Today is Monday, the start of a new week that will be filled with success and failure. The key for the part-time writer is to find, well, time.

There are many distractions that can stop you from reaching your writing goals, or any goal for the matter. There are places where you will want and need to give time: family, friends, and work (maybe not!). There are optional activities that will require time eventually: Laundry, dusting, cleaning out the garage, power washing the house or car. And finally there are those things that suck us into the whirlpool of time wasted: television, internet, movies, and other mindless (but tremendously fun) entertainment.

Stop here. I am not trying to be a motivational speaker, but perhaps I am being one now. There are many times I have to remind myself what I am. There are days when I have to seek out a hour to write, whether that is in the morning at 5:30am or at night from 12am until 1am.

I write this not to make you or I feel guilty but to focus on the task at hand. Time is irrevocable. Once spent, there is no getting it back. While Mr. Phelps’s or Mr. Bolt’s Olympic events will be tremendously entertaining, I am positive that they did not get to where they are now by watching the latest episode of _____ every night.

So today, take television, sleep, and even reading off the mantle. Take writing, if it is your dream, and put it in its proper place.

Write sometime this week.

Cheers,

Bob