When the Brain Lies about Important Work.

I’m not “feeling it” today.

If your work or active project this week has you feeling like that… this is for you.

Work is personal.

I mean it requires something in you to come out. And that isn’t always easy.

Point in case: All the newsletter articles challenge me, they are not easy to create.

I face The Resistance every time I sit down to write these.

My process is messy.

I can tell myself this is art and I only see a blank canvas every time I open the document to write. I can tell myself this is not a good time, and I don’t feel inspired. Classic examples of The Resistance in action. I stare at the blank document and ask myself what’s the point?

I look at the clock and wonder when I should start.

The time ticks by. To the point where I finally look at the clock again to justify that now it’s too late to start. I wouldn’t even be able to finish if I tried. So why even start?

I dilly-dally and dawdle.

I feel a little dopamine hit from this wording despite how little value it gives you. It “feels good” to say that clever phrase instead of just admitting that I am procrastinating. I put it in anyway.

To burn the clock even more I entertain thoughts on “dilly-dally and dawdle” and do a google search or two on these words and reflect on being a kid and transcribing an abridged dictionary ‘for fun’… Doing this is not productive, but it has a feeling of control and pseudo-productiveness.

“I can do what I want.” I tell myself. The clock doesn’t control me nor does the blank canvas.

“I can just stop right now, no one will ever know.” It’ll just be another day that I didn’t send an email.

"My inner critic tells me to delete it all."

Boom. Digital dust. Gone.

Starting over is not even required, just delete… and stop.

And to further my justifications, like a cherry on top of my excuse Sundae, I replay times I have shared my writing with others only to be told nobody cares about my thoughts and ideas, or even if they do, they are too busy to read all this. 

“300 words of a nothing burger served up so far” I think to myself. Just delete it.

“A person’s attention and time is the greatest gift they can give” I think to myself, doubling down on how this is just a waste of your time and my time.

It’s painful. And there are pieces of truth in all this.

But.

I know that Sundays are the days when I write to you with my PS.

The PS is a “personal story”.

It means it is in fact, personal.

My hope is that you will slow down and chew on it. 

Ideally you will ask yourself; What is he trying to tell me? Why does this matter?

This is the day I take something out of the emotional vault of my body of work, not just the intellectual “know how” stuff I share other days of the week. Things I have wrestled with that are the personal stories tied to getting stuff done.

The personal story is intended to encourage you.

The personal story should be applicable to a situation in your life right now.

The personal story should reveal a pattern just beneath my specific details. After all my story is just icing on the cake, my sprinkles may differ, but the cake itself is universal – right?

The personal story should entertain to some degree, and help you see the real unvarnished me.

But, ultimately, the personal story should help you GSD.

Ha! GSD – getting stuff done.

I can’t help but chuckle as I share some of the principles that guide my Sunday writing process.

The irony is not lost on how I ‘need’ to GSD and yet I am doing anything and everything but GSD.

Until.

I come back to the reason for all this.