I haven’t written an article for a few weeks now. I can easily blame it on the easy to see things: moving into a new apartment (it’s beautiful by the way), getting ready for school (sort of) and all the other things I have to do, but can’t seem to find the time to do it. Though those things do contribute to the overall stress I feel making it hard to be productive. I am just lying to myself about the main reason I have yet to produce something.
If I am being honest, I don’t have the motivation to write anything and it’s super scary. Why is it scary, you ask? Well, when you don’t even have the motivation to do the thing you love the most, the thing you want to do for the rest of your life, how are you supposed to find the motivation to do anything? Heavy stuff, I know.
A lot of the reason for my lack of motivation is that, as cheesy as it may sound, I really have no inspiration for a new article. Ode to dancers? Done it. Deep piece about my family? Done it. Sassy listicle about college life? Done it. Twice. I felt completely out of ideas, there was nothing that really made me want to write. That combined with stress was enough to leave me staring at my computer screen for hours with absolutely nothing on the page. I didn’t want to just put another article out there that has no substance behind it. I wanted to write something people would actually read and maybe even take something away from it. That’s the whole point in creating anyways, right? Creating something that someone (anyone, really) can take away something that resonates with them.
So here I am, week three as a confused and hungry (but, that’s beside the point…) writer trying to figure out what I am going to do. I run through the dry ideas in my head and can’t seem to get past the first sentence with any of them. Then on the morning of my deadline I sit and really make myself think about all the things that are bothering me right now. The only thing that comes to my mind is the fact that I can’t seem to write anything and I don’t know why.
Thus this article was born.
When I started this article (about 430 words ago) I was dreading everything. The time, the word count, the lack of inspiration. Yet as soon as I forced myself to start writing, things began to flow and I felt a little more like myself again. Before I knew it I was here, on the cusp of 500 words. Which doesn’t sound like a lot, but after about three weeks of zero words being written it couldn’t feel better.
In a span of one short article, an article that I started out with a simple truth and no idea where I was going, I have revived myself from the cripple of writer’s block. Is my writer's block completely cured? Probably not, but it's a start and that's really all I need.
How did I do it? I recognized I didn’t have the motivation and then I did it anyways. That is the key here. If you’ve made it this far in reading this article (thank you so much, by the way) then I am here to tell you this article isn’t just for writers who have no idea what they are doing. It’s for anyone who has lost the motivation to do the thing they love most. Whether that be choreographing a dance, getting up a six AM for football practice, finishing a new home improvement project or writing an article about not knowing what to write.
Everyone loses the spark they need to push forward every now and then, that's okay. But it is up to you to relight that spark. I want you to stop thinking about what you’re not doing and just do it. Wake up, get up, get going and do it. Even if it’s the last thing you want to do in that moment, you do it anyways.
The motivation will show up eventually, but first you have to.
Now get going.
