One of the biggest challenges I see writers struggling with—especially writers juggling the responsibilities of work and raising a family—is finding the time to write. If you have a deep desire to write a book but you also have to keep a roof over your head and/or care for other people, how do you do it? Where do you find the time for what you really desire creatively?
I see writers wrestling with this in the wide, open spaces of the internet, and I talk with writers about this in my coaching practice, too. Is there comfort in the grim fact that juggling our lives and our time is a common experience?
More and more I am seeing how we have to be flexible but also ruthless with our time. If we want a certain result, we have to do the thing that will bring that result. If we want to write a book, we have to actively choose to write it.
This week at the library where I work (I also have a day job!), I met a woman who had spent her working life traveling the world as a flight attendant. From the way her eyes sparkled I could tell she'd had many adventures. And now, retired, she is spending her days reading at a favorite table and chair at the library. She's currently working through Fannie Flagg's novels. At one point—and I don't remember what we were talking about now—she looked me in the eye and said, "If you are determined, you can do it."
It felt like a poke from the universe.
What does determination look like? It can come down to examining the things that take up your time and making hard choices. Sometimes in order to get the thing you want (more time to write, let's say), you have to give something up that you like very much. I'm not encouraging you to leave your job or to shirk caretaking duties! But writers have been known to take lower responsibility jobs or letting household tasks slide in order to have more time to write.
What are you willing to sacrifice to write the book you keep meaning to write?