Sital's Blog

What’s The Challenge?

For the next 10 days I will be laser focused on creating and finishing a range of career products and e-learning solutions which we plan to launch over the next few weeks.

In practical terms, this means I’ll be spending at least 8 hours a day focused on writing and creative activity for next 10 consecutive days.

Why?

• Because you’ve been telling me that you want more. Readers have been telling me that whilst they enjoy the articles and blog posts, they want more detailed “how to” advice, more practical guidance and more help to accelerate their careers. And they want it in an easily digestible format which they can use at their own pace.

• Because I want to help a whole bunch of people who really need assistance right now in finding work, finding clients, increasing their earnings or getting themselves out of a career rut.  But are not in a position to hire a career coach, consultant or mentor.

• Because I want to create a daily writing habit or ritual.  All the great writers throughout history have had a daily writing habit.  Typically writing at the same time every day (in much the same athletes train on a daily basis). I’m not saying “I’m a great writer” – far from it. But I’d like to become a much better writer. And think modelling the habits of great writers would be a great way to get there.

• Because I want to find a creative way to help a great cause whilst doing all of the above.  In the coming weeks, I’ll tell you more about this and how it links into the writing and new solutions

What will the 10 day challenge involve?

• Hitting fairly challenging writing deadlines by each evening and sending across to Sandra and my technology team in Toronto, Canada

• Getting up at 5am most days to write before the world wakes up.  Or alternatively writing late into the night. A little odd, but I’ve always done my best thinking and writing whilst the rest of the world is sleeping.

• Getting out later in the day to write in locations which inspire me.  I love hanging out in coffee shops and cool lounges (well actually, anywhere with great sofas!). I love being near mountains and water (which may be a little tricky in London…..but we’ll see what happens). So I aim to do some writing in different places during the day to compliment my late night/early morning shift

• Still doing the day job. I will continue working with clients, deal with new client enquiries and finalise preparation for some workshops and talks we have booked for July and August

What distractions are you removing?

• Spending zero time on social media: In about 2 hours time, Sandra’s team will be changing all the passwords on my Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.  I’ve already removed the social media Apps from my iPhone.

(So if you Tweet me, connect with me or write on my wall over the next 10 days and get no reply – you know why!)

• Spending zero time watching TV: the fewer distractions I have, the better

• Spending zero time reading newspapers or magazines: These days much of the news I receive comes via various twitter feeds or news Apps on my iPhone. So not logging into Twitter should make this easy.

• Spending less time checking emails I’ll be checking and replying to emails 3 times a day instead of every few minutes. So I’ll create more product time to write and create without compromising services levels to clients, colleagues and partners

Why am I telling you all this?

Because we all need some form of accountability.

Writing and sharing this blog post now commits me to following through with something which I know will be tough. I find it incredibly difficult to just sit and write without distracting myself with another activities.

So by removing some of the distractions, by declaring my commitment – I can’t bail out of things get difficult!

Will you be keeping us updated?

Of course!

I plan to write a short blog post most days for the next 10 days to share my progress and any insights which may be useful to readers

Some Questions For You To Consider:

• What’s the project or idea that you’ve had floating around for the last few weeks or months? You know the one that you can’t get off the ground – or maybe something that got off the ground but you can’t finish?

• What would happen if you (just like me), totally committed to focusing on that activity for the next 10 days?

• What if you stopped checking emails every few minutes? What if you removed yourself from all social media platforms and stopped watching TV for a few days?

• What would happen if you made a public commitment and told friends, colleagues and family that were going to complete XYZ activity within 10 days?

• What difference would all of this make to you?

Fancy doing your own 10 day challenge…?