Start for 100 days
Your New Years resolutions won't know what hit them.
Starting with September 23, we have 100 days left in 2023.
People! It’s a SIGN!
100 is the perfect number – the perfect number of days to start something you’ve been putting off and to make real progress, AND/OR the perfect number of days to build your starting muscles with a bunch of joyful tiny beginnings.
This will be much more fun New Year’s resolutions. And you’ll arrive at New Year’s Day with lots of new information, like:
what you like to start
what you like to finish
how to quiet the inner voice that tries to talk you out of action
how long it takes to clear your dining room table of craft supplies before a holiday party
My research about starting changed the way I view New Year’s Day, Mondays, and back-to-school season. It’s a concept called “temporal landmarks”, and I wrote about it HERE on August 1.
September 23 will always be the day that the last 100 days begins, but this year, the number 23 gives it a special, temporal boost.
Acting on our ideas and starting things makes us happy, smart and successful. So learning to start more is a good thing. And, for people who put too much pressure on their finishes, starting more is like going to the batting cage. Practice practice practice – without the pressure! A game, but without the pesky scorekeeping.
Ways to play?
Resolve to start 23 things.
Resolve to finish 23 things.
Spend 23 minutes a day on the thing that you start
Tell 23 people about the thing you’re starting an invite them to play along.
Add more in the comment section!
I promise, after you start starting more, you’ll see how every start teaches, enriches and moves us forward, and how bringing our ideas to life adds to our life masterpiece.
So…what do we start with our 100 days?
We can start a creation, a skill, or a good habit…
…a love song, a social movement, or a fusion soup recipe.
We can start one or two things that are really important, or 100 silly, fun, worthless things.
As for me, I’m going to start 23 tiny works of art. I’ll post them on Instagram for accountability.
If you’re short on ideas of things to start, I serve up a lot of suggestions in my book Start More than You Can Finish. For starters…
I can go on for days.
Okay…you won’t believe this. The universe has conspired to compel me to write this post and you to build your starting muscles! My book, Start More than You Can Finish, was today put on some weird Amazon sale for $6.01! (It retails for $21.95.) Lord help us all, I do NOT know what Amazon is up to or how they decide these things. That’s a 73% discount. Should I be flattered or insulted? Maybe this is the way that artificial intelligence has decided to use its powers for good. More people learning how to start more things for less money!
But $6.01!
My numbers guru friend, David Disney, will love the number play on this price point: 2×3 = 6; 1/100 = 1 cent. $6.01. * **
I’m telling you, it’s a SIGN, people!
* If this price changes before you open this newsletter, I can’t be held responsible. Amazon is hell-bent on messing with us or owning us. Take advantage while you can. Buy copies for your gift closet and use the extra money to shop your local bookstores.
**I’m proud that most of my book sales have been through brick and mortar stores, but my goal is to get Start More Than You Can Finish in as many hands as possible, and lots of hands are helped by libraries and discounted books.
No matter when you read this, make it your starting day.
You know what I would love? If a bunch of you filled the comments section with your intentions about starting something in these last 100 days! Extra points for silly tiny things that other people might copy. And extra points for things that might create a chain reaction of joy, art, or some kind of healing for this floopy, scary, world condition.
It’s a little scary that there is only 100 days left of 2023! But I appreciate the push to start some new things! And I just purchased your book for $6.54 on Amazon-- thanks for the link and the push! I read it awhile back when I checked it out from the library, and it has been on my to purchase list. I’ve also told a lot of people about it as I am a huge fan of your premise of just starting. I tend to start a lot of things, and then feel guilty about not finishing them, but I also do finish a lot of things! So some of those things I start and don’t finish, lead me to the things I do finish! And sometimes, those things I started, eventually...sometimes years later, do get finished! It’s a process! I think my 23 things to start in these 100 days left, will be 23 new picture books. I have the ideas-- I just haven’t started the stories...But once I start, I’ll have something to work with!