By Andrea Goeglein
“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.”
– Gustave Flaubert
Do not dislike me for asking how your writing habit is going. In my previous blog I shared three videos that constitute what I call The Habit. I wrote that I would reissue each video separately, with additional research support, to help you establish The Habit in your life. There was a 30-day Dr. Success Challenge to establish your own habit.
At the time of that last blog, a succession of natural and man-made disasters had rocked our country and Mexico. Since then, the Napa/Sonoma fires were added to that list. Having lived in the Napa Valley for over 12 years, and living in Las Vegas, a lot of what has gone on this last month is very personal. It was an eerie coincidence that the home we painstakingly built in the Napa Valley burned down in 2014. Now the grade school our daughter attended has been added to the list of memory-causalities. AND the buildings may be gone but the memories and love will always remain.
Oddly, when I went to look up research support for writing as a personal development tool, it felt silly.
Silly because I knew how resistant I had been to writing on a daily basis when I was first introduced to the concept. As I have shared many times, it took me over 20 years to actually make writing a habit.
Silly because as I read the numerous personal accounts of the current disasters, I realized that the research was being proven moment-by-moment as people lived their worst nightmares.
The proof was not only in my life, but the lives of all those who paused to thoughtfully share their shock, sadness, unshaken resilience, willingness to help and be helped, and stand with naked vulnerability. Humbling is the word my Napa friend Wil Anderson used yesterday.
So many have experienced what it truly means to know you are not in control. So many have shared living proof that all you can control is how you think and respond to a situation.
I will list some of my favorite resources just because I said I would. I always recommend The Accidental Genius by Mark Levy, but have added two more academic references for those of you who might be into teaching writing as a personal development too.
