The following story appears in Nancy Dorrier’s and Paul Fetters’ new book, Stan Went Fishing. The 45 stories in the book, paired with Paul’s photography, stem from a writing practice Nancy and Dorrier Underwood share with executives to deal with their goals and challenges in powerful, resourceful ways. “Writing is a standard practice for us in having people discover their own wisdom and emerge as authentic, powerful leaders,” Nancy says.
Readers are finding themselves in the stories over and over. What can you see for yourself?
Write Today
Unencumbered of clothes,
CDs, books, shoes, papers —
even food in the cupboard,
files in the computer.
Make a long list of items,
and how many can I take off?
In a real emergency,
most all would come off,
never to get back on.
Get my tooth fixed.
Get my hearing checked.
Send out the boys’ March
schedule for guitar.
A writer is not an emergency,
and she will never happen with
all the odds and ends of doing.
Get fresh flowers.
Send a birthday card.
Have Palmer for dinner.
Clean out the clothes in the attic.
And the Christmas decorations.
Write Eric a thank you.
Edit the client plan.
Then at the bottom,
Go work out.
Write today.