“I knew I couldn’t out-height them, so I’d have to out-hustle them.” Jill Jeffrey

Jill Jeffrey is a former professional basketball player and a former collegiate player who scored 1000 points. Jill Jeffrey is also all of five feet tall. Recently, during an interview for the Dr. Rob Gilbert’s Success Hotline (more on this in a future post), Jill Jeffrey talked about how she pushes herself to exercise even when she doesn’t feel like it.

When she was asked what percentage of the time she actually felt like working out, Jill admitted that it was about 10% — just 10%! In short, 90% of the time, she doesn’t really want to do it – she’s not really in the mood. Yet, Jill doesn’t give in to her “I don’t feel like it” impulse: instead, she works out every day.

How does she manage to overcome the 90% of the time that she doesn’t feel like doing a workout and get it done? Her answer: “I don’t think about it. I just do it no matter how I feel about doing it. I do not attach to my emotions about it. I make the plan and I do it no matter how I’m feeling.”

Then, she elaborated – and said something really powerful that we can apply to our daily writing regimen. She said, “Basically, I think you have to acknowledge the feeling of not wanting to do something, but don’t honor that feeling. Do not give that feeling more power than your ability to push through it.”

Don’t give your feelings more power than your ability to push through them – don’t let them get in the way of accomplishing what you’ve decided you want to accomplish. What amazing advice! According to Jeffrey, instead of motivating or cajoling ourselves, we should make a plan and stick to it. We need to honor our desire to write and give more power to our ability to push through to get what we want than to our inertia. What a liberating idea!