DAY THREE—Reframings / Actions

Hello hello! Today is prompt three in my twelve-prompt regimen for taking on 2025 as a writer! Today we’re digging deeper into our reflective prompts to inspire and encourage us in the new year.

For this prompt, I want you to go back to the lessons you learned on day two and ask each of those lessons a question.

For example, one of my disappointments was “I didn’t do all my homework” and my big judgement of that disappointment was “I am a bad student.” When I thought about what was actually true about the situation though, I came to the conclusion that I’m a fine student—I just could use better time management. And possibly a faster reading speed. That was the lesson I took away from it.

How do we reframe lessons into action?

If I want the outcome to change, then I need to change my actions. Instead of saying “I am a bad student” and plowing ahead toward this semester with the same methodology I had last semester, I need to change my outcome by doing things different this time around. This is the purpose of reframing the big judgements and lessons from day two into doable actions. A game plan!

So for me, and the new semester, I’m going in with a different game plan. This time, I’ve got as many of my library books in advance as possible; I’m gonna print out the syllabus so I can cross homework off as I do it; and I will bracket out a few hours every day for homework where I put my phone in the other room so that I can have a daily routine where actual studying occurs.

Sometimes the actions you can take are within yourself, such as “I will spend less time cleaning the house and more time writing” and sometimes actions are asking other people for help. If you have people around who can help, you might coordinate with them to see how they can help you achieve your writing goals. Maybe that means setting boundaries about writing time. Maybe that means asking them to do a house chore you usually do so that you can focus more on writing.

So get your writing tools out and join on in—what changes can you make to your methods to give you a better chance of success in the new year?