Wednesday, July 20, 2022

The Power of Showing Up

Writers will often cite something called Writer's Block as a reason they are unable to write. All artistic or creative people have felt something similar - the lack of a creative impulse. Or their "muse" went on vacation or something.

Seth Godin argues that Writer's Block isn't real. The problem isn't that you aren't coming up with good ideas, it's that you aren't coming up with enough bad ones. 

Isaac Asimov published 400 books(!) by getting up, going to his typewriter at 6:30 in the morning, and typing until noon. 

Every day. 

He said, "It doesn't matter if it's good nor not. I just got to keep typing."So subconsciously he was telling himself, "Well, if you're going to type anyway, you might as well type something good." And so something good came up. But he refused to bargain with the self-consious ever and say, "Oh, I'm dry. I'm getting up." Nope. Type.

What could you create if you would just show up and keep at it?

(For a great podcast on this, check out this week's Akimbo podcast with Seth Godin: "No such thing as writer's block")

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