This Isn't Any Fun

byterry6

233 followers

8 years ago

This isn’t any fun. It is a lot of work.,

“Tote that barge. Lift that bale’

It is all work and no fun. The boss is looking over your shoulder and you had better keep going or else…

Moving bales of cotton or whatever did not exactly inspire creativity. You used your muscles and tried not to think. As the song goes, if you thought a little and then had a few drinks you could go to jail.

This is not how writing can work.

You need a clear, active mind. Most of us are trying to work alone so we have no boss standing over our shoulder pushing us onward. All the good thoughts in the world will not finish our work unless we make ourselves do something.

Maybe once or twice we can put the nose to the grindstone and work, work, work.

But that does not really last very long. Before long we are dithering about and telling ourselves just how important it is that we finish something. And accomplishing less and less quite possibly with more and more stress and effort. Involved. Pretty soon this critically important thing we are trying to accomplish falls to the wayside like so many other important things already have.

This is where the self recrimination comes. There is also a leeriness about trying things in the future because of the bad results in the past. You are apparently going nowhere and much of the time we fall back on the blame game. It failed because of this, that, or some other reason.

It is so frustrating.

So often you will trudge onward for weeks or months and finally give it all up with no real results.

For the love of pete, realize you are not a machine that can be pushed and pushed.

It just does not work in the long run. Take it easy on yourself. You are only human.

It might seem trite to say lighten up on yourself and you will finally shed the reins that are holding you back.

A coworker of mine confided to me that he tried to think of the hundred thousand dollars or more test equipment we worked with as toys for him to play with. If he did not think in this way, within reason, he would probably be so afraid of breaking something that he would not be able to do the work that really needed to be done.

We have to get rid of those nagging little fears in the back of our minds.

They are holding us back and possibly causing the fatigue that can lead to failure. Lighten up and enjoy the writing experience. It is you who is writing all this neat stuff for others to enjoy or feel smarter over.

It is not a job like others have.

This is your thing that you should be proud of. You thought of stuff and put in little twists of wording that no one else would have thought of. Isn’t that neat? You should feel proud of yourself!

I will bet that if you can get yourself into a positive frame of mind you will even want to do more. Not have to do more because of a hovering deadline but because you really want to go on. When you finish you will feel good with yourself or at least be tired in a pleasant way.

This is a habit you should get into with your thinking.

Look for the positive side. Even give yourself silly little rewards to get yourself through some of the thickets that seem to show up.

Remember it is a habit you are trying to establish with your thinking.

Someone once said to me that a habit, to become established, can take 21 days or so.

It should be light work though.

How hard can it be convincing yourself that you want to enjoy what you are doing?

Give it a good try. Relieving the stress and pressure should make writing a pleasant experience to look forward to.