++++

In the past few days I’ve talked with a dozen smart people who create content for a living. They write posts and e-books, record podcasts and vlogs, and are on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

These pros aren’t trying to produce one lone idea a day. They need to generate lots of lively and practical ideas that can be spread across multiple platforms every day. Their livelihood depends on it.

As far as tough jobs go, it may not rank with working in a coal mine, but it’s no cakewalk.

Many of these content creators are burnt out. They feel that, within their field, they’ve reached the end of their thinking. They’ve said everything they know how to say, and anything that comes out now is only a mild variation of what they’ve said before.

What might they do to revive themselves?

As a writing coach, I’d give them the same counsel I give myself when I’m working on an important project and find myself – not just stuck – but empty. I’d tell them to conduct a writing marathon.

Based on Peter Elbow’s Loop Writing Process and the technique of freewriting, a writing marathon is an exhausting yet liberating day-long writing session that’s part information dump and part exploration into ideas that they may have never thought about before.

In the end, they’ll have pages of thoughts and prose. Much of it will be junk. Some of it, though, will be startlingly original, and may well be the best stuff they’ve ever created.

Whether you’re blocked or not, you might like to try the marathon yourself. Here’s how it works:

Set aside a stretch of five to eight hours. If you’re a morning person, begin it in the morning. If you’re a nighttime person, schedule it for the evening.

Get a timer and a computer. You’ll need the computer, because if you try doing the amount of writing I’m asking you to do with pen and paper, you’re hand will cramp.

Now, set the timer for twenty minutes, open a blank document, fix your subject in mind (for instance, “How can service firms sell to mid-sized companies”), and start typing.

Attack the subject from a spot that, for you, has energy. In other words, don’t start writing about it from some point out of obligation. Begin where you want to begin.

No one is going to see what your writing unless you want them to, so be honest and bold.

Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, or grammar. Don’t worry if what you’re writing is interesting or even coherent.

Write as fast as you can, without stopping for any reason. And, if during the writing you feel like digressing, by all means follow those digressions.

What you’re doing is using the writing to watch yourself think.

When twenty minutes is up and your timer rings, stop. Now’s not a time to rest, though. Take a few minutes to read through your writing and note language and concepts that catch your attention.

If a line interests you — if it’s well-said or contains an idea you might want to develop — underline it. If a line strikes you as a considerable insight, bold it.

Once you’re finished making annotations, look the page over once more. The reason? You want find out what to explore next.

• Do you see a thought you’d further like to pursue?
• Is there an underdeveloped idea that needs elaboration?
• Do you notice a relationship between ideas that needs writing about?
• Are you struck by a thinking-error that’s apparent only now that you’ve written it out?
• Has a question occurred to you that bares investigation?

You’re searching for a new starting thought. It needn’t be profound. Again, you just want to begin writing from a spot that has energy. A spot that intrigues, delights, or annoys you.

Once you’ve come up with a starting thought, fix it in mind, set your timer for twenty minutes, and start writing about your starter thought.

As always, follow the dictates of your mind. If you want to stay on topic, fine. If you feel like going off topic, do it. Have fun. Be irreverent, provocative, even scandalous.

When twenty minutes is up and your timer rings, stop. Again, read through your writing and underline and bold the notions that grab you. Find a new starter thought. Repeat.

That’s the marathon. You do twenty minute sessions, punctuated by the search for starter thoughts, over and over for five to eight hours. Why that long?

You want to clear the brain. You want it to dig deep for facts, opinions, people, stories, scenes, details, ideas. By doing so, you’ll burn off the obligatory surface thinking that can’t be avoided. The party-line stuff. Your mind will have to start reaching. That’s what you want.

One of the keys to making the marathon work is by following Ezra Pound’s rallying cry, “Make it new.” Each time you formulate a starter thought, demand that it sends you in a new direction. I can’t stress this point enough.

You don’t want to merely parrot what you’ve already written because, if you hit “Save,” you have that writing forever. Why duplicate it?

You want new. Force yourself into uncharted waters, even if doing so seems artificial or uncomfortable. Pursue novelty and uncertainty. Head towards anxiety. Make yourself write and think about ideas that aren’t traditionally “you.” Get beyond the point where you write about what you know.

As Ron Carlson wrote, “ . . . if you get what you expect, it isn’t good enough.”

By the end of the marathon, you’ll likely have pages and pages of language and ideas that you can use as raw material for dozens of significant projects. The honesty and power of your exploratory writing may surprise you.

++++

Mark Levy, who founded the marketing strategy firm, Levy Innovation, is called, by David Meerman Scott, “a positioning guru extraordinaire.” Mark’s latest book is a revised, expanded, and re-subtitled edition of his bestseller, “Accidental Genius: Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content.” It liberates readers from their status quo thinking.

So, remember how I said we were gonna get a house to settle into in Bali?

Yeah, well that didn’t happen. This adventure is teaching me so much about being fluid. Actually, it’s kinda banging me over the head with the concept. But, in the end, I think that’s a good thing…at least it will be, once I’m totally done morning the loss of my routine.

And, the need to know what comes next!

See, here’s what happened. Our entire trip was built around a critical assumption, that our daughter would be in what seemed like a very cool camp that blended Balinese culture, sustainability and all sorts of cool outdoor activities. After visiting the camp, we were all incredibly impressed…with their marketing.

Man, those brochures looked good.

But, the vibe we got from the actual place wasn’t so good. Not horrible, it’s just that our expectations had been raised so high, the reality of what appeared to be something closer to a “half-decent” experience just didn’t cut muster. We got the feeling our kid would be a bit of a pioneer as the camp figured out what it was going to be when it grew up. But, that’s not what we signed up for.

There’s a great lesson in here for marketers and entrepreneurs, by the way.

Great marketing can get people in the door. But, if you can’t deliver the goods once they’ve arrived, you’ll likely not only lose a potential customer, you may also lead them to feel conned…and tell everyone they know.

So, we had a family meeting and decided to pull the plug on camp.

Which left us with a challenge, actually a bunch of challenges. The upside of our decision was that we now had a ton more time to explore the island and be a whole family. The downside was my wife and I are a lot more into settling into a routine around local culture than sightseeing. And, the 6-hours a day of kid-free time to work, play, shop, read, yoga-cize and relax that my wife and I had planned the trip around had just evaporated.

We also learned that the window we’d chosen to travel is considered peak PEAK season here in Bali…who knew?

LOL. Leaving us with house choices that were gorgeous, but required a minimum of a month commitment. And, with our new mega-change in plans, we didn’t know how long we’d last in any given location (still don’t). So, that went out the window. Breath in, breath out. Still, we had to get out of our hotel, because we were on top of each other. So, my wife and daughter spent a few days visiting fancier hotels with “villas” to rent. Oh, I should mention something else about now.

In Bali, there’s no such thing as a fixed price. Everything is a negotiation.

It’s kind of like the rate sheet for advertisers. Anyone who pays it is a straight-up sucker. So, my wife found a super cool little villa at a beautiful resort property…and promptly negotiated the rate down to half the public price. We moved in 20 minutes later, and that’s where we’re hanging out as we figure out which way is up.

As I write this, everything is in flux. Where we’ll stay, how long we’ll stay, what we’re going to do on any given day, how much the entire adventure is going to cost, and how I’m going to handle working while everything else is whirling and spinning around me is all a work in progress.

So, let’s circle around to my location-independent workflow project.

Because, you guys need to get something out of this beyond reading a travelogue. In a word, everything’s out the window. I’m winging it. If you remember back to the original plan, I was going to film a ton of footage then send it to my VA to edit and post. Then record audio and send it to my VA to transcribe and post…

Bahahahahaaaaa.

Even if I was capable of creating all that content on a level that didn’t suck right now, I have yet to find an internet connection, even a wired “broadband” one, that could handle uploading high bit-rate audio, let alone HD video. So, while I AM filming, it’s very likely you guys will have to wait until I’m home to see any of the footage.

So, I’m leaning a lot more on creating text-driven content, along with photo-albums for now. And, I’ve also just downloaded the ScribeFire plugin for both Firefox and google Chrome, which will allow me to write and set up posts offline, then just hit a button to publish them, once I’m somewhere with a decent signal.

Now, what about the client service side of my location independent workflow puzzle?

Some of it is working, some of it isn’t.

In my last post, I hinted at the fact that consulting is much harder to pull of as a location independent venture. Since then, I’ve managed to find times of day, decent enough connections and quiet enough areas to allow for decent skype calls. But, the conversations generally have to happen either first thing in the morning or late in the evening.

For calls that are more “scheduled updates and weekly sessions,” that’s doable. The real challenge comes when working on a project, say something in more of a start-up phase, where you’d really benefit from the ability to be able to jump on the phone, email or IM a few times a day to get quick answers, hash out ideas and share information WHILE EVERYONE IS AWAKE AND AVAILABLE.

Were I working on a 4-8 hour time difference, I could probably pull it off, but I’m 12 hours apart from most of my clients. And, that’s proving to be a challenge. One I’m still working on figuring out as I write this. And, something you guys should also consider when exploring location independent consulting. It may be doable for a few weeks, but as a lifestyle, I don’t see it being all that viable.

And, there’s one other thing. The heat.

From the reports I’m getting from NYC, Bali has actually been relatively cool. But, here’s the thing about Bali heat…it’s always wet…very wet…and it’s much harder to get away from. Most shops, restaurants, internet cafes and even many hotels and homes don’t have air-conditioning. Instead, they have fans, which makes it pretty okay. But, you pretty much walk around with what we’ve come to call the Bali sweat glaze all day long. For a lot of people, that’s okay. And, honestly, the sweat part doesn’t really bother me.

But, one of the things I should’ve realized is that both my daughter and I tend to shut down in heat. it’s just our constitution or, in y0ga-speak, our doshas. And, that effects our mood, our energy, our desire to do, well, ANYTHING, and, for me, my ability to create. And, oh yeah, did I mention I’m supposed to be writing my next book over here? Ack!

So, another lesson. Be sure to understand the nature of the climate you’re going to be operating in and consider whether it nurtures or negates your ability to do what you fantasize about doing.

Okay, so, let’s move on from location independent workflow to more juicy Bali stuff…

The Monkey Forest.

One of the first things we realized when the camp part of our plans was disappeared was that we were going to need to find a lot more cool things to do and places to go. And, while that’s a huge challenge to my ability to work, it’s actually a good things from a “seeing more of the country” and being with my family standpoint. So, we started simple.

Here in Ubud, there’s a place called the monkey forest. Guess who hangs out there? Yup, monkeys. There are no gates or cages to keep them in. They all cluster there because they know they’ll be fed a whole lotta bananas by silly Westerners like us. But, we weren’t ready for just how up close and personal the experience would get. Within seconds after walking into the forest with a black plastic bag filled with mini bananas (sold at the front), monkey began climbing up my wife’s body to get the bananas.

At first, she was freaked, we all were. But, then once we realized, they hand pretty human hands and they were just climbing her like a tree, not clawing, it got kind of fun. We bought a bunch more bananas and discovered that if you held them over your head, monkey would climb up to get them, then sit on your shoulder peeling and munching away (yes, pics are included in the gallery below).

Bali Dogs

One of the saddest things we’ve seen here is the huge number of street dogs, often sickly, ematiated and losing their hair. We stopped into one of the few shelters, where my daughter stayed to play with a bunch of rescue pups for about an hour. She wanted to take them all home.

The Balinese, according to the woman who runs the shelter, don’t really get the Western idea of dogs as pets. They are viewed more as just animals that happen to live along with families or in the wild. And, left largely to fend for and feed themselves. And, those are ones who are actually “owned.” The vastly larger population is wild and, sadly, there has been increasing government culling of the population out of fear of rabies and other illness.

Rice terraces.

Everywhere yo look, once you leave the main part of the towns, you find rice terraces. They often go on for hundreds of acres. At certain predetermined times, they are all flooded, starting with those at higher elevation, allowing the water to flow down into the lower ones. There, rice is germinated, then planeted in the paddies and harvested 2 to 3 months later.

Once the rice plants begin the grow in, the brown watery fields become lush green and the cascade of vivid green terraces is gorgeous (pics below)!

What looks fairly straightforward is actually a fairly complex, deliberate and complete ecosystem. Everything from the ducks, the cows, the rice and the even the variety of plants that line the paddies play a critical role in allowing the rice to reach maturity.

We are going to do a program that essentially allows up to spend a day in the life of a rice farmer over the next week.

Prices and tipping.

As I mentioned earlier, every price in Bali is a negotiation. And, nearly every restaurant or hospitality business folds in a modest (10%) service charge, making tipping largely unexpected. You can get a delicious multi-course meal for 3 people (without booze) for $15-$25 US. That same meal in NYC would cost about $75-$100. A 90-minute massage costs about $20 US. And, again, no tip is expected.

But, I’ve gotta be honest. Both my wife and I had trouble with the idea of not tipping above the 10% folded-in fee. Because, in NY, you tip 20%. That’s just what you do, because people don’t earn a whole lot on an hourly basis. They make most of their money on tips.

So, just because you don’t “have” to Bali, why would you change your tipping policy?

Isn’t that more about who you are inside and the respect you have for those who make your experiences more enjoyable than “what the local custom allows you to “get away with?” Especially when pretty much everyone serving you earns way less than, even adjusted for cost of living, than their NYC counterparts. And, for the most part, while I love a good snarky NY waiter, the folks who serve you in Bali are far more universally lovely and appreciative than pretty much anywhere I’ve been.

Curious what you guys think of that?

Wrapping up this week…

Well, there’s still lots more to share, including making silver jewelry, watching my 9 year old daughter work a blow-torch, yoga, meditating with ducks and frogs and more, but I’ll save that for next week.

But right now, we’ve just finished dinner and wandered over to relax barefoot on cushions on the front patio at Ja Juice Cafe. Brownies, cookies and lattes are being served while, off in the distance, a three-dude Balinese band is doing small-town justice to some Skynyrd.

And, as I glance up before hitting “publish,” I notice my girls now fully reclined, drifting into the night…

Until next week…

I’m also starting on book number two (which was just sold, formal announcement to come soon) and is on a totally different topic than Career Renegade. I’m really psyched to dive into this one, it’s going to go a lot deeper into some pretty powerful lifestyle and business phenomena. And, it’ll be kinda interesting to see how Bali effects how and what I write.

Why Bali, btw? How can we pull it off? What will else will I be doing while I’m there?

I’ll answer these questions and a whole lot more once I’m there and I can show you, rather than tell you (but, let it be known, it had nothing to do with Eat, Pray Love. LOL)!

While I’m gone, I’m also going to experiment with some pretty “renegadey” changes to my writing and online work-flow in an effort to create the most compelling content possible, while also dramatically streamlining my processes. That’ll free me up to write the book, take skype calls with my consulting clients and spend a whole lot of time playing with my family and exploring the nooks and crannies of this stunning island.

As part of this work-flow evolution, I’ll be doing a lot more video blogging. For two reasons. One, so I can take you along on my Balinese Renegade Adventure and share my experiences with you guys as vividly as possible. And, two, because it takes me a lot less time to create compelling video, from shoot to publication, than it does to write. Especially the way I’m about to do it.

For those interested, my process for video content creation will be:

• Film video segments in HD with either my Flip Ultra HD, Canon Vixia HFS100 or iPhone 4 (if the Gods favor me with one before I leave),
• Upload them to my Dropbox account at night (when I’ll have wi-fi access and less competition for Balinese bandwidth),
• Ask my virtual assistant (VA) to drop the footage into iMovie on her computer, add in my standard intro and outro and upload the final segments to YouTube then embed them in a video post, set as draft for me to add a few sentences to provide context and post the next morning.

I’ll also be experimenting with a move to audio as source for both podcasts and text posts.

Here’s my planned work-flow for audio and text:

• Hike or ride my bike to some place that inspires me (or, lie in a hammock on the porch),
• Speak my posts into either an Olympus LS-10 recorder or iPhone voice recorder app and record direct to mp3 format,
• Dropbox the mp3s to my VA, where she’ll download it, edit in standard audio lead-ins and wrap-ups, publish the finished audio as podcasts to my media-hosting site, which then gets picked up by iTunes,
• Then She’ll: (1) Transcribe the audio, copy-edit the text and drop it into WordPress as a text post for this blog, (2) Source a relevant Creative Commons image from Flickr for the post, then (3) Crop and insert the image into the post, awaiting approval for final editing and publication.

And, the last big change, I’ll be folding in a new weekly featured guest post, which is something I almost never do on the blog, but the few times I have done it, it’s been really well recieved. So, for at least the time I’m in Bali, I’ll be featuring some amazing bloggers and their mouthwateringly good content.

Contributors will include Danielle LaPorte, Chris Guillebeau, Alexis Martin Neely, Leo Babauta, J.D. Roth, Glen Stansberry and a handful of other amazing thinkers and writers.

It’s going to be a fascinating experiment for me. I’m sure there’ll be bumps along the road. Both technological and human. For example, it’ll be interesting to see how I do with being able to speak posts that are articulate enough to edit into really solid text posts. And, I have no idea how easy it’ll be to upload HD video almost daily on a connection that’s not known for it’s consistency.

But, the cool thing is, once the kinks are worked out (if it all works, lol), the net savings to me in time, effort and mental space will be huge. And, I’ll very likely keep these processes in place upon my return.

So…more to come as the journey unfolds. We’re all going to Bali this summer!

Just wanted to bring you into the Great Summer 2010 Balinese Blogging Adventure and Renegade Work-flow Project that’s about to come to life.

And, as I mentioned, I’ll share a bunch more about why we chose Bali and what I’m really doing there…once I’m settled…and wearing my sarong (so sorry for the mental image)!

Her little hand wrapped around my pinky, arm swaying to the beat of each step.

Chatting about all things important, and not so.

This IS perfection.

One of the things I’ve written about in the past is something I call the headline “persuasion trifecta.” Three elements that when integrated into a headline serve as such a powerful tease, you simply cannot blow past it.

Those elements: (1) Self-interest, (2) Curiosity that rises to the level of intrigue, and (3) News.

And, I love when I stumble upon examples of headlines that are potential “teaching moments,” especially ones that work as email subject lines. So, let’s take a look at this one that just hit my inbox a few days ago…

If You Use Sunscreen, This is Urgent Information You Must Have

If you saw this as a tease for the evening news…and you were the target market…you’d have to tune it. The audience is massive. And driven largely by self-interest…their health. For decades, we’ve all been told to wear sunscreen or risk cancer…and nobody wants that. Plus, it’s not just about us, there’s an evil (or philanthropic, depending how you look at it) subtext here.

Even if you won’t take care of yourself, you don’t want to expose your kids. So, if you’re a parent who slathers their kids up with sunscreen thrice a day from Labor Day straight through to Memorial Day, you’d be downright reckless to skip past this news, no?

Self-interest? check!

The words urgent information strongly imply your going to learn something new. There’s something big to add to your human database. And, while some of you will instantly sense you’re about to be sold something, many others fear of being sold will be assuaged by the use of the word information. Something like “breaking research” might’ve worked better, though.

News? check!

What about curiosity? The headline has peaked self-interest, peaked the desire for information, again, for the right person…then not given the answer. Your brain has been primed, your not being overtly sold something, but rather offered information.

Now, granted, a certain percentage of you will also be repelled by the headline.

That’s supposed to happen. A strong headline will provoke a strong reaction…on both sides of the desire spectrum. It’ll draw in the small percentage of readers who are “buyers in waiting” and send everyone else away, either nonchalantly or running.

The worst thing a headline can do is…nothing!

Anyway, end of today’s mini headline-writing lesson.

UPDATE: This headline just hit my inbox -

“Snails on Methamphetamine: Memories Formed by Snails Under Influence of Meth Are Harder to Forget”

Now THAT got my attention…but only because I couldn’t stop wondering who funds this stuff? LOL!

Ever wonder how to make yourself stand out from all the other business puppets?

One of the most compelling ways to launch and build a business or brand is to create a legend around it. Tell a deeply compelling story that draws in not only clients and prospects, but employees, partners, collaborators, mentors and evangelists.

I’m not talking about fabricating a story from thin air, but, rather, bringing substantially more art and deliberation to the way you craft and share yours. Done right, with integrity and authenticity, it can transform the way you do business and make everything from day to day operations to sales and marketing infinitely more easy.

There are many powerful story lines around which to build your legend.

The reluctant hero is a classic example. Elements include:

• Setting the scene
• The ordinary Josephine or Joe stepping into the role of protagonist
• Exploring and deepening a pain or yearning for something
• Being forced with great reluctance into action by the inciting incident, which creates…
• The unlikely hero/adventurer/discoverer, vision-quester…you… and
• Sets in motion the quest for an answer, during which there comes
• The inner struggle, which inevitably leads down the wrong path
• That circles at the last possible moment back to
• The revelation, an awakening or moment of discovery, which leads to
• The solution, that sets in motion a new fully-awakened path, then
• Salvation, innovation, creation and adoration

When we tell this story in the context of defining, launching and building a brand or business, the purpose is not to provide a respite, escape or moment of entertainment, but rather to so closely pace the experience of the reader that they actually step into the story, they experience a sense of transference that goes beyond rapport.

They become the protagonist. And, in pacing their current experience, you are telling their story, sharing their tale of woe, their pains, frustrations, emotions and deep need for resolution.

You bring them to a place where they’re hanging on every word to find out just how the story resolves itself.

Because in the story’s resolution, they find their own resolution.

And, this is the moment you bridge the gap from pacing and agitating the readers’ current experience, from telling their story through the lens of your own quest to leading them into the part of the story that’s yet to unfold. The events, people and solutions that will bring solace, remove pain and deliver them into a place of exaltation. Salvation. Respect. Success. Devoid of pain.

And, guess who those people, events and solutions are?

They are you, your ideas, your products, your services, your solutions.

This is just one example of how to tap the power of a well-crafted evolutionary metaphor, the reluctant hero, to build a connection between you and your prospects, then deliver them into what seems an irrefutable desire to buy what you’re selling as the only logical way to resolve their own pain, to solve their own problem.

So, my question to you is…

What’s your story?

Your legend?

Your journey of discovery?

The one capable of defining your quest and revelation, fueling the growth of your community and driving them to action?

___________Wednesday’s Awakened Shout Outs_____________

• Pro Blogger Book 2nd Edition – Speaking of story, my friends, Darren Rowse & Chris Garrett have just released the 2nd edition of their book Pro Blogger. Among the many revisions and new material, Darren spent an entire chapter revealing a side of his own journey, the launch and growth of his massive Digital Photography School venture, that forms the foundation of his own business. It’s all new material, and incredibly compelling as both proof of what can be done and strategies that can be leveraged. Go check it out!
• World-Changing Writing Workshop - Pace & Kyeli from the acclaimed Freak Revolution have put together a very cool 6-week online writers’ workshop where an intimate faculty of top online writers and well-known authors will be sharing strategies, tactics, insights and ideas designed to take your writing to a whole new level. You can learn more here (disclosure – I’m one of the presenters for this program and I’m also an affiliate, so if you register using the above link, I’ll not only get to play with you in the program, but make gobs of money and likely retire to a small island off Puerto Rico shortly after)

_________Seriously, You Guys Rock…You Know That, Right?!_________

I’ve learned a lot from Seth Godin…

But, maybe one of the most powerful inadvertent lessons was:

Your replies don’t need to match the length of the questions being asked.

See, here’s the deal…

I get a lot of email. A lot. 300 to 500…a day. And, those are the ones that make it through the spam filters. Of those, more than a third can still be DOA—Deleted On Arrival. But, that still means another 200-300-ish that need action, often replies.

And, I started noticing an odd behavior when replying to long, rambling emails…

I felt somehow compelled to match the length of the original email with my reply. So, if someone sent a 5 paragraph, 250 word email, even if I could answer it with 5 words, I wouldn’t. I’d build more content into my reply as a way of, I don’t know, honoring the effort that went into the original email.

Then, I woke up.

And, Seth had a big role in that. One of the things I love about Seth is that he replies to email. Often in seconds. But, his replies are usually just a few words. Not because he doesn’t care or doesn’t put thought into them. But, because 99% of the time, that’s all it takes. Seth is apparently not hung up on matching the length of the original email.

I began to realize, most of those rambling 250 word emails I was getting could’ve easily been chopped down to 25 words with a bit of forethought and editing.

I didn’t ask for an essay where a stanza would do.

So, why would I feel bound, in my reply, to match the level of unnecessary “ramble-ocity?”

Decision made, I now reply to emails with the shortest possible response. Sometimes I feel a little weird doing it.

But, then I remember.

It’s not an insult.

It’s not that I don’t care…

I just really enjoy life outside my inbox.

Ever notice how you can resist chocolate far more easily in the morning than at night…

I can often push myself to exercise, meditate, eat well, sit down to write and pretty much overcome most forms of resistance in the early part of the day. But, as the day progresses, especially if it’s a brain-engaging day…ugh.

I literally feel like I burn through my willpower…

And, it turns out, there’s a bit of science (beyond serotonin re-uptake) to back this feeling up. A recent study by Kathleen Martin Ginis, Associate Professor of Kinesiology at McMaster University confirms what a number of other studies have pointed to.

Self-control or willpower is a finite resource.

Like the water at the bottom of a well, you can use it up. And, once you do, you’ve got to let the well refill to give you more to draw upon.

The more you use your brain to engage in rigorous processing and other tasks that require a degree of self-control, the closer you get to the bottom of your well. The less able you are to resist the siren song of the couch, the TV and that big, fat hunk of grandma’s seven-layer chocolate cake.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And, according to the McMaster study, with practice and planning, you can actually increase the size of the willpower reservoir, giving you more to draw upon in future bouts.

Strategies to refill your willpower well include:

• Challenge & Build – Regularly challenge yourself to do something you don’t want to do or resist some urge. Over time, this can help increase your capacity for self-control. It’s like raising the max-fill line for the water in your well.
• Music – According to Martin Ginis, things like listening to music help refill the willpower tank.
• Daily Practices – And, though I haven’t found the research to back it up yet, I’d say it’s a safe bet the first two strategies from our Visionary Tactics series—building-in space, exercise and attentional training—help refill the well, too.

Beyond increasing your capacity for self-control or refilling your willpower well, a few other strategies can go a long way toward making sure you do the things you’d be tempted to blow off.

• Front-load – If you know your day will demand a lot of self-control, schedule the tasks you’re trying to “not blow off” earlier in the day, before all the other activities leave your willpower reserves depleted.
• Schedule - Schedule your workout or other higher-priority activities in advance and build other plans around them. Having that structure makes you more likely to honor the commitment, even if your willpower is waning.
• External Willpower – Accountability partners are another great strategy.

So, I’m wondering, has anyone else noticed this effect in your daily life?

Have you experienced a change in self-control after a rigorous mental task or a series of other activities that require a degree of self-control?

Share YOUR experiences, thoughts and ideas in the comments.

And, hey, if you’ve enjoyed this post, why not share it…

In this candid interview, J.D. and I get into everything from what it’s like to go from blogging to writing a book to creating passion-driven hobby businesses, negotiating the price of pretty much everything (a/k/a turning into your dad, lol), taking control of your finances, goal-setting and much more.

You can read more of J.D.’s new book Your Money: The Missing Manual

This was a hard list to make. Because the number of amazing dead dudettes is really off the charts. It’s also a fairly different one than Jonathan’s list of Dead Dudes because, as it turns out, men and women really are different. And the thing is, there isn’t a historic list of women entrepreneurs – that are called that – like there is of men.

So, as women often do, I took another tack. I found women that succeeded and failed and got back up again, that did things no once else had done and that used their voices in mighty ways – because even though they aren’t marketing gurus, the lessons they left us are indelible and critical to the entrepreneur’s path, male or female.

1. Katherine Graham presided over the Washington Post for more than two decades. Her leadership and pursuit of the truth was critical in exposing the Watergate scandal and prompting Nixon’s eventual impeachment. She took a huge risk by believing and supporting Woodward and Bernstein. All of this would have been challenging for any one, but Katherine did it as a woman in a traditionally male world. There were no role models as no one had come before her, she was the first female head of a major paper. Follow Katherine to trail blaze and make your own way; know that your example helps everyone that follows. Her memoir, Personal History, won the Nobel Prize in 1998.

2. Golda Meir First of all, she was the daughter of a grocery store clerk from Milwaukee and she ended up as the Prime Minister of Israel – need I say more? Golda followed a dream and a belief from Wisconsin to the Middle East. She was a critical player in the establishment of the Jewish state. This story tells us so much: “On May 10th, 1948, four days before the official establishment of the state of Israel, Golda traveled to Amman disguised as an Arab woman for a secret meeting with King Abdullah of Transjordan where she urged him not to join the other Arab countries in attacking the Jews. Abdullah asked her not to hurry to proclaim a state. Golda, known for her acerbic wit, replied: ‘We’ve been waiting for 2,000 years. Is that hurrying?’” Follow Golda by taking risks (the danger she put herself in!) for what you know is right and speaking up for what you believe (no matter who your company). Her autobiography is a life changer: My Life.

3. Martha Graham was a dancer and a choreographer, but she really wanted to be known as a dancer. Inevitably, as her youth faded, her dancing, and then her life, did as well. Her own personal accounts tell of the terror of watching someone else – younger – dance her dances, “…how can you avoid it when you look on stage and see a dancer made up to look as you did thirty years ago, dancing a ballet you created with someone you were then deeply in love with, your husband? I think that is a circle of hell Dante omitted.” At this point, she admittedly lost her will to live, stopped eating and started drinking, until she ended up hospitalized in a coma. And then she came back. She reorganized her company, choreographed 10 new revivals and won the Medal of Freedom from President Ford over the course of the next 20 years until her death at 96. Follow Martha Graham for resurgence, grit, grace and that second wind when you really need it the most. Read The Life and Work of Martha Graham.

4. Anais Nin is best known for her erotica and her diaries. In writing erotica, she opened up a world where women do daring things and take pleasure at will, it was and continues to be empowering and tantilizing. With her diaries, she exposed her personal life and her relationships with famous writers like Henry Miller. She uncovered the writer/thinker’s life, their inspirations and actual lives. She said, “This diary is my kief, hashish, and opium pipe. This is my drug and my vice.” Imagine what she would have done with a blog? Follow Anais to get in touch with your erotic side, to give taboo subjects a beautiful voice and when you’re searching for transparency. Read her diaries and (definitely) read Delta of Venus.

5. Eve There’s a bumper sticker that I believe was written for Eve, it says: Well-behaved women seldom make history. Once upon a time, Eve had a choice, she could follow the rules or not. She chose to be a daredevil, truth be told. That serpent helped her get the hell out of dodge and pave her own way – a way filled with the good and the bad. Because, as all women know, being good is just plain boring (most of us like bad boys and if Adam was going to play the goody two shoes, by God, Eve was going to corrupt him). Follow Eve by being curious, by following your cravings and your passions, and – of course – by misbehaving. There are many books that talk about Eve, (sadly she didn’t leave us a personal account of what really went down) but you might want to start with the Old Testament (and make sure to read in between the lines).

6. Georgia O’Keeffe‘s artwork is undeniably female – though she emphatically claimed that her flower images really were of flowers. Georgia is about being an individual – in person and in expression. No other art looks like hers. It is so unique. I am not an art buff, but I can always spot an O’Keeffe. Her style, her colors, her medium are undeniably her. Cow skull, iris, landscape, desert – it’s all Georgia. Follow her to make your mark, create your signature, stand out from everyone else; follow her for beauty – often explored at short range. Read Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life

7. Katharine Hepburn wore pants and wore them so well. She was the picture of poise, but she was fiercely strong. In a biz where smiling for the press and everyone else was box office gold, she was labeled box office poison for her unconventional, straight-shooting, anti-Hollywood attitude. She was outspoken, esoteric and had a sharp tongue. And none of this was softened by her refusal of make-up and pretty dresses. Still, she earned 12 Oscar nominations and four statues. On location filming African Queen, director John Huston spoke of how on their days off, he and Bogart would go hunting for lions and such, and how one day Hepburn asked to join them. “He described her as a “Diana of the Hunt” — utterly fearless — and able to shoot with the best of them.” Follow Katharine to go against all conventions and to be real – as in ‘not fake’ or hidden under pretenses or make-up (actual or metaphorical). Read Me: Stories of My Life

8. Sacajawea As the native American guide who accompanied Lewis and Clark, Sacajawea accomplished magnificent feats such as cooking food she foraged to keep the men alive and identifying the correct route through the Yellowstone River Basin that would eventually be chosen as the best path for the the Northern Pacific Railway to cross the continental divide. But her main role was interpreter. She was critical to the expedition as she communicated to tribes encountered along the way, letting them know that no harm was meant, sometimes enlisting their help. Some historians believe it was her ‘womanness’ that proved the most useful as it effectively and unequivocally signaled peace. Follow Sacajawea for vision, clear communication and peace keeping.

9. Babe Zaharias wasn’t just an athlete. She was the quintessential athlete. She earned international fame in track and field and All-American status in basketball. She was an expert diver, roller-skater and bowler and played organized baseball and softball. And, she earmed two gold medals and one silver for track and field in the 1932 Olympics. But wait, there’s more! She was a golfer, too. Babe was the first (and currently only) woman to make the cut in a regular PGA tour event. Against the women, she dominated, winning just about everything you can imagine including the Grand Slam (3 women’s majors) in 1950. She still holds several golfing records today. Oh, and she performed in vaudeville. Follow Babe to cover the spectrum, to take your talent and use it across the field, for diversity, for skill, strength and stamina…and to win. Read Babe Didrikson: The Greatest All-Sport Athlete of All Time.

10. Virgina Woolf In her most widely known work, A Room of One’s Own, Virginia claims, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” You can take that at face value, or you can take it further. Her proclamation, to me, is that a woman’s writing is worthy of a room and money. That there is value in a woman’s work, in her creative pursuits, in her mind. Her writing came at a time when female hysteria anxiety was treated with rest and stillness. Her statement is a direct retaliation. Let us out, let us create. Follow Virgina to take your work seriously, to demand compensation and space for your art and passion and for value…of your self. Carve out your own space in here: A Room of One’s Own.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. … No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

from The Life and Work of Martha Graham

This is a guest post from uber-copywriter, blogger, genius and all-around insanely cool person, Julie Roads. Visit her at WritingRoads.com.