Some sage advice (as almost always) from Seth Godin – which can be summed up as “write, and continue to do so, until you write better”.
I’ve always dreamed of being a writer, and on occasion I’ve even done so successfully (I count being paid to write as being more of a successful writer than most aspiring writers), but I’ve never had the true commitment to it to as a career.
In fact, most of what I do daily is writing, but too much of it is unstructured and rushed – replies to email, quick jotted notes for things I need to do, ideas for the future etc. I’d like that to change, but the only way for that to happen is for me to write! To deliberately make time to actually sit and let the words flow onto the page (figuratively speaking, as what I really mean is for the words to form by me pressing little plastic keys on my laptop and them, in turn, being displayed on a backlit screen).
This is the challenge, for it is not really the words that are lacking – anyone can write, you just need to actually do it – but it’s the motivation. It’s all too easy to just sit back and do nothing – if you work hard, and end up tired every day, it’s easy to use tiredness as an excuse to just ‘veg out’ – rather than motivate yourself to do something that you believe you love doing.
If you don’t actually do x, then no matter how much you say it, you aren’t x. If you say you love climbing, but never go out and climb (and believe me, the motivation to keep doing that is sometimes really hard to come by), then you’ll never be a climber. If you say you love writing, but don’t motivate yourself to write, you’ll never be a writer.
So, I have two choices: I can accept that I won’t ever be a writer (or keep fooling myself that one day I’ll do it), or I can get on with it, and write, consistently and even when I don’t feel like it, even when I feel as if I have nothing to say.
So, this is me, writing. Let’s see if I can keep it up. As Seth Godin said here “Self motivation is and always will be the most important form of motivation.” Time is a commodity we can always find, but motivation can only come from within, and that’s a daily choice.
