3 Easy Ways to Know If Today is a Good Day to Write
How to get out of your head and see the truth
Feelings are the ficklest thing in your life.
Mel Robbins says in her book The Five Second Rule that you’ll never feel like doing anything. That’s why the 5 second push is so powerful.
The process works like this:
Decide what you want to do.
Count down from 5 to 1.
Start.
But I don’t want to
If you didn’t sleep well last night, you don’t even want to get up and go to the bathroom.
You can only wait so long on that one.
Why set an alarm only to ignore it? And why stay in bed when what you want to do is write? At least that is what you told yourself last night. Your motivation was high. You were excited.
What happened?
Your dream turned into work.
Don’t get me wrong, dreams take work. Can you make the work fun? Can you see it another way?
Can you tell yourself “I get to” instead of “I have to”?
Here’s a life hack that can get you moving.
Set an appointment on your calendar. Make it daily. Find a time you can live with and don’t schedule anything else.
If you’re serious, add a penalty for missing the appointment.
When it hurts not to write, you’ll write more.
Now let’s look at some ways to see today as a good day to write.
You’re alive.
If you’re still breathing and can make it to your desk, awesome!
Plant yourself in that chair and enjoy the experience.
Make it fun to start with. Write about something you’re thankful for. Make a list of the top ten. It’s your choice. When you start your day on the right foot, every step after that will be stronger.
Remember, you’re not guaranteed tomorrow. Can you afford to wait?
Somebody needs your story now.
It’s your responsibility to write it.
You have ideas.
Research tells us we have over 70,000 thoughts a day.
There’s got to be some gold in there.
Take a few minutes to dump your thoughts on paper. You won’t use them all. Some you’ll save for later. Others you’ll throw away forever. You can’t do any of that without writing them down.
Keep an idea notebook. Add to it often. Consult it when you feel stumped. The mental grist of yesterday might feed your thought pool today.
With so many thoughts, there’s no way you can run out of ideas. The truth is you haven’t captured the ones you have.
Pick one of your ideas and write something. There’s no better day than today.
You have a story to tell.
Your life matters.
You have a unique combination of experience, education, and relationships. There are many stories you can tell. And there is an audience for every one of them.
We all love stories. Consider how long we’ve been writing novels and making movies. TV shows tell stories, no matter what the format.
Today is a great day to tell yours.
Now go write something. Then share it so others can enjoy it.