Follow Directions

31 Days In October 

         My point is to let you know that we can carry over skills from
         previous projects and even bring along life skills from being 
              mothers, husbands, teachers, students to help us 
                                          accomplish our goals.

Day 6-

I have such a bad habit. I arrogantly believe that I can improve on someone else's instruction. Better yet, I sometimes discard the directions completely. I am moved to improvisation in all my learning pursuits. That's a bad thing. NO! Sometimes it's a good thing. I can improvise music on the piano. I've been improving on other people's compositions since I was eight years old.

But.......

In knitting, if you want to produce an object that looks exactly like the picture you have to follow the pattern. 

"Oh dear, I only have 99 stitches on the needle and my pattern says I should have 110."

First Response:

"That's okay. I'll decrease by 11 stitches on the next row.

Better Response:

I'll take out the stitches until I have the correct amount. 

TAKE OUT?

Now let's compare that to writing a novel. 

I knew the story. It was all in my head. The first day I launched into chapter one. It wasn't until I was in chapter four that I realized I didn't know where I was going. Should I go back and outline my book?

GO BACK? 

"An outline is the road map to your book. You wouldn’t think of driving anywhere without getting a list of all the roads and highways you need to take to get to your destination. The same is true with an outline for a book. A complete outline will be your road map to writing—and, more importantly, finishing—your book fast."

TCK Publishing

To be entirely honest, my default thinking is always improvisational. However, I know that following instructions will make the process simpler and more successful.

Next Day

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