WRITING | LIFE
Sometimes the Hardest Thing Is Simply Opening Up the Platform
But once I click the “Write” button, everything gets easier.
These past few years, I’ve become aware of a problem that affects every area of my life — as well as how important it is to not let that problem stunt me.
That problem is, of course, that it’s harder to get started on something than it is to finish it.
This is true when it comes to my morning workouts. When I’m lying in bed at 6 am, the last thing I want to do is depart the comfort of my blankets to go do basketball drills followed by strength conditioning exercises — even though I know I’ll only be at the park for 45 minutes to an hour.
But once I’m at the park, I realize how quickly that hour breezes by, and I’m thankful that I made the short drive there to get it done.
The same problem rears its ugly head again at home, however.
I make coffee, turn my computer on, sit down, and…
There’s a pause, followed by discomfort.
Some days, I have a hard time even opening up Medium. The thought of doing so makes something churn in my stomach.
The truth is that I don’t want to have to look at all the trending articles written by people who are doing well and making six figures from their blog while I’m wondering how many more years are going to go by before one of my posts gets read by anything more than a few dozen people.
The truth is that sometimes I’m scared to even write anything at all because I’m not sure what’s going to flow out of my head and if it’s something I truly want to share with people — especially in today’s digitally volatile world.
And the truth is that I sometimes momentarily lose confidence in myself as a writer, or even as an interesting human being with a perspective worth sharing.
I ask myself, “What’s the point?”
But just like my workouts, once I finally open up Medium and click the “Write” button, everything gets easier. The whole process ends up being over hardly before I even feel like I’ve warmed up.
Then I’m motivated to put in even more effort because I pushed past the initial block that was causing such a hangup.
The lesson here is, of course, not to prevent yourself from getting started on something because it seems difficult.
It’s hardly ever as difficult as our minds make it out to be.
I realize how much writing has already done for my mental wellbeing and I take note of how much it’s improved since I began. I remember that, in the beginning, it felt like writing a 1,000-word post a day was nigh impossible, but now, it’s standard practice.
Then I start to think about how much better I will be a year from now, or three years, or five, or ten, or even twenty, and suddenly, everything gets put into perspective.
Cranking out 1,000 words (minus editing) is really no different than getting that hour-long workout done. It takes about the same amount of time (or less, depending on how the “flow” state goes).
In the grand scheme of things, spending an hour a day writing is only 1/24 of my total day, or, to use a more useful measurement, 1/16 of my total waking hours.
This post is an excellent example of what I mean.
I didn’t really want to write today.
Then the thought occurred to me.
“Why not just write about this feeling that’s constantly on your mind?”
And then boom!
Just like that, the feeling of discomfort that was preventing me from opening up Medium disappeared and words started flowing.
I’ve reflected a lot on this feeling these past few years, and I suspect I’ll continue to do so for many years to come. In the interest of being honest, I have to admit that I don’t think it will go away. It’s something we all have to make our peace with.
We do, however, have to make sure that we aren’t falling into the trap of letting this feeling win — even if we have to accept it to some degree.
You see, most of the time we sell ourselves short.
We mentally defeat ourselves before we even begin to make the attempt at getting something done. We abstractly conceive of the effort something takes, which makes it seem overwhelming to our mind, and this prevents us from taking the first step on the path to getting it done.
The reality, however, is that once we get our brain-body organism to start doing something — anything, really — related to the tasks at hand, we create and sustain our own momentum, and we’re able to surprise ourselves with how productive we can really be.
That’s true for my workouts, my blog, and even my regular day-hustle, Uber Eats.
Every time I miss a workout, it’s because I let that stupid feeling defeat me.
Every time I skip writing, it’s the same old story.
And don’t even get me started on Uber Eats.
It’s taken me five years to build a solid “gig economy” habit.
To be fair, it’s not easy driving around the same city for years on end for eight hours a day (or more). No one really wants to do that.
But that’s what I have to do. I need the money from Uber Eats to hold down my living expenses while I try to make something else work — hopefully, this blog.
The funny thing, however, is that once I get in the car and start my first delivery, it’s almost as if the shift is over before I know it.
I look at my earnings at the end of the day and see a solid $125–$200 (it varies a lot) and feel great about myself.
Then I wonder why I never wanted to get in the car in the first place.
The really great thing about my experience with working out, doing Uber Eats, and writing on Medium is that I’m able to cross-reference the experiences I have with each of them and the lessons they teach me about life.
The fact that I keep learning the same lesson in each of them gives me the confidence that there’s actually something to this perspective. It really is true that even difficult tasks become much easier if we just get started.
The problem itself proves itself a fiction when we take the first steps we need to overcome it. You can finally look right through it and see that it’s just mental smoke that disperses as soon as you take an actionable step in the direction of your dreams.
So yeah, maybe there are too many days when I don’t even want to open up a Medium tab.
But once I do, it’s a little easier to click that “Write” button.
And when I see an empty draft page, suddenly, everything starts to feel a whole lot better.