Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

After writing about how to do something, apply a reality check.

I write a lot. I have written several books that explain how to do things like manage projects and other human endeavors. There are lots of nice, neat formulas and techniques that I describe in the books. Towards the end of each description, I apply a reality check. The short conversation goes something like this:

Reality Checker: Oh yeah? Oh yeah, Dwayne? If this is so simple, why didn’t all of your projects work out just right? Get real!

Me: Oh. You’ve got a point there. Let me reconsider.

After this not-much-fun conversation, I reconsider all the wonderful things I have written. I then go back and describe instances when I actually did in real life what I described so well only to have everything collapse.

I do much of my this-is-how-to-do-it writing in blogs these days. I apply the reality check to the blog posts as well. I consult a lot these days. Yes, I apply the reality check to conversations in which I describe to people how to untangle their real-world problems.

Life isn’t as simple as books, blog posts, and conversations. There are all those people in real life who don’t show up in the books.

Try to apply the reality check.

Reality Checker: Oh yeah?

Me: Yeah. This will increase the time it takes to write anything. It will increase the pain and agony of writing. It will introduce doubts in your mind that you must wrestle and at times make you sound and feel like you don’t know anything. But do it anyways.