The Big Big Big

Big-Ass Revision Series #3

A favorite Big Thing of many Oregonians (at my February novel self-retreat)!

When I was twelve and a brand new adopted kid in my family, Dad handed me a book: The Magic of Thinking Big.

I didn’t know that I didn’t know how to think.

I’d spent a childhood among those who were overwhelmed. Like them, I was scared of what big thoughts might bring. Slowly, I began to see other possibilities than day to day tasks and worries. I’m forever grateful for this expansion.

As I sink into my novel, once again I’m thinking bigger.

I’m homing in on what really matters. Sure, I’ve got to finish my taxes, pack for Portland, and do a thousand things before I leave town today, but I’m beginning the day with quiet. I’m breathing, stretching, and jotting in my journal. Feeling into the big picture.

When you reach for your dream, the “small stuff” finally begins to look like small stuff. The rest of the time, those tasks and to-dos masquerade as Do-Or-Die decrees. They puff up their chests to look threatening.

Imagining the final years, days, hours of a life, what is it you want to look back upon? Will you be grateful that you loved and pursued what you loved? That you created to your heart’s desire? Or will you appreciate the fact that you always had your taxes completed well before April 15?

Despite the push of my busy-brain, monkey-mind, day-to-day cognitive commander, I will not find big fulfillment in the thousand tasks of the day. I move out of that herd of small thoughts and into the enormous.

I prioritize deep attention . . . places of rewarding creation—what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow states”—thinking big.

I’ve noticed that in my Big-Ass Revision, my mind has found clarity.

I’m sorting responsibilities and “juggling” life’s demands . . . because I’m not juggling. For each kind of work, especially what Cal Newport calls “Deep Work,” I leave the tasky-zone and enter mental and physical flow.

This was difficult to do when I didn’t have a big dream project pushing small thinking out of the way.

I feel the human and her body and breath, and acknowledge her stories. I find myself accomplishing big stuff.

Who’da thought?

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We have one seat available in my weekend workshop in Portland! April 11 & 12, Clark College main campus, Vancouver, Washington. It’s the highlight of my April. Register now for So You Think You Can’t Write.

Heceta Head Lighthouse . . . one of my favorite Big Things.