Join Us at the Flourish By Finishing Lab in Portland

Editor's note: This is a guest post by Co Alvarez of the Wayfinding Academy.

I’m 22 years old and I’ve already started writing six books. My first novel began, “Saying goodbye to you was slow and draining, but all at once everything I needed to do.” I was 15 and it was titled “Ending You.”

I’m Co and I’m an intern at the Wayfinding Academy. Despite being an introvert and a creature of habit, I moved from my native California all the way to Portland, Oregon, after graduating from UC Santa Barbara. I knew I wanted to grow and to thrive and I needed new surroundings to do that in. I’m not saying it was sorcery, but it felt magical when I found myself at the doorstep of a new nonprofit college that’s on a mission to revolutionize higher education and dedicated to helping its students find their passions.

At a young age, I found solace in quiet indoor spaces. Loving books, and writing them, came naturally. Finishing them didn’t, unfortunately. I’ve never written past chapter 10, despite starting six books in the past seven years.

Now that 2017 is almost here, I’ve started asking myself questions like “How important is this creative journey for me? Why do I keep putting it off? How do I finish what I started?”

A simple answer is that life gets hazy. I love writing and I love books, but I can never justify committing time to writing when I have other, more pressing things to do. On my list of resolutions for 2017, re-committing to finishing a book takes the top spot.

We all think and we all dream, but unless we take concrete actions, our ideas don’t flourish. It’s easy to say that if it’s really important to you, you’ll finish it, and it’s easy to tell someone to “finish what you started.” But what about the tools to get there?

If you've been struggling with priorities, want to re-commit to a project, or simply want to learn how to align your work with your values, I invite you to join me in Flourish by Finishing, a Wayfinding Academy Lab Charlie is teaching and our first of 2017.

This four-part series will be hosted at the Wayfinding Academy in St. Johns (here in Portland). The Lab will cover how to align your goals with your values, set a theme for the year that makes decision-making easier, convert your ideas into doable, realistic goals, and turn these goals into a plan. At the end of this lab, you’ll have tools for managing your time and prioritizing your projects so you can finish the stuff that matters the most to you.

Your ideas aren’t too big; they just haven’t had the consistent implementation needed to match your ambitions. In the Flourish by Finishing Lab, you’ll get help with overcoming procrastination and analysis-paralysis.

The 12-hour Lab series begins on Wednesday, January 25th, with following sessions on February 1st, February 15th, and March 1st. Each session is from 6:30 to 9:30pm.

The truth is, it’s never too late to refresh your purpose, ask yourself the hard questions, and commit to growing. I’ve already returned to my favorite novel-in-progress and outlined what my next steps look like.

Whatever your project is and whatever your next steps need to be, this Lab will guide your way back to inspiration and momentum.

Productive Flourishing readers get 25% off their tickets with the code Flourishing2017.

To join a twelve-hour live series in a small classroom with Charlie would typically cost well over $1,000, but to support Wayfinding Academy and make it accessible to students (of all ages) in Portland, you can join for $90 with the code above. Whether you’re new to Charlie’s work or wanting to go deeper with it, this is a great opportunity to start 2017 off on the right foot.

Learn more and register now by clicking here.