Tag: #last90days

Learning to say goodbye

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I have been dreading the end of The Artist’s Way programme, so how do I learn to say goodbye?

#Creativity #Last90days

This is the blog I have been putting off writing, you may have noticed I have been writing my guides to doing the steps on The Artist’s Way Programme. This is partly because I think the Morning Pages and taking Artist’s Dates have been helpful, I also think I have been avoiding the inevitable, coming to the end.

As the final week ends, I am reflecting on the resistance that I feel to ending the whole process. This mirrors my continual revising of the ending of the book I am writing, which of course changes the start I come up with and continues the process of drafting for evermore. This may just be the way I write, though I would like to think that there may be a time where I am confident in the writing a story I have plotted, I have a feeling my tangents are part of my process. So why are ending so hard?

Change is the only constant, for one.

I had the opportunity to test out how difficult endings can be, I learnt that someone from my son’s school whole family had moved away over the Summer. As is typical, we had not seen them in the holidays, but I am sure my son would have been happy to see their little boy in his class again, as they have been in school together for the last three years. When I learnt the news, and that they had had to go with no notice, I was shocked. It threw me completely and I think I was far more upset than my son at the change.

Sometimes people move away. Liscensed under Creative Commons

I have a history of finding goodbyes challenging and have left schools suddenly myself, so I am sure like a lot of things, this linked back to childhood fears. Saying goodbye is something is you learn to do over and over. So I called the family and also helped out a little here. It felt good to get closure on this phase of my son’s life as well as my own. And I got some satisfaction that I was a good friend on his behalf. I think stopping to acknowledge parts of your life that are changing is very important. That this happened as I finished the programme is something the author Julia Cameron would call synchronicity and I am inclined to agree.

I know as I step off the cliff from the comfort of the programme, I have to carry on writing my pages and using Artist’s Dates. But I also have to get the work done. That is not to say that I will not revisit the programme or dip into the exercises but in a sense, I have done this programme all the way through for the first time. That should be celebrated. Early on in the book, Cameron says a lot of people drop out or resist the programme which in the main part I haven’t. Although I did avoid the digital and reading detox in week eight. I am in fact coming back to it now and will report back soon.

So, it must be acknowledged, I did it! I have found ways to adopt pages into morning although sometimes it means I snap at those around me to leave me alone. I notice if I have a bad day, I will find I haven’t done my pages in the morning. It’s become an essential lifeline. I can also say that I am writing though still not as regularly as I like. The next steps are making the goals into tangible steps and using the #last90days of the decade to really finish what I started. With this in mind, I have a new writing planner on excel including blogging schedules: mundane but necessary to try and use the time I do have to work efficiently.

But the goal of the final week of the programme is to “Recover a Sense of Faith.”And that means being surer that your life will lead you to where you need to be if you continue to work towards what you want. I am still uncertain, of course, but I think I approach doing my work with more confidence than before. And I think having insight into my resistance was a great way to uncover things for me. As I don’t like endings, as is clear, I will leave the post I didn’t want to write on a quote from this chapter:

“Life is meant to be an artist date. That’s why we were created.“

Julia Cameron

I would love to know if anyone else has completed The Artist’s Way programme, do you still use it, has it changed your life?

Renew Your Motivation

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Can you finish up the year even stronger than the start?


In The Artist’s Way Julia Cameron advises you to look for synchronicity. She believes, I think, that this is the Universe or a Creator is guiding us down a path of creativity. As I work through the last few weeks of the programme, I have become more attuned somehow to this sense of synchronicity. And it’s very pleasing when it happens.


I will be writing more about the final stages of my journey through her programme in the next few weeks but I did read when you finish up, she wants you to commit to 90 days more of writing Morning Pages and at least weekly Artist’s Dates. Well on the same day I read this, I spotted Rachel Hollis is promoting #last90days. A way to finish out the year even more motivated than you started it. It felt like I just had to give it a try.


The commitments she asks you to make seem to line up well with Cameron’s ideas but the main one I am going to focus on is to give myself that hour a day. I may not be able to use an hour every morning. I have shifted some of my to-do tasks as well Morning Pages to before school already. And I have written in my guide how challenging that can be. She is right that I could get up an hour early. This may well be one answer but as my son tends to be an early riser, I suspect it will be an hour divided.


There is something really invigorating about committing to a programme. Although I don’t like to cut out or restrict food, I think Hollis’ “Five to Thrive” are a reminder to take care of ourselves. I am going to using her prompts too as they send weekly emails and I think having a focus can be inspiring

From Rachel Hollis, the Five to Thrive commitments


The main reason though that I think it’s a good idea to amp up your motivation at this time of year is to get you through the slog of colder days and darker nights. Autumn may be my favourite season to write but Winter will follow quickly after and in setting ourselves up to end the year positively, I am preparing myself to feel the best that I can in the SAD season.


By writing about this commitment and sharing that I want to work on my writing an hour every day, I hope you will keep me accountable. Better yet, why not join me? I’d love to hear from anyone who is committing to a brilliant end to this year.