At Any Cost

Problem: Life challenges you to do great things, but tempts you with the mediocre.

Solution: You must fight like hell to prioritize what you want to matter the most.

***

I closed the computer, turned off the phone, grabbed my pad of paper, and headed off for the Starbucks down the street. It was going to be one of “those days.”

Sometimes I sit down to write and find I have nothing to say. That’s not always a big deal; I don’t have to impress myself every day. But, when it starts to happen for too many days in a row, I have to take a step back and ask myself, “What’s really holding me back here?”

The answer is usually something silly. Often, it’s because I have too many ideas competing for my attention, and not enough focus to pick one and run with it.

Not creating is a coping mechanism for a head full of mediocre ideas. If I just read one more blog post, one more news brief, send one more witty tweet, then I’ll sit down and do the hard work.

Of course, by the time I do, the day has slipped away, and now it’s time for bed. Oops; guess I’ll try again tomorrow.

By the way, I’ve never been a fan of that saying: “The day got away from me.” The day never goes anywhere. It shows up faithfully—and stays put—every single day. We get away from it. We’re the unfaithful ones.

Life is a game, you see. It challenges us to do something great, but then tempts us with the mundane and average.

Since we’re creatures of habit, it doesn’t take more than a few distractions to create a whole new person.

If you’ve ever tried to create something yourself, you know very well how much easier it is to create a habit of doing nothing than it is to create one of doing something, anything. The resistance, as Steven Pressfield puts it, is strong. Back breaking, actually. When you’re trying to come back from a slump, it feels like all of your momentum is gone—like everything you’ve done before no longer counts, and now you have to start over again.  All of the sudden, the fear of creating something mediocre is overwhelming.

This is why I reject the idea of creating only when I’m inspired, and instead create on a rigid schedule. Because I cherish my momentum above all else. Even if nothing goes my way all week long, I can count on myself to publish two essays here. No matter how bad they are! That’s a rule I’ll never break. I know the consequences.

The truth is that creation of any kind is spectacular. It’s the frustrated idle who are mediocre.

So it is with this understanding that I sit down and battle myself to create even such a simple piece as this. It took me all day just to convince myself to write it, yet here I am, on schedule again. Over the deafening pleas screamed by the rest of life, I sit quietly and write.

Why? Because I know that those pleas will scream again tomorrow. I know that giving in to them will be just as easy. But creating? Creating will only get harder with each passing day that I don’t indulge it.

So, against all odds, I sit and write. At any cost.

How about you? What do you prioritize at any cost?

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Image by: brianjmatis