THINK BIG!

Monday morning, I drank my first cup of coffee of the day and alternated between checking blog stats and answering comments. Then a very loud voice shouted in my head.

“THINK BIG!”

I stopped what I was doing. Did you say Think big?

“YOU’RE THINKING TOO SMALL,” the voice bellowed again.

I sat up and pondered this scream from my sub-conscious self.

It usually criticized and said cruel things like, “Are you ever going to stop surfing the Internet and get something done today?” Or “You are such a gimp. You wouldn’t have broken your wrist if you had gotten into shape after knee surgery last year.” Or, “You have no life. Make a plan.”

I immediately thought of how my voice was right. I was thinking too small. As part of my resolutions, I had committed to blogging more frequently and have been working to get into a daily routine to finish old and new projects.

IDEAL SCHEDULE:

1. Catch up on blogging and social media.
2. Write a new blog post.
3. Hit the exercise bike.
4. Write a few chapters in my new book
5. Work on querying first book series.

Like I said, I had been working on it, but hadn’t quite mastered the routine.

MONDAY’S ACTUAL SCHEDULE:

1. Checked on my blog and social media.
2. Wrote a new blog post.
3. Checked on blog and Twitter.
4. Postponed hitting exercise bike until afternoon.
5. Checked on my blog, Twitter, and Facebook.
6. Wrote one new chapter.
7. Checked on blog stats and social media.
8. Thought about hitting the exercise bike.
9. Rewrote the blog post.
10. Checked blog stats and comments.
11. Finally rode a few miles while reading a book.
12. Watched The Bachelor while checking my blog stats, answering comments, live tweeting, and rewriting my blog post and then checked stats again.

Do you see a vicious cycle occurring?

Tuesday morning, I had a conversation in my head. Yes. I’ve embraced talking to myself:

ME: So how can I think bigger?

THOUGHTS: How about hiking Everest?

ME: Too big and I think you were talking about something more career-related, right?

THOUGHTS: Sure. How about contests?

ME: Cool. I won one for a screenplay this year, I could enter a few more.

THOUGHTS: You don’t have to brag to me. I’m you.

ME: What else you got?

THOUGHTS: Write an article for a major magazine.

ME: Huh. That’s good. Keep thinking.

THOUGHTS: Before querying that debut novel series again, make it BIGGER.

ME: How? I’ve already rewritten it 876 times.

THOUGHTS: You already know, Grasshopper, you just need to do the work.

ME: I am not going to talk to myself if I’m referred to as “Grasshopper.”

THOUGHTS: Deal, now put on your thinking cap.

ME: Okay. I will.

ME: What else you got?

ME: …….Thoughts! Wake up!

THOUGHTS: Finished already?

ME: No, but I thought I’d hit you up while you’re thinking.

THOUGHTS: *sigh* How about submitting your blog posts to bigger sites or to the newspaper again?

ME: I could do that.

THOUGHTS: Or start your own BIG site.

ME: Pshhh. There’s no way. Nope. Not going to happen.

THOUGHTS: *yawns* How about stand-up or inspirational speaking? *yawns again*

ME: That could happen. I impersonated Michael Jackson without knowing the words to the song. Impersonating an inspirational speaker would be cake in comparison. I do a form of stand-up all the time with strangers. As you know, I have no shame.

THOUGHTS: ………….

ME: Those are great ideas, thank you. But next time, shout something really enlightening, like the winning lottery numbers, or who will be my agent, so I can query that person next and skip the rest. Deal?

THOUGHTS: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………….

ME: Thoughts?

ME: Hey! WAKE UP!

ME: ………Dang. I guess I could check out what’s trending on Twitter.

This actually happened to me. Do you ever have AHA moments like this? What does your inner voice say?

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