That energy leak is costing you money

Let's talk about energy leaks for a second.

Imagine you have a glass of wine with a small hole in the bottom. It’s your favorite grape from your favorite vineyard and is almost as old as you. You can’t truly enjoy that glass of fermented oaky goodness though because there’s a slow drip out the bottom. You’re constantly aware of it. You try to ignore it and drink the wine, which feels good for a second. 

Until you look down and discover a big wine stain in your lap.

Real talk: If you ever get a glass of wine with a hole in it, you’re either drunk or need to send that glass back to the bar. 

This leaky wine is a sad situation. And so is the leak in your energy when it comes to something you know you need to do and aren’t getting done. 

In my case, my clients bring me their writing energy leaks.

Writing energy leaks are those things that you've meant to write for the longest time. You've been putting them off. You put them on your list to do first thing on Monday. And at the end of the day on Monday, it doesn't happen. So you crossed it off and put it on the list to do for Tuesday. What happens on Tuesday? 

You guessed it —  it doesn't happen Monday or Tuesday — week after week. So you put it on the list for Friday. And then it still doesn't happen on Friday. So you resolve to get it done on the weekend. And there you are, all the sudden working on a weekend when you said you were going to relax. 

Naturally, the weekend rolls around, and you fill your time with everything but what you said you’d do. And guess what wakes you up at 3 am the next day? The energy leak.

That leak takes up small amounts of energy all day. And every time you think about it, you’re spending energy in a direction that gets you nowhere.

When people arrive at the Write Like a MOFO: Writers Gonna Write sessions, they sit down, declare their writing goal for the session, and for two focused hours, they write. 

Sure they could bugger off and go and scroll Instagram, but something magical happens when you block two hours (or more) a week, sit down with a dozen or so other people with writing to get done, and say you’re going to write something — you write. 

Even if you didn’t want to, once there’s nothing else to do, you may as well write. Often, members come to these sessions with a list of writing tasks that they need to complete, and they haven't been getting it done. And often, those tasks were at the top of their list every day. 

By the end of the session — and usually, much sooner, they cross off their most significant energy leak.

I can see the shift in their faces and in their energy. A heavy-feeling task has been nagging at them for the longest time, and when they finally do it, their faces soften, eyes relax, and suddenly they can breathe again.

This is the result of plugging your energy leaks.

It's that thing on your list that you know you need to do — but aren’t.

Maybe it's even something that you know for sure will push your business forward. Sometimes it's a pitch, a simple email, a guest blog post, or a sales page. 

What does that piece of writing cost you by leaving it unfinished?

My challenge for you today is to plug up one simple energy leak. Put a gorgeous cork in it.

It could even be something as simple as sending a follow-up email that you're not sure you want to send. It could be sending a pitch to be on a podcast that you're a little bit afraid to ask for. 

It could be a sales email you're not quite sure how it will land with your audience. There's one thing I can tell you for sure — sitting idle will get you leaky results.

Clearing up those writing energy leaks is as simple as putting a one hour on the calendar a week, committing, sitting down, and writing. 

Plug up that writing energy leak!

The Write Like a MOFO community doors open a few times each year.

Learn more about the community here. I was a writer who wasn't writing and had wine leaking all over my pants too — and I felt shitty about it. I want to cheer you on as you grow your body of work.