Chasing Three Rabbits – author update

I’m a clear example of the evidence to show why we need to focus. In recent months I have mentioned several books that I am working on. The three that edge to the top of the list (there are 20 ideas in total!) are:

• alice reimagined – a book of poems, prose pieces, biographical sketches and photos.
• The Journey to Wonder – the influences that have affected how I think and what I do
• Coaching themes – a book with 20 titles, yet to choose the right one. And yes, it’s about my coaching practise and some of the key themes.

These are all really pulling at me to get on and finish them. But like a dog chasing three rabbits across the field, I’m never going to catch any of them if I keep shifting my focus from one to the next. It’s great to have a choice – but at the end of the day I need to absorb my thinking into one thing at a time and just press on with it.

There is also nothing like a deadline to create momentum.

I have made good progress on all three books. The book about “alice” has a structure worked out, and is probably one fifth written – I keep having new ideas for this book and it is an evolving structure. “The Journey to Wonder” is nearly 18,000 words and approximately half written. Bite size chunks are waiting to be completed. The coaching book is 2,600 words with an overall structure sorted and an illustrator has agreed to work on it with me (thank you Kate!)

But! You can’t write three books at once – it’s a multi-tasking impossibility that demonstrates why I need to take each and progress it.

Why have I got myself into this situation? Probably a mixture of avoiding boredom and distraction techniques. It works sometimes to have different things to work on depending on my mood. I just need to balance that with a specific need to be really clear which book I am working on when I sit down to write and not create ambiguity which might lead me not to write at all.

Also published on Medium.