let things go that are not important. Someone could bring a side dish and YES, it won’t be exactly like mine, but they want to helps and I need help so it works out. I have learned to trust others not to disappoint me, and if they do? Well, then I like to give them a second chance.
I trust myself to keep the promises I’ve made to myself, and so I need to trust others to keep their promises to me. This usually works.