Every morning for the past few days, I plan to sit and jot down my thoughts sometime during the day. As the evening dawns and I sign off from my work without #writing anything, the weight of unpublished thoughts pulls me down. I console myself that there’s still night to come. I would be surrounded by silence and calmness. No distractions with everyone deep asleep. The perfect conditions for me to write.
Even though, I know very well that waiting for such perfect conditions is futile. The fact that I haven’t written anything these past few days proves the point again. I can never expect to get into the flow of writing if I wait for the conditions to be exactly right.
Seth Godin has succinctly captured this thought in his book The Practice.
We do the work, whether we feel like it or not, and then, without warning, flow can arise. Flow is a symptom of the work we’re doing, not the cause of it.
I write when I sit down and write. Not when I am thinking about writing. I have identified a process that works for me. I need to stick to it.
But should I write even if I don’t feel like writing? Hadn’t I read someone recommend never to write when I am tired? What if I am tired right now? You know what? The lazy in me loves to listen to others when it suits him. I need to shut him down. I need not overcomplicate things.
I love writing. I need to write. If it means, at times, I need to force myself to stare at a blank editor with a blinking cursor, so be it. Word will flow.
Plus it stops me from feeling like shit.