Keeping your relationship with writing peaceful and productive means prioritizing it during your most energetic and focused times of day. I'm coining a new term for those times to get us into the right mindset for the work.

Getting writing done is a key component to the academic life, but it doesn't have to be a slog. Creating a positive relationship with your writing while also doing your best work is so much easier when you tune in to those times of your day when your energy and focus soar, and you're ready to take on the world.

Encouraging you to use those times and helping you find out when they are for you (everyone is different!) has always been a main tenet of my coaching. Up until now, I've been borrowing a term for these times during the day, but it wasn't quite fitting my vision anymore, so I coined a new one! Here's the backstory on what "tiger time" is, how I discovered it, and why I wanted to change it to better fit our needs as academic writers.

Tiger Time

When I was first building my business, I listened to a lot of entrepreneurial podcasts. One of them was "Online Marketing Made Easy" with Amy Porterfield. She had a lot of great information, but something that really resonated with me was her idea of "tiger time". She talked about using her best times of day, those when she was most focused, energized and driven, to tackle content creation.

This spoke to me, and as I have often done, I took this idea from the entrepreneurial world and molded it to help academics through my coaching business. Using the times during our week when we are freshest, most focused, have the most energy and drive really moves the needle for writing.

"I can move mountains between 7am and 11am." -Cathy Mazak

Time to Make a Change

As we've moved through 2020, it's become apparent that it's time for me to move away from using someone else's term, and specifically this term, for these focused times. Here's why:

Tiger King. People started asking me if tiger time had something to do with a show that has had a big moment in the pop culture spotlight in 2020. The answer to that question was a big NO.
Tiger Mom. People also began asking me if tiger time had something to do with a book called Tiger Mom. Again, no.
Academic Branding. I've been coaching you all on how to build your academic brands, and this presented an opportunity to do that myself. I want my coaching business to project a certain set of values, a certain image of how we go about writing. And it doesn't emphasize fierceness, or struggle in any way. Time to create something new!

"We created different ways...for people to create that feeling of drive and energy that we want them to have during their writing times." -Cathy Mazak

Soar States and Soar Sessions

In keeping with our vision, we wanted to give you aspirational words for the experience of finding, creating, and utilizing those feelings of energy, drive and creativity.

If you're not careful, your writing times can feel like slogging.

You write 10 words and delete 5.
You feel like you're walking through mud. Uphill.
All you want to do is stop.

But we want your writing time to feel like soaring.

You're not desperately flapping your wings to keep going, you're moving along peacefully, supported.
You aren't struggling, you're in flow.
Your forward motion is fast, and smooth.

So here it is! Our new term for those times when you are in a zone of creativity, energy and drive is: Soar States.

When you are utilizing your own personal Soar State you are experiencing a Soar Session. You're in the zone! Writing is flowing, and the work you produce is high quality.

Soar Sessions come about in two ways:

Tapping into your personal Soar States to take advantage of your most creative, energetic and focused times.
Co-writing. Writing in community with others helps create that sense of energy and drive at any time.

I can't wait to dive into these ideas with you as we continue to learn more about how to advance our careers through writing without burning out or breaking down!

"Think about the time of day that is your 'soar state'." -Cathy Mazak

Big News for Black Friday!

Our Navigate program will have a special enrollment period, from Black Friday to Cyber Monday! Special bonuses and extras for the first sign ups on Black Friday!

My podcast listeners are the first to get the chance to get on the waitlist to be notified when the doors open for sign ups, so don't wait!

Are you ready to put 2020 behind you, step into your power and create the career that you want? Take your writing strategy to the next level with Navigate.

Be the Phoenix rising from the ashes of 2020 and take control of your career in 2021!

Get on the waitlist here.

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This episode was first published at cathymazak.com/episode54.

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