This is Hump Week: Are you Half Way There?

Are you on track with what you want to accomplish this year? Week 25 of 52 is a great time to review your writing progress for the year. Did you set a New Year’s resolution for your writing? Have you finished 50% of what you set out to do? Even if you don’t like to set goals, are you ok with being known for nothing in particular?

Without goals, how will you know if you’re on track to accomplishing your writing projects? It’s easy to let the year slip by day after day, week after week. You tell yourself that you’re going to get started tomorrow or next week, as soon as all the other stuff of life gets out of the way.

Train Yourself to Write Through Good and Bad Weather

The not-so-surprising part is that the things never seem to get out of the way. Once one day passes by, the next day arrives with its own substance. It really comes down to whether or not you’re willing to write through the whirlwind of life. People pack up to get away from hurricanes, tornadoes and typhoons, and this is smart. But you will always have distractions, wind and clouds in day-to-day life. This is hump week. Are you in a position to celebrate that you’ve worked through both good and bad conditions in the past six months?

You have to write through both seemingly good and bad circumstances. If you’re always waiting for a sunny day and great conditions, you’ll find that you’re in a constant state of waiting for the perfect moment to write. This is hump week and it’s time to do a reality check.

Isaac Asimov’s Secret to Prolific Writing

If you get excited about hump day because you’re half way through your work week, then you’re in the wrong business. This is hump week. Are you proud of what you’ve accomplished in the first part of the year and are you excited about your upcoming work in the next six months?

Make a Weekly List of Writing Tasks

Coach Linton McClain with Darone Professional Coaching recommends making a weekly checklist at the beginning of each week and sharing the list with several trusted friends. This is a way to keep yourself accountable for what you want to write and accomplish in the upcoming week.

It’s easy to slack on your writing goals day after day and remain in denial. But you’ll eventually get embarrassed if you slack on your goals week after week and your accountability partners know it. Do you want to be known as someone who screws around or someone who’s productive? This is hump week. What’s your plan for the week?

Sure, things might come up on any given day that get you derailed, but if you can’t get seem to your top writing goals on a regular basis, then it’s time to revisit your expectations, ramp up your self-discipline, or find an accountability coach or group. This is hump week. It’s a good time to get back on track.

Camels are known for their humps. The humps give them the ability to travel through the hot desert for up to 25 miles a day. Their thick footpads give them the protection they need to travel over rocks and sand. They have three eyelids and two rows of eyelashes which help protect their eyes from sandstorms. They are designed to survive and thrive in their habitat. What are you doing as a writer to thrive in your surroundings?

The year is passing along day by day. Today is your only opportunity to make sure that you’ve completed your word count and top writing tasks for the day.

Set Short-Term Writing Goals

In The 12 Week Year by Brian Moran, he suggests that a year is too long of a time period to feel any sense of urgency. He encourages his readers to plan out their goals over a twelve week time period. This way, there’s much more sense of urgency to get things complete every week and every day. If you miss a day in a twelve week year, it’s sort of the equivalent of taking a week off work in a calendar year. Yes, you need to take time out to rest and rejuvenate, but this is the easy part and, for most, will happen automatically. The part that you need to focus on is clarifying your writing goals for the week and how they translate to your daily writing activities. This is hump week. What do you intend to accomplish this week?

Are you still bluffing that you have plenty of time to get to your goals in the next six months? Then you’ll probably find yourself sitting in your comfortable couch on January first next year thinking that things will be different in the upcoming year. This isn’t the way it works and you know it. Watch the movie Groundhog Day over and over again until this concept sinks in. Your world isn’t going to change until you do.

If you’re reading this and it isn’t the last week of June (week 25 of 52), don’t worry. It’s all still relevant. This week is the midpoint of your prior six weeks and next six weeks of your life. And this week is the midpoint of your prior six months and next six months of your life. What do you plan to do this week? And, more importantly, what are you doing right now?