Another important principle of creating the right jellybean motivation is having a deadline. It was a do-or-die situation for my children. Either they got the basement cleaned in the time frame that I set out, or they wouldn’t get the jellybean. No weak-knee parenting from me. I have been around children long enough to know that if you go soft on them and coddle them, saying, “That was close enough,” and then give them the unearned jellybean anyway, you are shooting yourself in your foot. Those kids don’t rise up to their potential. They know they are going to be rescued. This holds them back and quite frankly makes for miserable out-of-control children, because not mastering our potential makes us grouchy. It’s a natural byproduct.
The same byproduct will happen for us if we give ourselves weak-kneed excuses for not accomplishing the tasks that are needed in order to get the jellybean. Think about the times when you gave yourself the excuse to stay in bed instead of dragging yourself out and hitting the gym. Did you feel great about yourself the rest of the day? Or did you do what I do when giving myself a pass and run through the excuses all day, rationalizing and trying to make myself feel better?
Having a timeline that you must meet is important on many levels. 1) It keeps you focused on the goal and helps you overcome many of the distractions. 2) Like what my children found when they didn’t have enough time to argue with me about the guidelines, they had to give up all the excuses or the doubts that the task set out before them was impossible, and get to work.
It has amazed me when I applied this same application to my life. If you set up where you must step it up to get the jellybean, take away all excuses, and make it so the task must be accomplished, miracles can happen. I have completed historical books that required a ton of research in less than a month. With one particular book, I worked nonstop and doubted I could complete it and doubted that it would be quality. But in that same month, I did have time to do several rewrites. And the critics praised that book as one of my best.
I didn’t complete this task alone. When I was asked to do it, I surrounded myself with my supporters and asked them if I should do it. They all wanted to see the book produced, and they were willing to give their assistance. My sister became my full-time researcher, and my husband helped locate documents and was the nanny and editing support. My children happily agreed to put off the housework to play with the neighbors.
I also included on my support team my health professionals, who kept my body in working order so I didn’t have to go down because my arm stopped working or any other of a hundred possibilities.
Now, I don’t choose to write books that fast any longer (exhausting!), but the principle is amazing. I was able to accomplish what I thought was impossible through using focus, support, and not having time for second questioning.
What have you been able to do that you thought was impossible? What principles did you use? How can you incorporate them into your next jellybean effort?

Posted in: Uncategorized at 10:01 am