I heard earlier that a #1 best-selling book from the 90s was written in 11 days.

11.

The manuscript was a labor of love that the author created for family and friends, but at the end of the day, one of those friends shared the author’s work with an agent and the rest was history: it ended up becoming a movie.

All thanks to 11 days.

That’s not even two weeks’ time.

What can be done in 11 days? A lot.

You could drive across the country — twice. You could take a few three-day seminars. You could meet someone and get married (Vegas, anyone?). You could take a leisurely honeymoon and work on redefining the meaning of “relaxation.” You could lose a few pounds. You could take a cruise. You could get a bunch of tattoos. You could get a nose job and have most of your bruising gone by day 11. You could have a new house built for your family if you’re being featured on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. You could be about a third of the way towards develping a habit, if you believe it takes 30 days to form one.

So while I was on the beach in Maui a number of years back — not on a honeymoon, but definitely vegging with a cocktail in hand and white sand all around, someone was perhaps penning the next great best-seller-soon-to-be-turned-movie.

Sheesh.

I heard in an interview once that Jack Black wrote a screenplay in something like five days. That’s even more depressing.

When I heard that 11-day tidbit earlier, it really made me think about what I was doing 11 days ago, and what I could possibly do with the next 11. And imagine if I only slept, like, four or five hours a night (like I could ever deal on such little snoozage)…I could be unstoppable. Especially if I found time for a few power naps here and there.

Alas, we start, stop and start again, then stop once more, and consider starting back up all the time. I tend to have a number of unfinished projects at any given moment, and when I come up for air and look around at them all, I often wonder what my problem is. Why can’t I finish them? Why am I content to let a layer of dust take away their sparkly sheen that, once upon a time, had me captivated and up till all hours working on it? I have no answer; I probably never will.

But tonight I am thankful for the 11 day blurb that lit the fire within once again, and that made me realize that if someone can write something for family and friends that blows up into something big, just imagine what we could all do if we dared to put together a more definitive, deliberate plan for something we’d like to see take flight.