Staying focused when you'd much rather be binge watching Bridgerton than writing your book

This morning, it was my turn to address the school for assembly. June examinations are approaching so I thought I’d write something about the importance of staying focused and I related this to my writing journey. Below is an edited version of what I said to my learners:

My son is in Grade one this year – big school. When he began, he was so excited to start doing homework for the first time in his life. In the beginning, immediately after school he would be sitting at the dining room table ready to begin, waiting for me to help him. His enthusiasm was visible, his eyes bright and he had a smile on his face. I was amazed at how much he wanted to learn and how easy it was going to help him with homework. I thought to myself – wow, my boy is going to be a genius. He’s going to be the number one learner in his grade. I could already picture all the awards he would win, with me the proud parent cheering him on.

Unfortunately, that enthusiasm for homework died quickly. Very quickly. It probably took him about a week to realise that homework isn’t quite as fun as practising cricket or sitting on the couch watching Bluey. Now, fast forward to May, and I have to drag him to that dinning room table. If I leave the room for a moment, he’ll disappear and I’ll find him watching cartoons on tv with his little sister.

This got me thinking about how hard it is to remain focused. When we start the year we often have goals in mind of what we would like to achieve. Some of us even write these goals down. However, that determination and ambition quickly wanes. Soon we realise that achieving our goals actually requires hard work. It requires working late into the night instead of binge watching tv series like “Blood and Water”, or deciding not to play a sport because it takes up too much time. In other words, working towards our goals is often not very fun. But we need to keep that focus because if we don’t, then our dreams will slip away from our grasp.

This is especially important because the June exams are just around the corner. Now is the time we need to remain focused and determined to put in the work to get the results we want.

And it’s not easy. Some of you may know that I have written and published a book. That book took me five years to write. Let me put this into perspective for you: when I started writing the book, I had no children. When I finished writing it, I had two children. That’s how long it took me.  

The book is 80 000 words long. And when I started writing it, the finish line was very far away. It would have been easy for me to give up. To rather stick to writing short stories. But I didn’t because I always wanted to write a book. So how did I do it? Well, the same way you eat an elephant: bit by bit. I had mini-goals I wanted to achieve for each month – a set word count that I wanted to reach. Of course, I didn’t always achieve this (I have two kids, okay). But I didn’t allow that to get in the way of not finally finishing a book because that has always been my dream.

I am currently writing my second book and I have just over 30 000 words. It has taken me a year to get to this point. I wish I could be a faster writer - or be someone who procrastinates less. I hardly ever am able to write like a fountain with words spouting out of me…I’m more of a dripping tap. But I won’t give up. This time though, I am determined not to let it take me 5 years to finish the book. Two years is my deadline.

I both love and hate writing in equal measure but I also cannot STOP writing. I don’t want to stop writing either. My goal is in sight.