It’s May! Holy beans, the year’s nearly half over. I’m still wondering where March went, never mind April.
Here’s our pair of community prompts for this month. Each month in 2017, we’re giving you a pair of prompts — one to make you more productive, and one to improve your creativity or writing skill.
You can jump in anytime — and let us know about your experiences in the comments!
The May Productivity Prompt
Banish “Fine”
A few years back, I helped crowdfund a documentary called “I’m Fine, Thanks” about some folks who, in the words of one of the subjects, had “climbed the ladder, then realized it was against the wrong wall.”
We all have things in life that we dismiss as being “fine” when they aren’t fine at all. Career situations, personal situations, meaning-of-life situations.
This month, think about an important problem that you’ve squished down as being “fine.” Then spend 30 days taking some kind of action to move to something better.
They could be tiny actions or medium actions. Maybe there will be some huge actions in there as well. But if you do this, even if your actions every day are truly tiny, I predict you’ll find out two things:
- Small actions create momentum surprisingly quickly.
- The energy you spend trying not to think about what’s “fine” could be much better spent making something amazing.
Here are a few little motivational shoves to get you rolling:
- My post on the power of small habits (lots more resource links there)
- I’m Fine, Thanks: The Movie (you can watch a preview for free, or spring for the film for $5)
- Mel Robbins’s TEDx Talk on “fine” and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone
The May Creativity Prompt
Enhance Your Strengths
The “Fine” prompt is about working on your weaknesses, which is what we usually do when we want to get better.
But your greatest opportunities often lie in your strengths.
“Train your weaknesses. Compete your strengths.”
– strength coach Mark Reifkind
What are you excellent at? Do you have a strong writing voice? Are you great at researching details? Do you have a terrific network?
This month, identify one strength you have as a content marketer. (You can always pick another one to work on next month.) And every day, do something with that strength.
If you’re a storyteller, write a one-paragraph story every day. If you’re a data genius, distill some messy numbers into a clear, focused statement. You get the idea.
For some more ideas, take a look at my post on playing to your strengths.
Let us know how you’re doing with these!
Planning on tackling one or both of these this month? Let us know in the comments! I’d love to hear more. 🙂
Reader Comments (5)
Great tips! Mine is becoming a stronger storyteller.
Hi Sonia,
I’m excited to jump on board with these monthly prompts! I really like and can relate to when you said, “The energy you spend trying not to think about what’s “fine” could be much better spent making something amazing.” I agree that we all get caught up in living in our own bubbles and just going from day to day instead of living each of those days and working to improve.
I think the strength that I am going to work on as a content marketer this month is relationships. Following up with clients promptly, being more clear about what I’m looking for, engaging through social media, etc.
Thanks for the great post! I look forward to reading/participating in next months prompt.
Amanda
Writer’s block? “Write drunk, edit sober” – Ernest Hemmingway
ha ha
These are great challenges, Sonia. I like on focusing on my strength and fighting of my weakness. Often, we let weakness eat us inside and forget about our strength. But I think banishing “fine” is a great challenge. It’s like a subconscious answer when we’re asked how we’re doing or how’s everything doing. To be true with what we actually feel is the real challenge.
Hi Sonia,
Exciting and fun challenges, I’m going to be more productive and write a paragraph a day.
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