Update 6 - Habit Trackers, Success, and Biographies

I feel guilty for not posting last week. Posting to this website once a week is one of the tasks I hold myself accountable for. That being said, I’m human and flawed and my success rate across all habits is about 72%. I want to increase that number. I think that if I was able to look at an application telling me I was habitually completing 90-100% of the routine I put in front of myself that I would feel more successful. I’d prove to myself how much I really accomplish. The more I think about it however, I don’t think that’s necessarily true.

I could make this habit tracker application list my daily habits as ‘Shower, Eat, Get to Bed on Time’, accomplish those three tasks every day, and have a 100% completion rate. The only reason I have been considering this habit tracker as a more effective manner of rating myself is because I use it for the habits I am working to develop, not those actions which are already easy habits. Upon this realization, I wondered at what would make me consider myself successful. By successful, I mean ‘What would allow me to die in peace at the end of my life’. I came to the conclusion that at least currently, I want to finish my major writing project. I want to finish this series of stories I’m calling True North. I’ve been talking about it for three or more years, and have nothing tangible to show anyone. I have so much background and world building done, but True North itself still doesn’t exist.

I decided to redouble my efforts on True North about fourteen days ago. Since then, barring social obligations, I’ve come home after my ten hour work day and worked on condensing notes down for three or four hours a night. I have to force myself to stop at some point, or I’ll fall asleep at my desk. I’m almost stunned at the fanatical way I’ve been working lately. It’s how I’ve always thought I should be if I wanted to call myself a writer. I don’t plan alone, or dream alone, I need to write. So that’s what I’m doing. Even then, I feel like hurrying myself. I’ve condensed years of work into two documents, a Notebook and a World Bible. I’m almost done. The last details and notes I need to put in proper context are about five single-spaced pages of bullet pointed items.

While still doing relatively well at my daily habit list, I’m missing a lot because of the time I’m dedicating to writing. And I can’t tell if that’s a good or a bad thing. I think I still need to try and develop better habits, but this book means so much to me. If I finish it, I can say it’s done. I could get it published. People could read the story and I’d hope they enjoyed it, and I could do whatever else I wanted with that massive task accomplished.

One habit I have actually gotten much better at doing daily is reading. I believe that if you want to write the best thing you can do is read. I range from fiction to classics to histories to textbooks to biographies and all sorts of other categories. Recently, I’ve been reading a biography on the author of Dune, Frank Herbert called Dreamer of Dune, written by his son Brian.

I initially read Dune because it was and I believe still is, the best selling science fiction novel of all time. And all I knew about it up that point was that there was a David Lynch movie adaptation of the book in the 80’s (“with Sting in it!” my mother and everyone else always seems to add.) Actually reading the book was one of the most satisfying things I’ve ever accomplished. Frank Herbert showed me through his Dune books that a work of epic-length fiction didn’t have to be wholly about telling an interesting story. Reading Dune greatly affected the direction in which I took my research for my own book. It turned what was going to be a big ol’ fantasy tale into something more real. Something that says more than a fairy tale alone.

Reading about Frank Herbert from the perspective of his son has been not just enjoyable, but soothing. I keep finding humanizing elements regarding this man I built up in my head to be of almost mythic in proportion. He seemed to have a temper like my Dad had a temper. He seemed to go after things voraciously, then when they didn’t work out he’d try something else. He had stumbling blocks too. He had flaws as a human being. These sound like detractions, but that’s not my intention at all. It’s a new and human perspective on someone I nearly put on a pedestal. That humanizing element makes me a little bit more dedicated to my own work. Simultaneously, it also makes me a little bit more forgiving of my own perceived flaws. Reading this biography has been soothing.

I’ll keep writing, but I’ll keep trying to post weekly as well. We can all do a little better in anything if we put enough of our will and effort behind it. It’s not always instantaneous, but it is nice when you finally feel the progress you’re making. I don’t entirely know about success, but I’m satisfied with the work I’m doing. I even wish I had more time in which to do it.

More to come. Whoever is reading this, I hope you have a pleasant day.