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Why the Middles of Projects are Tough (Part 3): Middles Have Middles!
I previously wrote about how the middles of projects are tough: *They’re the place where the work seems to get much tougher right at the same moment that your enthusiasm starts to ebb. *They’re a much bigger part of the project than most people realize. (Around 80%!) However, there’s another problem with middles: they have…
Read MoreI’m Offering a Powerful and Economical Online Class/TeleCoaching Bundle at The Loft
Super-thrilled to be teaching an online class at The Loft, one of the world’s premier community writing programs, starting September 30. Even more thrilled to be offering a class/coaching bundle. The class will set you up for greater productivity; the 40 minutes of individualized telephone coaching will personalize the class information and help you amplify…
Read MoreWhy the Middles of Projects are Tough (Part 2): Plus, How to Have Fun Revising!
Middles are Tough. Last time I wrote about how the middles of writing and other projects can be difficult, citing Dante’s Inferno, which begins “midway upon the journey of our life,” and John Bunyan’s classic The Pilgrim’s Progress, in which the protagonist, Christian, literally bogs down midway, in the infamous “Slough of Despond.” Middles are…
Read MoreWho Makes the Best Mentor? And Coming to Terms with My $14,500 Mentor Failure
Who makes the best mentor? According to research, it’s not the star performers: In an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, for example, Jerker Denrell of the University of Oxford and Chengwei Liu of the University of Warwick counsel us to model ourselves on solid, second-tier performers, not the flashy…
Read MoreDesigner Milton Glaser’s Universe of Abundance
An important element of perfectionism is a sense of scarcity and deprivation, so this quotation from iconic graphic designer Milton Glaser offers an important antiperfectionist message: “If you perceive the universe as being a universe of abundance, then it will be. If you think of the universe as one of scarcity then it will be…I…
Read MoreMargaret Atwood, Anne Enright, and Garry Kasparov, on Failure
Meditations on failure, from some leading writers. I like this quote from Margaret Atwood: Failure is just another name for much of real life: much of what we set out to accomplish ends in failure, at least in our own eyes. Who set the bar so high that most of our attempts to sail gracefully over it…
Read MoreHartford, Connecticut: Registration Now Open for 7 Secrets of the Prolific Class, Tuesday, July 2, at Mark Twain House
[please scroll down to see participant feedback from my last session at Mark Twain House] “One of the most popular writers from our 2nd Annual Writers’ weekend returns to jump-start your writing this summer.” Would you like to boost your writing productivity, finish your projects, and find more joy in your work? You can do…
Read MoreWhy You Shouldn’t Mock Beauty Pageant Contestants
[Note: I’m pretty sure none of my readers would mock a contestant, so please don’t think I’m speaking to you personally, so much as the entire Internet. – Hillary] It seems to be evolving into a seasonal pastime to mock beauty pageant contestants who garble their speeches, but here’s why you shouldn’t do it: 1)…
Read MoreMy Inner Critic is a Wise Latina
I had a really bad night’s sleep last night, even for me. At one point, I actually dreamt that I was being judged by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor! Could be worse–could have been Scalia or Alito or Thomas. So the yield of twelve+ years work helping others overcome their perfectionism is that my Inner…
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