The Great Escape: Running Away from My Writing Responsibilities… Again

Confessions from a professional procrastinator

So, I did it again.

I took a break from writing.

Another break from writing.

This time? I didn’t mean or want to though.

I would like to say it has been nice, it hasn’t. I’ve allowed the inaction of my own decisions to lead me down a path of stress and annoyance.

Annoyance at myself, for not doing the things I had promised myself I would.

I had set myself a writing goal, a pretty straightforward one of writing every day, and how did I tackle that?

I took two weeks off.

Excellent.

Gold medal worthy.

Excuse after excuse

I’m going to give you all of my excuses in one go:

1. My laptop died on me and I couldn't bear the thought of writing on my phone. (I brought a MacBook though, does that make me a real writer now?)
2. My bathroom has been ripped out and replaced. We found a pretty major leak from our bath, which needed ripping out to fix the damage to the floor. With two young children who have a desire to constantly get dirty, it hasn’t been easy. On the plus side, my wife and I have talked about replacing our bathroom for a while, so we are both really happy with the end result.
3. I have been sitting here desperately trying to think of something else, but in truth that's it. Just the 2 excuses from me.

Basically, life got in the way.

For the last few days, I have been thinking about the need to get back to it. Get back to the place where I can spill my stresses and woes to the world.

The problem?

I have been completely overcome by inertia.

I had been sitting with my phone and I couldn't even bring myself to open the Medium app.

What I did do, was I opened up the Currys website and ordered myself a new MacBook on a decent black Friday deal.

I picked it up today, and I am very happy with it.

I am getting used to the differences with the Windows operating system, but I can tell already I will likely stick with Apple going forward.

Anyway, back to the point.

Before now, I couldn’t bring myself to write, I couldn’t even open the app.

All it took, was to open Medium, click on ‘Write’ and stare at the screen for 5 minutes.

Bang. Mentally I was back.

I began typing this post, and everything was coming back, all the stories I wanted to tell, flooding back into my mind.

A learning opportunity

I try to learn from everything I can, and this is no exception.

If I want to move forward with my writing, I need to learn to cope better when life comes crashing in.

The most successful writers are those who get the job done, no matter what.

We all like to think our own problems and issues are unique, but most of the time they aren’t.

I am not the first person trying to write, with a young family and a flooded bathroom. I might feel like my situation is special, but in reality, it’s not.

I didn’t stop going to the gym during this period, nor did the diet go out of the window.

I made a subconscious decision to stop writing, and that’s something I need to learn from.

The way I look at it, these periods where we aren’t at our best, are ok, they’re nothing more than a blip.

In order to become successful, I just need to put plans in place to minimize these blips, so they don't last as long, or come around as often.

That’s all it is really, building momentum with as many good days as possible so that when we have a bad day, it doesn't derail us.

So there it is.

My excuses.

I’m back. What did I miss?