GTFU Part Five: Putting it Into Practice

This is the fifth and final article in a series called "Get the F*ck Unstuck," based on my popular workshop of the same name. (The first article can be found here.) Of all the seminars I teach, "GTFU" is my favorite, and one of the most satisfying, because it makes a real, lasting impact on the creative lives of writers, directors, and producers at all different points in their careers.

In the first two articles, we discussed time, and introduced some exercises to help you get more clarity on how you're spending your time and why. The third and fourth articles took you inward, helping you to understand some of the ways emotions, particularly fear, can keep creative professionals feeling stuck and inhibit them from doing their best work. While these articles don't represent the sum total of my thoughts on getting un-stuck, and they only cover a portion of the material I cover in my workshops, I think they offer anyone who applies them a real head-start in moving closer to their creative goals. 

But, now that you have the information, what the hell do you do with it? Knowledge without action is… pretty much mental you-know-what – it’s essentially meaningless. So how do you take all this awareness and turn it into results?

This article helps answer those questions. It's all about taking what you've learned, both conceptually and specifically about yourself, and actually putting it into practice. Taking action. And we do that with two specific tools that work hand-in-hand, an Action Plan, and a Habit Chart. 

Action Plan

An action plan is a series of steps, which, taken consistently, on an on-going basis, will move you towards actually achieving your goals. Another way to think about it is taking the time and mental energy to break a large project into a series of small, concrete manageable steps. Breaking a project down, so you can tackle it, as Anne Lamott says, "Bird By Bird."

Like many of the techniques I teach, this process is so simple and intuitive, people sometimes dismiss it. In some cases, I've had clients tell me that they're so busy and stretched thin, they simply don't have time to create an action plan! (To me, this is truly counterproductive, especially if they're feeling stuck.) 

More commonly, though, I think most creative folks simply don't think about this kind of thing. Maybe it seems like their artistic work should simply flow out of them fully formed, and needing to break it into steps is some sort of failure. Other times, it's just not a skill set they've taken the time to develop; or a skill set they have honed in other areas of their lives, and never thought to apply to their creative work. 

Whatever the reason, I strongly encourage any writer, director, producer, or anyone else who works in a creative field, to learn and implement this useful, specific skill. 

There are two key reasons that an action plan is so effective, one practical and one emotional. The practical reason is that it's efficient. If your life is crowded and you find yourself short on time, an action plan is an incredible tool to get the most out of the time you do have. 

The emotional reason is that it makes an ambitious project much less intimidating. Say your goal is to write a TV pilot that will change your life. That's pretty intimidating! Are you really going to write something that will change your life right now, in the next 30 minutes? It's a lot to ask... But what if, instead of writing a TV pilot that will change your life, your goal was something like: write 5 freehand pages about the inner life of your lead character; or revise the outline that you created last week; or write a rough first draft of two scenes; or spend 30 minutes revising a scene you wrote yesterday. 

All of those things are crucial steps towards writing a pilot that will change your life, but none of them, on their own, are that intimidating. They're manageable. And you don't have to focus any of your attention on anything outside of your control -- just on the thing or things you can actually do, today, to move you just one step closer to accomplishing that goal.

Exercise: Your Action Plan

Step One: Choose one of the main things that you want to accomplish that's inside your ability to control. For people in our business, this is often something you create --good examples might be writing a script, or directing a webseries, or creating a podcast.(Bad examples are the external results of doing the things NOT within your control, like getting a new manager, or getting staffed on a TV series, or winning an Oscar. All great ambitions, but wrong choices for an Action Plan.)

Step Two: Break the big goal into smaller steps. Ask yourself: If I didn't have to deal with any time-sucks and energy vampires, what are the steps I'd take to move myself closer to the goal? Of course, with something as complex and multifaceted as writing a script or creating a webseries, it's not going to be possible to figure out every step in advance. So just take some time and brainstorm some of the steps, as many as you can think of right now. 

By the end, maybe you'll have a handful of steps, or maybe you'll have thought of a hundred. Either way, great. But pay special attention to the next handful. If you haven't started yet, what are the first three steps you'd need to take to accomplish the goal? Or, if you're mid-process, what are the next three things you need to do, or even could do, to move you closer to where you want to be?

Now only spend a little time a day. Be really nice to yourself. Take no more than 30 minutes each day and do the task. This will chip away at the blocks to achieving your ultimate goal… If you do this consistently.

A Habit Chart: A Powerful Tool

One of the best ways I found is by using a habit chart. This helped me overcome my resistance to exercise.  I always knew I wanted, or more accurately, needed, to start exercising. It was a top priority. I knew it was important to my physical and emotional wellbeing, but... I just wasn't doing it. I’d start for one day, then a second... and then I’d just stop.My discipline would fizzle out.  And once again, I’d feel bad about myself. Like, “half of L.A. goes to yoga and Pilates class and I can’t even get myself to go on a walk every day?” It was a vicious cycle that left me disheartened and sometimes self-hating, and that lasted for almost five years.

Though it seems simple, the Habit Chart made a huge impact on my ability to move towards this goal. Since I love lists and accomplishing things and getting gold stars (hey I’m stuck in 2nd grade in some ways) it was satisfying to put an “X” in the square each time I took a step towards my goal.Pretty quickly, I realized that, even if I didn't want to exercise, I did want to put that little X in the square. At the end of 45 days (the amount of time many people say it takes to develop a habit) I looked at the chart and saw that there was an X on most days, which gave me an even deeper sense of satisfaction, and even happiness. By the end of 90 days, when I had filled out two whole charts, I realized my exercise routine had truly become a habit I did (and still do) without needing to think about it.This was a goal I'd been trying to accomplish for years… and using the Habit Chart, I finally did!

Using the Habit Chart with your Action Plan

Combining these two elements is pretty straightforward. Download the attached chart here. In the top blank, write your ongoing goal. Then, use your action plan to guide you in what steps to take each day. The action plan helps tell you what to do, and the Habit Chart keeps you consistent.  

Next, decide on some external reward you'll give yourself at the end of 45 days. Could be a one-day adventure, a massage (when the world opens up again) a new pair of shoes/sneakers, whatever will give you a tiny spark of motivation. 

Remind yourself, you’re just going to start doing your task 30 minutes a day. I promise you, anyone can find 30 minutes in their day.  Especially when you know you’re going to get a reward at the end of 45 days.  I know you can do it!

At the end of each day of work, take a look at your action plan. Do you have a good next step for tomorrow's work? If not, take the time to write down a one-sentence game plan for tomorrow.  

And if you find you’re not working consistently, go back to your time sucks and energy vampires. Are there things you’ve taken back into your life or haven’t eliminated yet? Go back to the “solution” section, of how to get rid of them: have someone else do it, let it go, because it’s not as important as getting unstuck.  

This is the end of my five-part series on getting unstuck. I hope you've found it helpful! If you'd like to take what I've taught here a few steps further, I encourage you to check out the full workshop workshop, described below. In the meantime, I wish you the very best of luck. Now “Get the Fuck Unstuck”!

The Seminar

The content of this series of articles is drawn from one of my most popular worship series, Getting the F*CK Unstuck©. Our August 2021 session is currently full, but I'll be offering this workshop again over Zoom early next year. If you're interested in being added to the waitlist, click here for more details. Also, have a look at my free e-book, Telling Your Story In 60 Seconds. And, if you think you'd benefit from one-on-one coaching with me, I'd love to connect with you; you can find more information on my private coaching packages here.