I recently joined Self-Made Man, a membership site providing video training focused on health, relationships, and business.
One of the courses contained in the site is hosted by Hal Elrod, author of the book The Miracle Morning: The 6 Habits that Will Transform Your Life Before 8 am.
After a near death experience, Elrond decided to change his life by focusing on the morning habits of the world’s most successful individuals.
The result, outlined in Elrod’s book, is a morning ritual consisting of all the things you probably already know you should be doing, but aren’t; i.e. meditation, positive affirmations, hydration, exercise, writing, etc..
By the time I finished watching the training, I was completely pumped up to attempt my own “miracle morning.”
My “Miracle Morning”
I set my alarm for 5:45 am, intent to start the next day with the focus, intention, and the good habits of the world’s elite. When the alarm went off the next morning, despite not being a morning person, I was able to jump out of bed ready to light the world up.
I made my way downstairs in the pitch dark so as not to awake my wife and children. Halfway down the stairs, a terrible smell hit my nose. A millisecond after I recognized the stench, one of my bare feet stepped down into a warm and squishy mess.
Realizing immediately what I had stepped into, I danced back a step, only to find my other foot sinking into the same unmistaken quagmire of filth.
It was 5:45 am in the morning. I was in the pitch dark halfway down the stairs between two floors, and both my feet were ankle deep in cat poo.
What followed was a sickly march to the nearest sink, leaving a trail of poop covered foot prints behind me.
I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning my feet, then cleaning the sink I’d cleaned my feet in, then mopping the floors, scrubbing the carpets, followed by another 20 minute in the shower scrubbing my skin with soap in a desperate attempt rid my body of the stench of cat feces.
By the time I was done, my wife and kids were awake and the usual process of getting my family fed, dressed, and off to school had begun.
My entire “miracle morning” had consisted of cleaning up poo. No positive affirmations. No enlightened meditation. I didn’t even make it to the computer to work on my novel. It was just… poo.
I tell you this story because right now tens of thousands of writers are gearing up to participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).
NaNoWriMo Success
A hugely important part of NaNoWriMo success involves planning ahead on multiples levels.
Finding the time to write 50,000 words in 30 days involves some serious life planning.
Your responsibilities as a parent and family member, your household choirs, and all the stress and demands of your day job don’t magically go away just because you’ve decided to participate in NaNoWriMo.
Carving out the space in your life to write 1700 words every day for 30 days straight takes some concentrated forethought, organization, and strategic preparation.
In addition to general life planning, I’m also a firm believer that a serious amount of story planning needs to have taken place prior to the first day of November. If you think you are going to “pants” your way through November and have anything resembling a worthwhile manuscript at the end of the month, well, good luck with that my friend!
(For help planning your story, check out my NaNoWriMo Story Breakthrough Sessions here.)
Staying Nimble
So, yes, both life planning and story planning are absolutely key to NaNoWriMo success.
That said, I’m hesitant to go so far as to say planning ahead is the most important element of success.
Here’s why:
Your plan is not going to work out the way you anticipate.
Famed boxer Mike Tyson puts it like this, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”
Just look at me: I went into my first miracle morning with the best of intentions, only to have life punch me in the face.
I had planned for productivity; instead I got poo.
I could have gotten frustrated. I could have let it ruin my day. I could have said this “miracle morning” stuff is complete garbage and given-up on all of it.
Afterall, giving-up when faced with unanticipated obstacles is the easiest thing in the world to do.
And it’s why so few people win NaNoWriMo.
The vast majority of writers either fail to make the necessary plans to begin with, or, when the plans they have made for themselves go off track, they give up.
But life is never going to go according to your plan. That’s why the most important part of NaNo success is actually staying nimble.
Do the work necessary to set yourself up for success. Then go into November with a mindset that allows you to adapt, shift, and flow with what life throws your way.
Maybe November will be one long string of miracle mornings and everything will go exactly as you planned, but it’s more likely life is going to throw some cat poo mornings your way.
When that happens, clean up the floor, have a shower, adjust your expectations, and then get back to work.
By all means, have your plan in place. Just be ready to adjust accordingly.
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