✍️ Mindset is Everything

or, How to Put "Failures" Behind You Like a Goalie

Gerry may not have been the best NHL goaltender of all time. But even if you’ve never watched a hockey game in your life, you’ve probably heard his name.

Just like you’ve probably seen a picture of the most famous NHL goal at some point in your life. It’s in the banner above: Bobby Orr flying through the air after scoring the OT winner for the Boston Bruins in the 1970 Stanley Cup Final.

But even most hockey fans don’t know that Gerry played a huge part in that moment. Boston was up two goals against the St. Louis Blues, cruising to an easy win, until Gerry let in a couple of stinkers that tied up the game.

“If I don’t allow two of the worst goals in hockey history in that game, if I make two routine saves, there is no overtime,” Gerry said once (at least). “I kid Bobby about this all the time.”

The ability to “forget” the goals is one of the most important skills a goalie needs. Even their poorest moments can lead to greatness. Gerry – Gerry Cheevers – winning the 1970 Stanley Cup is proof.

I would argue that the goalie mindset can help writers, too.

An Insight from #GraNoWriMo

#GraNoWriMo managed to spark the imagination of 19 participants before the end of the month. I take this to be a huge win.

However, we all seemed to be struck by two huge realizations at some point during the month. The message over and over again was that people were not meeting their targets. (“Targets” is the word I used during #GraNoWriMo instead of “goals” for these reasons.) The second was, we were all getting work done anyway. Reconciling these two ideas became one of the informal topics in The Hemingway Café message boards.

I’m not doing as much writing than I would of hoped, but I’m doing more than I would have otherwise, to paraphrase a common refrain.

I think there is an important message here for all writers, so I want to unpack it.

Targets vs. Goals and the Writer’s Mindset

Writers get discouraged if they don’t meet their goals. Even I was off the pace by Day 4. I felt doubly discouraged with a nice, big cherry of embarrassment on top. Here I am, leading the charge, and I have to stop and say, “Um, I tripped…”

Turned out copping to this “failure” – this being human with a life outside of writing – wasn’t the letdown for everyone I thought it would be. Others struggled too with their targets, and maybe me speaking up about it reduced that stigma. Either way, I think we learned something. Targets can be arbitrary and can set up unrealistic expectations. At worst, feeling like we’re failing our goals can ultimately stop us from writing at all.

So let’s go back to my Day 4 and analyze what happened. My goal for November was to write 30,000 words in my current WIP. After “failing” my daily word count so early in the process, I could have said, “Screw it – I’m off the rails. I’ve ‘failed’. Maybe I’ll come back in December.”

Instead, I kept writing. I caught up in some places, and I fell behind on other days due to Life, the Universe, and Everything. I ended up with 25,245 words instead of 30,000.

The defeatist would say, well, you failed. What I say instead though is that I would have had 4,000-odd words for the month instead of 25,000+.

Mindset is everything. You can call it “tricking your brain”. You can call it “fudging the numbers”. You can call it whatever defeatist thing you like, if defeating yourself is your goal.

But if getting shit done is your goal, then you can call it, “Focusing on the now.” You can call it, “Putting the past behind you.” You can call it, “Still hanging on to win the Cup.”

You can call it a win.

Key Takeaway: Mindset is everything. If you’re not meeting your goals or targets, adjust them. Give yourself a break, and realize that you’re still writing. Above all, don’t let it stop you from getting words down. Writing is the only goal that counts.

Over to You: How Do You Keep Writing?

Do you get tripped up with not meeting goals or targets? How do you keep writing? Anything you wish you could do better? Leave us some thoughts in the comments below!

I’ll leave you with Bobby Orr’s flying goal. Scroll down to see the video.

Until next time, keep writing with wild abandon!

~Graham

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email me if you get lost.