What to do when you don’t know where to start
30 minutes.
That’s all the time I give myself to write one of these articles.
30 minutes to think of a topic, write something out, try to make it flow (and make sense), find an image, think of a headline (if I haven’t already), and then hit publish. I’m in and out before I know it.
Wham bam thank you ma’am.
Sometimes, it feels effortless.
The words just flow.
A stream of consciousness takes over and makes it onto the page. No heavy lifting required.
But then there are times like today.
Not when I don’t want to write, but when I don’t know what to write about.
Know what I mean?
I made a commitment to do this every day. So I would get better. So I would sharpen my skills. So I would keep showing up when no one else would.
I knew it would be difficult when I started.
I knew I would feel like I was running out of things to say.
I knew there would be days when I felt like I had to force something out of me.
But I can’t let that stop me.
The trick is to power through it anyway — to just show up and get started.
And I think that’s a valuable lesson we can all learn from, especially if you’re someone who wants to create. Someone who wants to continuously get better at something. To sharpen your skills. Improve. And move closer to mastery.
If you want to get better at speaking but don’t have anything to say, say something anyway.
If you want to get better at painting but aren’t feeling inspired to paint, paint something anyway.
If you want get better at writing but don’t feel like you have anything to write about, write something. Anything. Just show up and do the work.
Oftentimes, inspiration to do the thing you want to do doesn’t come until you’re in the act of doing it.
I should know — I wasn’t inspired to write this.
But now that I’ve started, I can sure as hell tell you I’m inspired to finish.
My time is running out, though. 30 minutes come and gone.
I showed up and did the work, and it looks like I found something to say in the process.
If you don’t know where to start, start anywhere.
You’ll figure out where you’re going along the way.
Halt right there!
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