There’s always tomorrow.
Today I’d rather … Read a book … Watch TV … Go for a walk.
There’s no room on my desk for sketching, and I don’t feel like cleaning it right now.
I need to do more research before I start writing.
I’m too busy; I’ll have more time next week.
“Someday!”
The little demons who generate excuses not to start today never give up.
They never tire.
They never run out of ideas.
They never die.
Those alternately strident and whispering voices that insist there’s no need to start now, or that you can’t start now “because”…
And if you give them a place in your brain once, they’ll invite all their friends and take up permanent residence. It’s called “inertia”, and effectively it means that whatever you’re doing now you’ll tend to keep doing. If you’re in a habit of exercising your creativity, doing your art or music or writing, then that’s what you’ll naturally continue to do. But if you’ve made it a habit to listen to these voices of procrastination, then you will tend to continue.
It’s time for a creative exorcism! And it’s easier than you think.
The answer that silences them all
If you’re reading this blog, then you’ve probably already decided that you want to pursue your creative passion. You already know that’s what you’re designed to do, it’s what you desire, it’s what you’re destined for. There’s no question about whether you should be doing this, now you’re just trying to do it day-to-day and reach your creative goals.
Assuming this is true, then the answer to every procrastinatory excuse is simple:
There’s no time like the present!
I will never have another “today”.
I will live today so that tomorrow I will have no regrets.
Time is precious. It is the one thing that you can never, ever get back once it is gone. It is a river that flows in one direction, and its water can never be retrieved once it goes downstream. Lost. Gone forever.
How will you spend today? Next week you could have a stack of drawings to show for your efforts, or you could have nothing. At the end of the year, you could have a novel written, or you could still be telling your friends “Someday”.
As Picard says, “engage!”
A thousand excuses may come and ten thousand may clamor for your attention, but there really isn’t anything that can stop you once you decide that you’re going to do it.
It’s an act of your will.
A decision.
And once you decide, do not hesitate and do not delay.
Just do it!
And then just keep doing it!
Once you’re on a creative roll, you’ll do exactly that: keep rolling along. Then you’ll have inertia working for you. You’ll be in a habit of sketching every day or writing every night, and that’s a beautiful thing.
The challenge
I challenge you!
>throws down the proverbial gauntlet<
For 30 days, do your creative thing every day. Break the inertia of procrastination and establish a habit of creative production. Silence those voices, and every time you hear them again, tell them to shut up. You don’t have time to waste.
And don’t forget to enter a comment and share what you’ve done!
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