The Daily Private Victory

You know, Hitler wanted to be an artist. At eighteen he took his inheritance, seven hundred kronen, and moved to Vienna to live and study. He applied to the Academy of Fine Arts and later to the School of Architecture. Ever see one of his paintings? Neither have I. Resistance beat him. Call it overstatement, but I'll say it anyway: It was easier for Hitler to start World War II than it was for him to face a blank square of canvas. - Steven Pressfield

I recently came to realize that between books, CD's, magazine
articles, e-courses and tips, I have written over a million
words in the past six years. So it may or may not come as a
surprise to regular readers of these missives that at times, I
struggle to write them. While whole months can go by where the
process seems effortless, at other times I get so fed up trying
to find something which feels worthwhile to share that the
voices in my head have a field day, shouting at me to give up,
or take a week off, or at least to begin charging for the damn
things so as to justify the struggle.

And there are times where the voices have a point - where taking
a day or even a week off from writing is an act of kindness to
myself. In these moments, not writing is a true act of what I
like to call 'spiritual self-care', because I wind up feeling
cared for in my self and nurtured in my spirit.

Yet more often than not, the voices in my head telling me 'it's
too hard' or 'haven't you done enough?' or even 'you deserve
more!' aren't helpful at all, but rather serve to sap my
strength and drain my creative energy. It is at these times
that I take great comfort in the practice of what Stephen R.
Covey calls 'the daily private victory'.

The concept of the daily private victory is simple enough to
understand. It is the practice of taking time every single day
to do those things which nurture our mind, body and spirit.
What can be more difficult is to understand who or what we are
battling (and hopefully emerging victorious) against.

Some people believe we are engaged in a war against our selves,
spending our lives in a seemingly heroic fight to the death
between the dark and the light. In fact, in many traditions
(Kabbalah, some forms of Christianity and Toltec shamanism among
them), the voices of doubt in our head are thought not to come
from our own unconscious or even the collective unconscious but
from a force for evil known variously as 'the opponent', 'the
voice of knowledge', and even 'Satan'.

Other, more psychologically oriented traditions suggest that
what we are battling against is our own resistance, which comes
about as a result of our deep-seated feelings of unworthiness
and destructive impulses implanted in our psyches at an early
age as compensation for our inability to maintain our parents
love and approval.

While both these models have their appeal, for me, the 'enemy' I
battle with from time to time is far less complex (if not
always easier to defeat) - it is simple inertia, defined as 'the
tendency for an object at rest to stay at rest'.

In other words, what makes it difficult at times for me to
nurture my body, mind and spirit and express my creativity is
the fact that each day, I am beginning from a standing start.

Once I get into action, the simple joy of self-care and creative
expression kick in, inertia becomes momentum, and it becomes
easier to create than to tear down; easier to take care than to
neglect; easier to love than to fear.
Until that time, staring at a blank page can be as daunting as
facing down the devil himself.

1. Make a list of those activities which for you would
constitute 'spiritual self-care' - the care and feeding of your
self and spirit.

Examples:
*Prayer
*Meditation
*Physical exercise
*Time alone in nature
*Time spent in communion with others
*Being of service
*A warm or cool bath
*Inspirational reading
*etc.

2. Now add to your list those activities which help 'sharpen the
saw' - making you capable of greater degrees of productivity.

Examples:
*Practicing your craft
*Keeping up to date with the latest developments in your field
*Further training
*Mentoring (and being mentored by others)

3. Next, jot down any activities which if practiced daily would
make the success of your longer term projects and goals almost
inevitable.

*If you are an artist, musician or writer, spending at least
______ hours working on your art, music or writing each day

*If you are looking for a relationship, meeting at least ______
new people each day

4. Finally, choose up to a dozen items which will constitute
your daily private victory - that is, those things which each
day that you do them make it easier to do them the next, and
whose daily accomplishment would be sufficient, even if you did
nothing else, to move you forward in the direction of a life
that makes you go 'Wow!'

a. Your daily private victory should take no less than 45
minutes and no more than 3 hours to achieve each day

b. Choose only those things which, no matter how difficult, will
leave you feeling significantly better in yourself and about
your life having done them than you would if you hadn't done
them. (In other words, choose things that really support you in
feeling loved, nurtured and effective, not things which you
think would make you a 'good' or 'worthy' person.)