November 2023 - Zurich, Switzerland
Last year, during my sabbatical, I started to write a book.
The story of my Taiwanese grandmother.
I had everything planned out.
The story outline. The writing timeline. The new routine to integrate the project into my work schedule.
It's been a year since I wrote my last sentence.
Simply because: Life happened.
Welcome to reality
In January, I started my new role as Head of Collaborative Innovation at GF Piping Systems.
In February, I translated my manuscript via DeepL into German and, with the help of my mother-in-law, sent out a German version to apply for funding.
In April, I received a letter informing me that I did not get the funding.
In May, I was pregnant.
In June, Alexia started as the first person on my team.
Also, in June, I had a miscarriage.
In the summer, my Taiwanese family came to visit.
In September, I founded my own company.
In October, luckily, I went back to do my second 10-day Vipassana Meditation course.
I listen, I choose, I act.
Now it's November, and the meditation course finally gave me some headspace to rethink my book project.
Yes, the idea of the course is to learn to focus on the body sensations.
Yet, since my mind was super busy, I decided to spend some time with a newly regained sharpened focus on some of my projects.
My employer definitely also profited from my ten days in silence.
I mentally prepared for several projects, including last week's Culture Week, where we hosted more than 600 people over four days and had them work on team challenges. Anyway. Back to the book.
In those days of silence, I decided to rewrite the entire story.
Away from a chronological account of my grandma's life to a multi-generation conversation.
Once I actively listened to my inner voice, I chose to act upon it.
Tiny steps
Until Christmas, I am participating in a weekly Zoom training on humor and writing led by Lukas Linder. Each week, we write two to three pages.
In these little, tiny steps, I plan to go back to the project.
To slice the elephant into tiny pieces.
And stop finding excuses and procrastinating any longer.
The time to write is now.
Wish me luck.
Do you have smart ways to counter procrastination in your life?
I'm curious to learn about it.
😁 Do One Thing at a Time - Step by Step - Like climbing a mountain or sailing for new coasts