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When Life Throws You a Curveball · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, thanks for joining me for today's episode.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when life throws you a curveball?
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's the question that email subscriber Misty Knapp sent in.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: She said, How do we transition back into writing after life has thrown us a curveball?
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And gosh, Misty, I love this question.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of things come to mind when I read that question because almost everybody I know is dealing with some kind of curveball that life has thrown them right now.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I can easily name at least two dozen people in my circle who are going through some kind of major life challenge right now.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: It might be going through uh becoming an empty nester, it might be a health challenge, a job, a job transition, problems with their aging parents or teen or adult children, might be business problems, or in some cases, it's several of those things stacked on top of each other.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And pretty much these days, I assume that anybody I'm talking to is going through some kind of big challenge in their life.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it brings to mind a quote that is often attributed to Plato, who supposedly said, Be kind, for everyone is fighting a hard battle.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always loved that quote because I think it's true.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're all going through stuff.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And pretty much anybody that you talk to on any given day is going through some kind of major challenge in their life.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, most of us keep those things hidden and we work through them privately, or perhaps we work through those with a therapist or medical people or financial people or attorneys or whatever it is that we're going through.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: But we're all going through stuff, and that's kind of the nature of life.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings me back to Misty's excellent question, which basically the heart of that was what is a simple way to start writing again if you've been distracted by life's challenges.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we've all been there, right?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: We've all been through seasons where life is throwing a bunch of stuff at us and we quit writing for a while, or we don't quit writing, but we've we've just gotten away from the heart of what is what it is that we really want to do as writers.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of giving you a whole list of things to think about, I want to give you one simple suggestion that I think is going to help immensely.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And here's the suggestion: write something every day and then share it with other people.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're just now getting your head above water or you're coming out of a crisis of some kind, I don't think the first thing that you need to do is to start some big writing project or create some big ambitious marketing plan for something.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think you just need to get some quick wins and to get a little bit of traction in your life.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the very best way to do that is by taking baby steps.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, if you have ever followed Dave Ramsey's financial advice, you know that he has seven baby steps to I think what he would call financial freedom.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that terminology isn't quite correct, but his whole framework is seven baby steps.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's had those for years and years and years, and they are absolutely brilliant.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And the very first baby step that he recommends is getting$1,000 into an emergency fund.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And what I'm suggesting to you here is the writing equivalent of getting$1,000 into an emergency fund.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the reason that Dave Ramsey recommends that as your very first thing to do is because when you put a thousand bucks into an emergency fund, if you are in a financial crisis, that gives you a sense of safety and it also, more importantly, gives you a sense of control and agency in your life.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And whenever you are just getting your head above water, whenever you're coming out of a crisis and you want to get back into writing again, what you need is a quick win.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: You need something that is going to give you a sense of momentum and action and agency.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the best way to do that is to write something every day and then share it with other people.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So let me suggest this to you.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, when you say, okay, can I can get my head around that?
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: What do I write about?
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think the very easiest thing to write about is whatever it is that you've just gone through.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So think about your recent curveball situation or crisis.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: What are the lessons that you've learned?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: What are the pitfalls of people who make mistakes while they're going through that situation?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: What are some things to avoid?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: How has this situation changed you as a person?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what's your advice to others?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think that is by far the easiest thing to write about because that's where your head is.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so rather than trying to get away from that situation and write about something totally different, I think the very simplest thing to do is take, you know, I'm a big fan of taking whatever it is that you're going through and using it to propel you forward.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's the whole idea behind Ryan Holliday's book, The Obstacle is the way.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And that concept actually comes from Marcus Aurelius in his classic book, Meditations.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: He talks about that principle probably more than anything else in that book.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I read a page from meditations every single day, and more often than not, there's something on every single page of that book that jumps out at me, something that really, really helps me to get through my day and to take control and to have more agency in my day.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the main principles that he talks about is taking whatever it is externally that's going on in your life and using that as a way to propel you forward.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as you think about the crisis that's going on in your life or that you're just not coming out of, how can that propel you forward?
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I think one of the ways that can propel us forward is, and maybe forgive the crass analogy, but you know, I like taking hard situations in my life and doing things that basically give a giant middle finger to those situations.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, uh never waste a good crisis.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So whatever crisis you're coming out of, or maybe you're in the middle of it now, I want you to give a giant middle finger to that crisis and use it for your good.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think a crisis is not just something to get through.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think a crisis is something that we can use in life that's going to push us forward in some way.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and to be quite frank with you, there's a situation in my life going on right now.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it has nothing to do with family or marriage or anything like that.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's just another situation that I'm actually journaling my thoughts about this situation several times a week.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just making some quick voice notes about it.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to probably turn this into a book or some other content at some point, maybe next year, once this current season is over in my life.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And my desire is to use this situation to propel me forward.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the way that I have looked at this situation.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'll have more to say about this in a few months when sort of the storm has passed.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but for right now, I just want you to know that my way of thinking about a crisis is to think, how can this make me better?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And one day that you can do the same thing is to write something every day, or at least a few times a week, about what you're learning as you're going through this or as you just finished going through this.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the other part of this is then sharing this with somebody else, sharing what you're learning.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: It might be you're sharing it with a friend, or maybe you're sharing some things on social media or blog posts or email.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really matter.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's the idea that whenever you're sharing your writing with others, they're going to expect it, they're going to benefit from it, they're going to learn from it.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And in that way, writing doesn't become just an obligation.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes something that pulls you forward because you're processing what you're going through and also you're sharing it with others, which then creates more excitement in you because you know somebody else is going to be reading it.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope these are some good tips.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Misty, thanks for the question.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: You've really hit a nerve within me with this question.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a feeling that anybody else who's listening, it's going to hit a nerve with them as well.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because the bottom line is that you never know whose life you can change when you have the courage to share what you're learning as you've gone through life's curveball.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks again for the question.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Really, really good thoughts.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: All right, my friends, thanks for listening as always.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, that's it for today's episode, and I will see you next time.