PLANNING FOR CHANGE
In the last blog post, we talked about habits and routines. You can read that post here at your leisure.
We can be prepared, organized, and habitized all we want—but sometimes change is inevitable and plans, organization, and yes, even habits, go awry.
That’s called life.
In July of 2019, I gave notice to my employer of nearly twenty years that my last official day of work would be April 15, 2020. Spring is a good time to retire, right? New beginnings, a fresh outlook on life—I thought so.
Little did I know then that I would be retiring in the midst of a pandemic.
I mean, who would have thought? And who does that? Who would choose to retire at a time when the economy is tanking, the supply chain has evaporated, our health care system is strapped, and the world is on lockdown?
Well, I did.
I didn’t have a choice because the retirement train was on the track with no stopping it. Social Security was in motion, and I’d started the process of drawing down retirement funds—but managed to halt that train car when the stock market plunged.
A month after R-Day, I found myself waiting on Social Security to kick in, eyeballing my savings, and hustling the writing under a “Stay Safe at Home” order from the state.
While all this could have affected my creativity, my muse, my habits, and my routine, it didn’t. In fact, that year was a more productive author year than I’d had for quite some time.
I’d found my retirement writing niche. I’d established some pretty good routines and processes. Despite the pandemic woes, I was thriving. Bonus: Book sales were up.
We’ve all heard it—writing is built from routine and habit. You can create and improve craft, prose, narrative, skill, style, and voice with consistent and routine writing.
The more we write, the better we get.
The more we write, the more books get written.
(Did you hear that mic drop? Yeah.)
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You can read about routines, habits, change and more in my book Discover Your Write Path to Publishing Success, available right here on this website and at your favortie booksellers.
You can also listen to the first chapter for free on my You Tube channel. 