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Category: Being Action Oriented

Warning: Waiting For Inspiration Can Backfire

Published on February 25, 2021

“I’ve never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think that the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again.”

John Updike, via MoveMe Quotes

TicTok terrifies me. The first time I downloaded and opened the app, I lost an hour of my life in what felt like the blink of an eye—with all due respect to the creators. The pleasures of indulging in the app were so great that it felt like I lost consciousness and all sense of time. I haven’t opened the app since.

The same goes for video games. I tend to harbor an “all-in” type of personality. And when something captures my attention, it’s given my full and undivided attention. At one point in time, many years ago, I was “all-in” on video games. I once faked being sick so that I could skip school and play a new role-playing game (RPG) that I just got. I played for 16 hours straight, had Inception-type nightmares (that felt like they lasted years), woke up drenched in sweat, and quit—cold-turkey—immediately after. I haven’t played since.

Netflix even makes me nervous. The TV series that are available in today’s world, on-demand, are just too damn good. They’re literally designed to make you want to binge and they do a frighteningly good job at it. Each episode is exquisitely crafted to lead you right to the next and they only give you a few seconds to opt out of auto-play—RIGHT AFTER THEY LEAVE YOU AT A CLIFF. It’s preposterous. It’s brilliant. It’s why I keep my distance and only stream once (okay, sometimes twice) a week.

What scares me isn’t the act itself. It’s okay to TicTok, game out, and stream occasionally. What scares me is how easily time is lost to those outlets and how, if not careful, I could see myself losing a ton more time in a not-so-occasional way.

An hour in the blink of an eye? Is that really how I want to spend my hours? 16 hours straight without a break? I literally didn’t do anything else that day—not a single thing that contributed to myself or others. Binging an entire series? What about putting to words the series of my life?

My fear is that if I give these platforms an inch, they’ll take a mile—and it’s just not how I want to spend the miles of my life.

Finish Before You’re Done

Published on February 22, 2021

“I don’t believe in draining the reservoir, do you see? I believe in getting up from the typewriter, away from it, while I still have things to say.”

Henry Miller, via MoveMe Quotes

Finishing before you’re done is a hat-tip to the next session. It’s a gesture of goodwill passed on to your future self. It’s a recommitment to the process rather than an overcommitment to the moment. It comes from the understanding that burnout is real, overworking is counterproductive, replenishing the reservoir takes time, and overcoming the resistance to get back to work never gets easier. It’s a conscious decision to leave some fuel in the tank and to walk away before you’ve completely exhausted your resources so that the next time, you can arrive more ready.

And that’s exactly how it works for me. It happens often that I finish my daily writing and don’t feel done. I get urges to further proofread; to elaborate; to shorten; to rework analogies; to think of better opening and closing lines—and all, of course, right before I hit the publish button! But, rather than deplete all that I have, I save that excess energy for the next one. I recommit to my pace and set myself up for success the next day.

“Done,” for me, isn’t when I have nothing left to give—it’s when I have something good enough to share.

To which you might reply: the enemy of excellence is “good enough.” Be that as it may, what you also must consider is that the enemy of making progress is needing perfection. The need for a perfect writing entry; a perfect workout session; a perfect rehearsal; a perfect drawing; a perfect production—is precisely what’s going to make finishing and repeating the process impossible to do. Don’t confuse a desire for excellence with an unattainable aim at perfection.

This is why I usually stop my workouts once I’ve reached my 70% limit. It’s why I stopped trying to do too much with daily videos, pictures, and audio and decided to focus primarily on text. It’s why I’m able to walk away from my writing once I’ve crossed the threshold from crap to good enough and don’t bother trying for perfect. It’s also why I’m able to keep showing up day-in and day-out and why I usually don’t miss—because I don’t believe in draining the reservoir, do you see?