Lesson 4 - Develop the Habits

To accomplish anything, you have to focus your attention on it. 

When you focus your energy on a deliberate goal driven by a deep-rooted desire, you will have 

far more success in your actions. 

Napoleon Hill discusses the concept of “focus” in terms of “concentration,” which he defines as 

“the act of focusing the mind upon a given desire until ways and means for its realization have 

been worked out and successfully put into operation.” 

And once you have narrowed in on what you want, you have to build out a framework in which to 

operate. Habits serve as the guardrails on our own autobahn; the guidelines to help us reach our 

destination. 

This is an area that, I think, lacks sufficient transparency. I think sometimes we discount the 

power of habits ­ both to ourselves and when talking to others. And I think it behooves us all to 

understand the value that habits hold. 

HABIT 

To help establish focus, very little is as powerful as your daily habits ­ take the time to establish 

good habits in the beginning. It is not easy to do ­ change very rarely is, and the change 

necessary for long­term good benefits (like studying or working out) is even harder yet. (This will 

be especially true if you believe that you do not have the time to write.) 

New habits are new mental paths and, as with any new path, the terrain must be traveled over 

and over and over before it becomes apparent to the traveler. Just as one would not cut across a 

field only once and expect for a dirt trail to emerge behind him, we have to trudge along our new 

desired courses every day until they become well­worn and easy to follow. 

To effectively build new habits: 

1. Invest a lot upfront. The first, earliest attempts are always the hardest. I promise: it gets 

easier over time. You are coming at the forest with a machete here. It will be tough at first. 

2. Remind yourself why you’re here. When you feel like the effort is overwhelming, recall your 

desire from Lesson 1. And the confidence from Lesson 2. 

3. Do it even when you don’t feel like it. Once you decide when you want to write, always 

write at that time. Do it whether you feel like it or not (there were plenty of days on which I 

absolutely did not want to write. Looking back now, I am so happy that I still did.) Hold fast to 

them on weekends, too, as weekends can easily become a black hole of lost productivity if you 

let them. 

4. Resist temptations. Do not let yourself procrastinate until late evening ­ or the weekend. It is

not going to feel fun at first. It may not even feel natural. Once you have formed those habits, 

defend them. Protect them against intrusion, and do not allow them to be de­prioritized. Just 

keep at it. 

5. Do not doubt yourself. Once you have defined what you want, do not waver and allow your 

heart to throw in the towel. 

Nothing helps your long­term success quite like daily habits. Carve out the time. Make it happen. 

Because once you develop the habit, it is easy to let the habit build upon itself. It is easy to plant 

a seed and let that seed develop into something that you love, and continue to water and feed it. 

Once you wear down a path, following it becomes increasingly intuitive over time. 

Behind the curtain: a word on my own schedule 

I began writing “seriously” in November 2012. I signed up for nanowrimo (National Novel Writing 

Month) two days into it, and started working on my first novel that night. I had no plan; no outline. 

Up until that day, I did not even know that I was writing a novel. 

I work as a consultant and was staffed in Boston at the time. It was not yet the hectic part of the 

project, so I would typically write after I got back to the hotel at night, from about 7­9 pm. I would 

get back to my hotel, grab some dinner and eat while I wrote. I never pulled an all­nighter or 

stayed up past 11 or so. I always had the threat of work the next day and wouldn’t have been of 

much use to anyone had I arrived exhausted. 

December: brought holidays, holiday parties, birthdays (both my boyfriend’s and my own), a lot 

more travel (both business and personal), 

January: on Jan. 2 or 3, I decided that I wanted write one million words in a year. At this time, we 

were nearing the deadline on the Boston project, which meant 12­hour work days. When I 

realized that getting home at 8 pm and writing late at night did not appeal to me, I started getting 

up at 5:30 every morning and writing from 6­7:30 am. 

February: transitioned to a new project, which was “local” but involved a two­hour train commute 

each way to and from the suburbs of Chicago. I wrote on my morning commute, from about 

6:30­8, and read on the way home. 

March: I quit my job. I did not realize how powerful my writing habits were until I no longer had the 

morning structure. Waking up later suddenly meant that I could write at 10 am. Or 10 pm. Or not 

at all. I still wrote about 100,000 this month, but none of it was at 6:30 am. Much of it was thrown 

together, haphazardly, in the moments before going to bed. It only took a few weeks of midnight 

suffering to re­establish some routine.

I think this wide variety of work schedules generated a wide variety of writing schedules, and I am 

fortunate to have a number of different solutions to offer you – all kinds of different ways in which 

I fit my writing into my life as it changed, and ways that may also work for you, depending on 

your own schedule

Lesson 3 - Build the Right Mindset

Your success ­ whether it be writing or in any other endeavor ­ depends more on you than
anyone or anything else in your life. And having the right attitude is incredibly powerful.

And how you think is everything.

“Our attitude in life determines life’s attitude toward us.” ­ Earl Nightingale

In addition to building up your confidence, there is a wide range of factors that come into play
when it comes to the “right” mental attitude. Confidence is one. Optimism is another. But there
are several other characteristics that differentiate the mature person ­ the individual capable of
realizing his own goals ­ from those who aren’t. And don’t.

Take Responsibility
You have to assume responsibility for what you want if life. You have to recognize that getting
what you want is up to you. Taking ownership of your own goals ­ and assuming responsibility
for their completion ­ is absolutely necessary for success.

One of the primary defining factors of successful people is their tendency to take responsibility
for all things in their life, both good and bad. If something good happens, they chalk it up to hard
work. If they suffer a setback, they pivot or persevere.

Less successful people, however, will explain something good as “luck.” And they will excuse
setbacks by blaming it on external factors ­ or other people.

If you want to do something, it is up to you. Assuming ownership over a project’s success or
failure early in its inception will drastically influence its ultimate fate.

Love Other People
Maybe I just run into a disproportionate number of pessimistic bloggers, but it seems like there a
lot of writers out there who say that they do not really like other people. This seems
counterintuitive to me ­ and it seems obvious, in any case, why their writing may not be going
very far.

To write, you must care for your reader. You must feel consideration ­ perhaps even
compassion ­ for the message that you are putting down to paper. (In the very least, it is a basic
consideration and conscientiousness that invokes in us the obligation to abide by grammar,
spelling, syntax and sentence structure rules. We work within these fundamentals because we
care about our message’s reception by our reader, and we care about our reader enough that he
might understand what it is that we are trying to communicate.)

Beyond this, however, a love of people, in general, goes very far in the world of writing. A love of
mankind and people as a whole can easily be interpreted by most readers, whether consciously
or otherwise. And a skilled editor can spot it within minutes.

Dale Carnegie, author of “How to Win Friends and Notice People,” noted in his chapter on the
value of genuinely liking others:

“If the author doesn’t like people... people won’t like his stories.”

Carnegie goes on: “I once took a course in short­story writing at New York University, and during
that course the editor of a leading magazine talked to our class. He said he could pick up any
one of the dozens of stories that drafted across his desk every day and after reading a few
paragraphs he could feel whether or not the author liked people.”

The power of loving people is immeasurable in writing. You have to love your reader. And you
have to like people, in general.

Bounce Back
You will undoubtedly encounter some setbacks. You may sleep through your alarm two days in a
row and rush out the door without writing. You may come down with the flu for a whole week.
You may lose a loved one. You may lose your job.

These sort of things happen to everyone, at some point. And whatever you encounter in life, you
have to react with resiliency. Optimism and flexibility will take you a long, long way, and your
ability to take things in stride and let things roll off your back will set you above many, many other
people.

I talk more about many of these in other lessons. I talk about confidence and persistence and
optimism, especially in the lesson on eliminating excuses.

It is important to understand that the mindset is something that often has to be cultivated
continuously, particularly at first. You may have to make deliberate and strategic investments in
your attitude, especially if you have historically harbored sentiments of cynicism or negativity.
(This was the case for me, and I am still working on my mindset with deliberate daily
techniques.)

But the benefit of a good attitude is absolutely invaluable. Having the right mindset has made all
the difference in how I have responded to things that have happened to me since I made the
investment, and I believe that you, too, will experience a similar surge in productivity and
effectiveness by fostering the right outlook

Lesson 2 - Have the Confidence

The secret to any kind of success is one people rarely talk about, either because they don't think they have to point it out or they don't realize it i the first real step.

The first thing to worry about, the thing that matters first, before all others?

Your confidence.
And failing to emphasize the importance of confidence is doing yourself a real disservice.
If you are not confident, no amount of planning or research or outlining will get you very far. You
may sit down to write, but without the confidence to back you up, you will soon find yourself
flailing ­ staring at a blank screen or citing the issue as “writer’s block.” And even if you get
words onto paper, your own self­doubt will come through; though you may want them to say
one thing, your tone will read, “I don’t really believe this. And neither should you.”

If you first build your confidence, though — and do it in a way that is both sincere and
natural (a way that works for you, not someone else) — then you can take just about
any step you want.

If you exude confidence, it shows. And getting yourself over that hurdle is one of the most
important steps in becoming a writer. (As Theodore Roosevelt said, “believe in yourself and
you’re halfway there.”)

And when you sit down to write or put your words out there with confidence, each of your
efforts is multitudes more effective.

Some people feel ineffective taking the necessary steps outline to succeed. They tell
themselves that they want to write and they may even go through the motions, outlining their
pieces and scheduling out the time to do them, but they never see much success.

And the best advice that they will likely receive for this is: “just keep going.” And while that may
be true, it is also very true that if you are only “writing” in the sense that you are “making
words,” without a true belief in your ability at the craft, then you are missing a critical
component.

Forcing yourself to write, for example, when you do not believe in the words as you put them
down to paper will only exacerbate the problem. You may hit word counts and you may save
stuff to your hard­drive, but none of it will be as good as it could be with your heart behind it,
pushing the work forward and ballooning the work out.
And although your confidence at writing will likely improve over time using the “reps” method
alone, it is a slow­going and largely ineffective approach. And there is a better way to do it.

Instead, take the time to build your confidence beforehand.

How?

Here are things that have worked for me. You do not even need to pursue all of them; you can
focus your energies on one, and you will still likely benefit.

1. Think yourself into a positive attitude
Uh, yeah, I mean mantras. Dismiss them if you want, but at least hear me out. If you say only
uplifting things to yourself, uplifting things are eventually what you’ll believe. It protects you from
the self­doubt and self­hate that sometimes creeps into your psyche. If you busy yourself
thinking one thing, there’s no room for weeds to take root.

For a good starting place, try Napoleon Hill’s self­confidence formula. Or, if Hill isn’t your style,
use whatever works for you. Make up your own mantras.

The point is this:

You are what you think and believe.

If your thoughts are not constructive and exuberant, you won’t be, either.

2. Take baby steps
If you are having trouble sitting down to your writing with enthusiasm and courage, try breaking
it up into much smaller chunks. Instead of thinking of it in terms of “a book” or “an article” or
even “1,000 words,” for example, focus in on fragments ­ baby steps. (Just make sure to
pursue baby steps that make you feel awesome.)

3. Pursue what comes naturally, even if it doesn’t seem related to
your goal.
Your confidence does not all have to be derived from what you are actually trying to
accomplish. Your steps just have to make you feel good and re­establish your belief in yourself.
Just because you are trying to write does not mean that all of your confidence has to come
from writing ­ confidence is transferable. (It is a very strong fiber, after all.)

If you’re a talented illustrator, draw for 20 minutes. If you’re a crossword puzzle whiz, do one.
Point is, doing something you are good at build confidence. Period.

4. Or tackle something scary.
Getting my wisdom teeth pulled terrified me. I put the appointment off for years. This was
during a time when I worked a job I hated and knew I needed to quit, but I was scared to do
that, too.

Months later than I should have, I finally put in my notice, and since my health insurance was
expiring, I also had to have the teeth removed. I scheduled the appointment for the last day of
work and, as I drove there, high on the realization I was leaving the office for the last time, it
dawned on me: after finally quitting, the wisdom teeth felt like a joke.

If the writing seems overwhelming, conquer something else in the meantime. Tackle one fear,
and other things feel suddenly easier.

3. Once you tackle something successfully, hold onto that little
surge of confidence

A body in motion stays in motion! Dwell on the self­esteem and energy boost that you feel and
quickly find something else to apply yourself to. If you can find something either a little scarier
or a little more in line with your real goal, then do it.

Keep at the little things to keep building confidence. Do whatever you need to keep this
momentum. Do not let it dwindle at any cost. Get into a silly routine if you have to. Persevere
and try to build on the boost by applying yourself to more and more challenging tasks.

Because the real step one, before you can be effective at taking any of the other steps toward
success, is to build up your confidence. Confidence is everything.

It is absolutely the most important first step. You have to believe that you are a writer. Say that
you are a writer (that was Lesson 1) and then believe that that statement is true.

The real first step to success in anything is building ourselves up and developing the courage
that we can conquer the task. We have to have the confidence in order to do anything in life ­
the courage to approach tasks hear on is a key component in our eventual success.

To repeat:

“Believe that you can and you are halfway there.”
- Theodore Roosevelt

Lesson 1 - Decide to Write

Writing does not begin with writing.
And succeeding at writing does not depend entirely on the act of writing alone.

Writing does not start when you put your fingers to the keyboard or pen to paper.
It does not even begin when you create an outline or map out an idea or create your characters.

Writing, if you intend to be successful at it, begins before all of that – before outlines and
certainly before word counts.

It starts with a mindset.

It starts with:
Deciding that you are a writer
Establishing your identity as a writer.
Building up your confidence in doing so.
Laying down the groundwork to start acting like one.
Taking your writing off of the pedestal that you have it on.
Breaking writing down into manageable chunks.
Approaching your writing like you do everything else in life: one step at a time.



The common theme? It starts with you.


Writing depends on building up your own confidence as a writer.
Writing depends on the commitment to seeing yourself as a writer.
And it depends on you deciding that you are writing.

Before you do anything in life and before you set out to achieve any goal, lofty or otherwise, you
have to commit yourself to it, mentally. The degree to which you set yourself to your goal is
directly proportionate to whether or not you ultimately achieve it, and the more resolved you are
in your thinking, the more likely you are to see the results for which you aim.


You become what you think about.


Everything worthwhile begins as an intention. All considerable success and all big
accomplishments start as a thought or inkling, and the probability of achieving something lies in
whether or not you set yourself to it, and to what degree.


So, plant the seed.

Say to yourself that you are going to start writing – or write a book. Say it with resolution, and
repeat it with sincerity. State it in a way that makes it seem genuine; deep-rooted, and hold it
very close.

Decide with resolution that you intend to write, and then state that objective all the time. Remind
yourself every morning – or right now, whatever time of day it may be – that you are already a
writer, and that you intend to write.


Keep reminding yourself of this decision.


One caveat is that you must believe in your goal entirely. One would assume that you are
already naturally talented at writing… or in the very least have a sincere interest in doing so –
beyond the superficial “I just think it would sound cool to publish my work.” One would assume
that if you want to write, it is because you are drawn to writing for a substantial reason, and that
that reason is worthwhile.

If this is not the case – if you are only writing for the sake of writing, or you want to write
because it sounds cool or the idea of being a best-selling author is appealing because you want
to impress your old high school classmates, then I would encourage you to find something that
is better worth your time. You are meant for something else, my dear, and you can have
greatness if you only choose to pursue a field that really brings that out.

(Which may not even be writing. And that is okay.)

If, however, this assumption does apply to you – if you are writing because you love to write,
and you are a natural writer, then welcome. I urge all us to first discover our natural talents, and
then organize these strengths into an actionable objective, learning from it as we move toward
that goal. Stating our goal – and repeating it or writing it down every day, especially in times of
low productivity – is invaluable in determining our eventual success.

Writing a book or writing in general must be, for whatever period of time – whether it is one
month or one year – a clear and definite aim. It cannot be a wayward “maybe, someday, not
today” sort of thought. It cannot be a fuzzy “maybe, kind of” sort of ambition. If it is, you will most
likely fail. If you approach your own writing as a disposable task – something that you “might”
start to fit in “if there’s time” – then you will undoubtedly never make it your first priority, and you
will never be the writer you could. You will not see success in your writing.

Without an actionable goal – one that you believe in and are passionate about accomplishing –
you will undoubtedly fail. The primary cause of failure is having no definite, specific aspiration
against we are measuring our actions from one day to the next; no target at which we can direct
our energies.


Without a clear objective, we flounder.
And when we flounder for too long, we fail.

Do not drift aimlessly in your thoughts regarding whether you will or will not write. We have
already agreed to agree that you are, on some level, a writer. And if you are a writer, on
whatever level, permit yourself the right to actually write. Decide this.


Decide with certainty and resolve.


Go into this with the conviction that you will actually write – that you are committed to the task –
and you will see the task itself unfold more easily

Introduction

 These lessons are for the person who simply wants to write – to either start writing or write 

more. Specifically, this for the person who wants to succeed at writing – however he or she may 

define that success. 

And this book is for you, in particular, if you: 

•  Want to begin writing – Maybe you are someone who has always wanted to write something – a “book,” a “novel,” or a “best-seller” – but has never been able to get word onto paper.  
• Want to write more – Maybe you write occasionally, but not very often. You journal at night but then keep your writing close, preventing any possible readers from finding it. 
• Maybe you even have a blog and you publish periodically, but you really want to blog more.  
• Want to finish writing – Maybe you started the novel but never finished. Maybe you tried to write one and threw your pen down before you were done. Maybe you felt overwhelmed by the task at hand and never finished it, and now it lives somewhere in the back of your mind, reminding you all the time that you would like to finish.  

The information here emphasizes the foundations of being successful at writing, because they 

are drawn from the laws of how to succeed at anything.  

These lessons that I have learned in the last six months, both in my own writing and reading I 

have done on the subject of success.  

Here, in ten lessons, I want to share with you what I have garnered. 

Detroit | day one (that is: initial thoughts)

Detroit is absolutely everything I had imagined. I wish I had come sooner, maybe, but am also glad I came as soon as I did. I am sure, incidentally, that I will be back many more times.

There are so many moments when I feel intellectually stiffled - when I feel utterly alone in my position on an issue and furthermore, in staking it, utterly alone against everyone else's opposing views.

Detroit was one of those things.
People can be so shortsighted; so literal.
"Why Detroit? Don't go - you won't like it."
"Yes. I will." I countered time and time again.
I knew I would.
And I do.

"But it's so... sad." They would say, binding the place up in words poorly suited to it.
"No." I would correct. "It is fascinating. Don't you think it's fascinating?" Always, though, I knew: the answer was no.

It fascinates me how we can build out a city - put so much love into creating these architectural gems - and then watch them collapse in economic hardship. These are not, after all, ordinary buildings. Detroit was expected to be (was?) something incredible - a source of substantial pride in the United States - and, for the first part of the Century, it was. And they built it accordingly. But then the economy collapses and, with it, their physical landscape. That is utterly fascinating - the evolution of a built environment as a reflection and manifestation of her people. It's even more interesting when it suffers a slow demise.

Of course, there were not so many words. I sound too preachy - or too heady, maybe - and I always get cut off.

Detroit is, unsurprisingly, utterly everything I had imagined... it is, I think, absolutely my favorite city

(more to come...)

Detroit | Michigan Building

Not enough has been written about the Michigan Building. Even the name itself implies a degree of anonymity; far less specification or importance than is warranted, given the story.

It is, I think, the most magnificently heartbreaking building I have even seen.

The entire structure is a manifestation of Eros and Thanatos - a true symbol of the sheer amount of love (energy; resources) a city can pour into her landscape, only to later lay out snares; to entrap herself, gut herself, lay her own skin stretched flat under the sun - inside out - to dry, before using it as a rug.

Such is what has happened here.
With the Michigan Building.
And nobody talks enough about it.

It is baffling - and fascinating - to me that we can come together and create something of this magnitude, as a reflection of our achievement; a testament to our capabilities; a reward for our collective success; an object of enjoyment - and then, in a single lifetime - in our own - together slay the creation; rip it apart.

They left the plaster molding intact.
It is a crude appendage of an era barely remembered - an era that has been lost, her artifacts destroyed. Everyone who enters the space is immediately aware of its barbaric reuse: the evidence of the destruction everywhere.
Everywhere.

Even the beams at one far end of the incredible, yawning, hollow space are still, after all these decades, clutching desperately to the heavy, dark burgundy fabric that hung over what was once the stage.
It is a ribbon, most surely from the pigtail of a child long gone missing, found weathered and tattered, tangled and caught, in a chain link fence.

To say that moment is marked in "heartbreak" is, you can understand, an understatement.

It is a gruesome reminder of what it once was, and what we have done.
Such is the Michigan Building.