John Grisham writes a new novel every year starting January 1st, writing 7 AM to noon daily for 1,000 words. The speaker argues that three months of consistent daily effort beats short-term attempts, using Grisham's disciplined routine as proof that showing up matters more than motivation.
Good morning, everyone. Here is your Moment of Yes for Monday morning, Monday, May 3rd. May the 3rd be with you. No, that doesn't work. Shoot. Tomorrow's May the 4th, but I don't do the video until the 5th. All right. May the 4th be with you. There you go. Hey, happy Monday, May 3rd. How's everyone doing? Hey, I was just listening to an interview, a podcast. It was with John Grisham, the author. Dan Levitar was interviewing him. John Grisham was one of the first books that I read on spring break when it rained for 2 weeks. I think it was The Firm. And I hated reading even though I was an English major. Hated reading for enjoyment. Was stuck inside, pre-internet. Read one of his books and then I was hooked. It was like book after book and then from there I just fell in love with reading for enjoyment, long story short anyway. So he's talking about his process. What is his process for writing? Now, he has written 45 books at this point, 28 New York Times bestsellers. And here's his process. Every January 1st, he starts a new novel. January 1st, he starts a new novel. He writes from 7 AM to noon every day, 5 hours. He aims for 1,000 words every day. And he says, I give it 3 months. I give the book 3 months. He does that every day for 3 months. After 3 months— He starts working with an editor and they really decide, is this something to pursue and publish and continue on? I just love that. I love that idea of having an idea, committing to it and like committing to it like full-time for 3 months because so often whether it's myself or working with others, someone will tell me, well, hey, I've been working on this. I'm just not seeing the results that I want. It's like, okay, all right. We can always look at the habit and go, can we tweak the habit? But really, okay, how long have you been working on this? And, uh, and is it just a matter of staying with it and waiting for the results? Again, I had a young soccer player come to me this week and he's like, hey, any other ideas of what can I— I can do? And this is a really, really good player. This is a young kid. And I was like, you're putting the time in every day. I see your intensity. I see your training. You're putting the time in every day. Trust the process. Keep doing it. Yeah, we can We can work on some mental things and we can work on— there's always new skills to develop, but trust the process and not always looking at the day-to-day or week-to-week results. I was just appreciating that. I was appreciating that commitment to doing something because we know like even writing a book, you're going to be really excited for the first week and after that you're like, oh, man. This is a slog of churning out a 400-page book. But it's, again, it's sticking to the process and having a structure around it, right? Every day, 7 to noon, he writes. Reminds me of Steven Pressfield, The War of Art. 5 hours every day and repeat and repeat and repeat and committing to it for 3 months. And then pulling out, making that bigger, wider view and saying, hey, how is this going? And at that point you go, this isn't working, the story isn't working, scrap it. Move on to another one, or you're like, okay, there's something here, let's continue on. But putting our head down, going to work, and for each of us, for today, as you guys reflect on what are the day-to-day habits and routines that you have created or cultivating, is there tweaking that needs to be done, or is there something that you've been yearning for, and are you ready to start that new commitment where you're going to put your head down, Go to work on it, and then maybe 3 months from now, see how you're doing. Yeah? All right, that's your little Monday motivation, little kickstart into creating a new habit or just continuing on with the habit that you already have. That's your moment of yes for today, everybody. Have a great day. Have a great day.
