Quitter, Unpacked

Well, it’s a bit of an overstatement to actually say it’s unpacked. Perhaps the title should actually be “Follow My Process of Unpacking The Quitter Conference Through The Overwhelming Sense of Being Slammed in the Face With a Firehose of Wisdom and Practical Advice.” But I don’t think too many people would read that. Which is OK since I’m posting this for me anyway.

About a month ago, I attended Jon Acuff’s Quitter Conference in Nashville. One of the coolest things (and easiest) that Jon advised was to compile a Quitter Soundtrack….YAY! Day 1: DONE!!

1. Catchafire – TobyMac
2. Starry-Eyed Surprise – Paul Oakenfold
3. Lift Me Up – Moby

OK, I have a soundtrack. Now i’m a real writer. Right?

Well, no, but…..Not only does a soundtrack pick you up, and energize, inspire, and encourage, but relating to song lyrics really can connect you in a visceral way to other creatives (unless you choose Milli Vanilli for your soundtrack. I don’t know what that would say about you). Someone else sat in their own hustle-time and wrote that song. They felt those lyrics. And when the lyrics connect with exactly what I’m feeling, that’s deep, man. Deep.

Over the past month, I’ve been gradually unpacking the conference in my head. So much content, so much value:

• The truthy things, like dreams take hard work, long hours, and sacrifice.

• The “what can I do RIGHT NOW” things, like make a soundtrack and spew words every day, good or bad, from my fingers into little dots of colored light. Scheduling daily time to hustle–put in the hard work and start producing.

• The tactical things, like scheduling posts and finding the *right* level of planning…somewhere between “stepping out in faith” (like Philip and the Ethiopian) and building a 72-step project plan with triple critical paths (like, uh, me).

• The “business-ey” things, like advice about building a platform and an amazing discussion by Ben Arment about hitting the Sweet Spot in the middle of passion, gifts, platform, and demand.

• The creative and inspirational things, like stories about how Jon got fired from the carnival where he didn’t even really work, and discussion about the support that each of us needs to be the best that we can be….

As I fished back through 23 pages of notes, and a 40-page workbook, I realized I could spend another three months of “hustle-time” just unpacking each section, pulling out writing prompts and action items and inspiring quotes to stencil on my office wall.

But then I realized that’s not what hustle-time is really for; those things are all a trap set for me by that bully, fear. They are distractions.

“Match the right energy level to the right activity” means that when I try to pick through notes or fix itunes or listen to the dog begging to go out for the ninetyseventh time, I’m falling prey to the fear of producing. That’s just me.

My morning hustletime MUST be about writing. Ink on paper. Pixels on a screen. Watch the word count and keep the fingers moving until it hits 550. (i do really love you, wordpress….)

Because if I don’t produce, I’m not a writer.

“Dreamers are a dime a dozen; do-ers are rare.” I will be a do-er.

(and i need four more words…)