trust the process – Almost An Author

Don’t Rush the Process

Earlier this month, my friend suffered a stroke while working. He struggled with the effects of the stroke on his body. After starting physical therapy, he was eager to return to work and his daily routines.

Since I’ve suffered both strokes and a traumatic brain injury (TBI), I decided to share my experience of life after a stroke. Some things may never return to normal and we need to accept our lives have changed.

Inpatient
Depressed
Struggle to focus

As hard as it is to believe, we need to understand there is a reason for the rehabilitation process. It is a time to test our abilities. It is a season to learn how our lives have changed. The hardest part is learning we cannot rush recovery; it takes time to gather and process the information.

It’s a Process

Let’s be honest, no one likes to wait, especially when it comes to life events. We set goals and make plans and hope to achieve them. We are taught that if we put in the work and believe, we can do anything.

And then we are off in a sprint towards our goals. This can be devastating for a person with a TBI or health issues because it puts us at a higher risk of injury. That is why we need to understand the recovery process is a grueling marathon, not a fast-paced sprint.

The rehabilitation process is a systematic way of assessing limitations and strengthening our areas of weakness. Skipping any step in the process will affect an individual negatively in the long run.

My accident humbled me and slowed my life and body down; I had to learn to listen to others who understood my brain injury better than I did. I also needed to trust others and the recovery process.

I learned to take health matters more seriously if I wanted my life to improve. It was clear to me that I needed to slow down to rest my body and my brain. This is also true for writers who are serious about pursuing a writing career.

The Writing Race

If you are like me, you like to be productive as a writer and you understand the need to be proactive as a writer. Isn’t that why so many of us set word count goals for each day?

Unfortunately, some writers focus too much on quantity rather than quality. As a freelancer, I sometimes think I can make more money if I can write more words. However, trying to get more words down quickly can have a negative impact if the quality of the words written is subpar.

FYI, I write using speech dictation software and can write a lot of words in a short amount of time, but my words have to work—they need to be quality content. Clients and their audiences don’t like poor quality or filler words. If our words lack power or influence, then they are useless.

I can also make hasty mistakes by writing quickly and for a perfectionist like myself; careless mistakes are like salt in the wound on top of poor-quality content. As writers, we cannot rush the writing process or the publication process. Below are some tips to navigate your writing process.

Identify the next step: don’t attempt everything at once.
Give that next step your full attention.
Recognize when it’s good enough.
Take breaks.
Edit later.

I was taught to be professional in my writing at all times. Nothing says amateur like rushing the writing process. Professionals learn the craft and hone their skills. It doesn’t matter if we meet our word count if my words don’t make sense. One of my life hacks is to focus on quality more than quantity.

Quality

if you have ever suffered a health issue or near-death experience, you’ve heard the doctors discuss the “Quality of life” implications and effects that follow life-changing events. I can attest that surviving an accident isn’t always positive if it severely hinders one’s quality of life.

TBI and stroke survivors quickly understand their lives have been changed forever and they must learn to focus on a new quality of life. I will be blunt; my standard of life is not like most people who take simple things for granted.

Many people focus too much on big accomplishments and temporary happiness. The quality of life for a disabled person may be different but is still a valuable life. I try not to focus too much on what I do or don’t have, because I almost lost it all.

Health
Faith
Possessions

This month my friend, who had an epileptic family member (whom I mentioned last month), had another family member diagnosed with brain cancer. This diagnosis came while the family was at the hospital together with the aforementioned family member.

She was so concerned about getting one family back to normal life, that she didn’t expect another to have health issues. Now her doctors are assessing the quality of life for yet another family member after trying to rush through the recovery of another.

Have you learned not rush the process?

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at MartinThomasJohnson.com and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.

Trust the Process

Over the past four months, we’ve had to follow a set of guidelines set by medical experts and our government to flatten the curve, which resulted in an economic shutdown of our country.

When the covid-19 virus made its way to America, nobody knew what to do or how it spread. Because it was a new threat to the entire world, each country endured the same learning curve:

Seven billion people all around the globe had to make some sort of adjustments to their daily lifestyle.
Everyone had to learn on the fly, which usually means learning from our mistakes.
Entire economies suffered financial crises.
As I write this nearly a half million people have died from the virus.

Sometimes the learning process of life involves loss and pain—welcome to life in the year 2020. Get over it, there is only one alternative and none of us are prepared for it.

If that sounds harsh, it’s reality; it’s something I learned growing up as an Army brat. My father was quick to discipline me as a child, not to hurt me but to help by giving me a set of rules to follow. For example: if you’re on time—you’re late, if you’re early—you’re on time if you’re late—you’re in trouble.

I didn’t understand it at the time, but his “guidelines” were part of the process of making me a mature man. Now I’ve learned to to trust the process.

Trust the Process!

No one likes rules or guidelines, but we all know we need them and they are a benefit to everyone. After I had my accident, my doctors and therapists let me know the guidelines for my recovery: never try to walk on my own, quickly report any changes in how my body felt, slow down and learn to listen.

During those early days, I had to learn to trust my doctors, therapists, and nurses as they followed the procedures for people with my specific injuries. It was hard and humbling, it wasn’t quick and painless like I wanted. But with each small victory, I learned to trust the process more.

Trusting the process applies to a writer’s journey, no matter how great an idea or story you have to share:

Learn the craft.
Build a platform.
Write your project.
Find an editor (a professional one with a good reputation.)
Seek representation (they are your partner on the journey.)

Publication isn’t an easy path, nor is it a fast track or pleasant trip. But every writer needs to learn to trust the process. Recently, I asked my writing mentor, Christian author DiAnn Mills, for advice to aspiring writers who haven’t learned to trust the process.

She replied with sage advice for us all.

“Writers are given the gift of communicating through the written word to teach, entertain, inspire, and encourage others. The ability to create is a process; we must learn to crawl before we walk. If we had the gift of art, music, dance, math, or science, we would spend hours perfecting our skills and abilities. To stay current with our gift, we continue to learn even if viewed as an expert. Such is the way of writing. We gather our tools, sharpen them, and continue to explore our craft.”

Crafts, like trades, are learned over time, not instantly. The wise writer understands the benefits of being patient in trusting the process.

Benefits?

When we slow down and allow the process to work we can reap the benefits. I am not a legalist, but because of my upbringing, I like boundaries and guidelines, mainly because they help keep us focused on our goals.

They help fix our attention and efforts.
They save valuable time.
They help reduce risk to ourselves and others.
They can be trusted.

Regardless of our career path, the process can be trusted because it has been tested by others who have gone before us and have achieved their desired goals. Ultimately that is why we need to trust the process.

Martin Johnson survived a severe car accident with a (T.B.I.) Traumatic brain injury which left him legally blind and partially paralyzed on the left side. He is an award-winning Christian screenwriter who has recently finished his first Christian nonfiction book. Martin has spent the last nine years volunteering as an ambassador and promoter for Promise Keepers ministries. While speaking to local men’s ministries he shares his testimony. He explains The Jesus Paradigm and how following Jesus changes what matters most in our lives. Martin lives in a Georgia and connects with readers at Spiritual Perspectives of Da Single Guy and on Twitter at mtjohnson51.