Going Live - 7 steps to avoid procrastination and publish your blog.
When it comes to inspiration I have read it all. When it comes to actually putting my own material out there, well thats another story.
Making the decision to publish to me is mostly about accountability.
Making myself accountable to put my work, or lack of worth out there to compel me to actually work towards making it better and improving by writing, blogging and creating more content out in the world.
While being hyper aware that i’m beginning in such a non commercial fashion I do believe it is important to just start. Somehow, just starting has been the most difficult part of the whole process. Maybe because I am a little bit of a perfectionist and would accept putting out anything less than perfect into the world, and also partly because once i started i could no longer use the excuse for procrastinating on what really is the rest of my life.
According to Tim Pychyl, author of Solving the Procrastination Puzzle. The more averse you find a task, the more likely you are to procrastinate and the most likely reason you are still in procrastination land is because you find the task at hand one of the following:
Frustrating
Difficult
Ambiguous
Unstructured
Not intrinsically rewarding (you don’t find the process fun)
Lacking in personal meaning
So without further ado, here are my top 7 tips to getting off the creative procrastination train.
1 . Do it. no matter how rubbish you think it is. Take the first step.
Funnily enough this post is self fulfilling to me. Just starting something and getting it out there starts the momentum.
I have been sitting at a desk job for over 12 months working on this blog in my mind. The thing is thinking about something and just doing it are two different things!
If you are a perfectionist like me, understand that its probably not going to be as crap as you think it is, and even if it is you can always come back with wiser eyes and revise, re-write or delete (because you have so much more better content). This leads me into the next point
2. What someone else thinks of you is none of your business. So forget what they think.
Counter-intuitive i know, considering like me, i place so much importance on the thoughts of others or shudder what i have thought of others through my own lens. But the reality is, if you do not enjoy doing it for the sake of your own enrichment then if at the core of your creative output is external satisfaction then you’re unlikely to continue as external opinions change.
Another way to think about it is, at the end of the day, your tribe will find you. And if you evolve or create something that drifts away that is ok. Don’t let the fear of not fitting in control your creative outlet tap. After all, if someone in the world yucks your yum, remember that it shouldn’t make it any less tasty to you.
3. Understand why you’re doing it. Or what you are missing out on not doing it.
Remember why you wanted to start it. Or in terms of blog writing, what you wanted to share or achieve. What is the world missing out on if you don’t share it? Keeping that core reminder is important to re-energise to keep going, get started or to just to re-affirm why you do what you do.
4. Forgiveness
Don’t punish yourself for not doing it sooner. The thing is it will happen when it will happen. For me, being made redundant for the second time in 2 years took a little bit of processing. Did I deserve some time off to recollect my thoughts and to re-establish what i want in life? absofuckinglutely
Giving yourself the mental space to be in the right frame of mind is important. The best thing though, once you’ve given yourself this space the ideas will naturally come. And if they don’t, start writing or doing something unexpected. who knows where it may take you?
5. Commit to the momentum
They say practice makes perfect, but i remember an early music teacher saying perfect practice makes perfect.
I don’t know about you, but I do feel some ways about that statement. Practice can be practice. The joy of doing can be just as important as the joy of aiming for or achieving perfection.
For me, beginning to set some momentum became much more important than perfection. The paralysis of perfection inhibited me mentally from action. so commit to some momentum and whether perfect or not, you will later have plenty of material to work with, edit and refine.
6. Reflect.
Or more importantly, give yourself a pat on the back to acknowledge how far you have come.
It’s important to give kudos where kudos is due and nothing is better than positive self-affirmation.
Opposite to believing the negative self talk and what others say about you, appreciate the journey you have been on. Not only will this help future momentum but also give you the energy to keep going and being creative!
7. Pivot - do something different
Going on a tangent is fine. If anything it is quite healthy in avoiding boredom and providing us with the mental stimulation to get back on track, or even find another road you weren’t even expecting.
Sometimes you may find a new passion, a new love or a reason to re-affirm that you were on the right track the whole time. Its ok to try something new to reach a dead end just as its ok to try it and flourish in a whole new direction.
When I started this blog in my mind I had dreams and aspirations of exploring the world and writing just about travel and what to do and see in a purely commercial venture. Given that for the foreseeable future international travel is off the agenda (being Australian and country in effective lockdown) i’m pivoting mentally towards domestic travel, re-setting my life by buying a RV and road-tripping around Australia and renovating a house.
So after all, if you can just keep going, doing and enjoying yourself (for the most part), things will be alright and even more so, just by starting you have gotten off the procrastination train already!