By Rosanne Bane What’s Your Teeter Look Like? Create a checklist of the intermediate behaviors that will lead you from where you are to where you want to go. You should phase out rewards for more basic behaviors gradually over the course of weeks, even months. If it seems you are giving yourself far too … More Rewarding Yourself Part 4
By Rosanne Bane Blue Learns to Teeter-Totter Most of what dogs do in agility are natural behaviors – running, jumping, climbing – but the teeter-totter is not. Take another look at those videos if you’ve never seen a dog on a teeter-totter. The teeter is weighted so that one end stays on the ground. The … More Reward Yourself Part 3
By Rosanne Bane Running Is Its Own Reward If you’ve ever seen a border collie run an agility course, you’ve seen the epitome of self-rewarding behavior. If you haven’t seen a well-trained dog run agility, take a look at this or another youtube video of a border collie running agility (I suggest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDTt4lGhxjw&feature=fvw) Clearly, these dogs … More Reward Yourself Part 2
By Rosanne Bane Is Writing Its Own Reward? When I blogged about using chocolate to bribe ourselves to write (When All Else Fails, Use Chocolate), the post got three times more visits than any other post. But when I ask writers about consistently rewarding themselves for their writing efforts, many react as if I’ve suggested … More Reward Yourself Part 1
By Rosanne Bane It’s presumptuous in the extreme for me to edit lyrics written by John Lennon, I know. But I’m going to do it anyway. For several weeks, I’ve listened to a radio station that played non-stop Christmas music. So I’ve heard John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas” a lot. One line at the end of one … More Let’s Hope It’s a Good One
By Rosanne Bane MKelberer’s tongue-in-cheek comment/question to my last post, “Why is ‘hard work’ always the solution?” reminded me of one of the most powerful questions I ever heard: “What if it’s quick, easy and now?” Years ago, I spent an entire coaching session affirming to myself and my coach Val Olson my commitment to tenaciously … More Quick, Easy and Now
What are your unplugged toasters and unnecessary loaf pans in your writing? What are you still not doing because it wasn’t safe years ago that may be safe now? What old habits that you just don’t need any more are limiting your willingness to try something new? … More Don’t Believe Everything You Think
By Rosanne Bane If I could show you something that creates resistance to your writing and, as an added un-bonus, makes you miserable, you’d get rid of it, wouldn’t you? That something is all your assumptions about how you’re “supposed” to write, all your ego expectations and demands for yourself as a writer. In Do … More Surrender!
By Rosanne Bane I’ve had a particularly good writing week. I made a commitment to focus at least 4 of my 5 daily writing sessions on a project that I had been a wee bit resistant to, and that commitment kept me focused and in motion. The other source of this week’s writing satisfaction came from breaking the rules. There is … More Break the Rules and Break Your Resistance!
By Rosanne Bane A fellow writer, who wants to remain anonymous, introduced me to the idea of catching the Alleluia. She in turn caught the idea from a choral director who, as she recalls, “told his students there is always an ‘Alleluia’ going on in the Universe and when you make your music right, you … More Have You Caught the Writer’s Alleluia Lately?
Bane of Your Resistance 