My number one trick

to START whatever project you want, instead of just thinking about it

Hello friends!

Hope you’ve had a fab week. I have! I’m not exactly sure WHY but for the past four weeks I’ve been “content.” It’s wild. Maybe it’s the twelve years of journaling, the ten years of therapy, the meditation practice, the daily exercise, the love of the foster dog I took in, or, maybe it’s just the Wellbutrin. Who can really say? Either way - I’m content and don’t want to question it too much lest it escapes me!

As you know, I’ve got a full blown journaling challenge goin’ on in The Glow Getters Journaling Club and I find that one of the main reasons people join the club is because it’s SO DANG difficult to start doing anything worthwhile. It’s almost like it’s easier to maintain a ritual and do it for years than to start and do it for the first time ever. So, I’d like to talk to you about a simple trick that has made a profound difference for me in starting anything…

Start Where You Are

I used to be terrified to start anything I wanted to start. I was happy to start something for others, a new role at Comedy Central, for example, but I was cold-sweat-style-scared to start writing a submission to a magazine, or a pilot script, or a book, or anything that was pure me. Instead of just sitting my ass down and writing - I would fret and worry and beat myself up. Why are you so lazy and bad that you can’t start? You’ll never achieve anything you want, you’re doomed. You’re also too old! I’d think to myself. And the more I psyched myself out with guilt and worry that I hadn’t started yet, the more difficult it became to start because now I had a whole complex around whatever project I was considering.

Now, having trouble starting is not a thing for me. At all. I have NO problem starting anything (sort of annoying to tell you - I know). How did I achieve this? I’m so glad you asked…

My Number 1 Trick to Start Anything:

I don’t remember WHERE in the world I picked this up, I feel like it was probably in an Artist’s Way inspired fugue state, but when I sit down to write, or do anything creative, here’s what I do:

• I sit down at my desk (or wherever I’m going to work)

• I close my eyes

• I imagine I have a cardboard paper box on my desk

• Into the open box, I put the words “good” and “interesting.”

• I put the flaps down and tape the box shut

• I shove the imaginary box off of my desk

• .This reminds me that “good” and “interesting” are none of my GD business. The only thing I need to do is SHOW UP AND WORK so that I have half a chance of anything ever becoming good or interesting!

Now maybe those words “good” and “interesting” aren’t hang ups to you. Maybe your words are “helpful” and “perfect,” or “successful” and “respected,” or “money making” and “innovative,” but we all have unfounded expectations and fears about what our newest venture will bring us (be it in business, relationships, or in a creative endeavor). And it’s those future thoughts of how things might work out, way down the road, that stop us dead in our tracks. We see the path ahead of us and it looks unpaved, steep, and full of switch backs. Why would we want to drive up that?

When we think too much about the future, we make the future all but impossible because we stop ourselves from moving forward. This is about writing but this also about everything. If we think too much about finding love, we don’t actually go out and seek it with a brave and open heart. If we think too much about proving ourselves to our bosses, we act in weird, see-through ways that get us negative attention. If we are desperate for a Britney Spears “Slave 4 U” body but have not been to the gym in a decade, we bum ourselves out before we’ve even put on our sports bra (or jock strap, is that still a thing?). So let’s actually make our dreams possible by figuring out what ideas are getting in the way of what we want to do, sealing them in a box, and letting that shit go.

Do you have any tricks for you just START? Have you tried my example above? Let me know in the comments. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Testify

Your questions, comments, triumphs, heartaches, adventures, and insights. All of it is welcome here. I love featuring your art, journals, and pictures of triumph! Please send ‘em along! (Submissions lightly edited for brevity.)

• A reader who’s doing the damn thing:

  “4/4 [days of journaling] as of this morning. It's been fun and weird and wild and I'm loving it. ️ You got this friends!” -Steph

• My Journaler of the Week who proves starting late is better than never starting at all:

  

• A DM that brought tears to my eyes:

-Morgan