How do you start again -- start or restart anything? Any tips?
How does one start again? Recognizing that failing once is not failing forever. So often we fail, or do badly at something and we say "welp, that's that I guess." when It's something that is important, It's important to remember that you will fuck up and fail a lot. This is not directly related, per se, but this quote from Ira Glass sort of exemplifies the mindset I think more people need to adopt: A lot of us know, when we start... working out, let's say, that going once around the track is not enough to get Swole, but we can't do more. The "gap" that Glass is talking about exists here too, between what we know we need to do and what we can currently achieve.Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.
I think creating a ritual is important. So far in my life, the hardest thing to do consistently has been exercise. I try to go running 3 times a week, but really that's more of an ideal since something usually comes up to mess with my schedule. To get back into "the groove" I just keep my mind focused on the "high" you feel from exhaustion after a hard work out. I guilt myself by imagining me as a fat lazy blob who sits at his computer all day never leaving his basement apartment. But occasionally there are stretches of time where I am able to make it a ritual to get up at 7:00 am every other morning and go running before the sun gets too hot, and during those times it's never a question of "do I want to run today" because I just do it. I remember how great I felt two days ago and it's easy to do it again.
Nomi's Poem, sent as a response. How do you start again?
And again
And again
And again? When things settle down I'll start again.
Right now the horse is galloping
And I am holding on.
My energy is there
in the holding on.
When all this living, this jostling, jolting
canter through rapids
finds a quiet patch,
a prairie patch like the flat land where I was born
I'll maybe start again.
A birth
With words this time. Or maybe the muse
Or maybe Lil
Will come by gently
In the midst of the fiercest rapids,
With the smallest of questions.
I will hold on tight to the hurtling saddle
Headlong into the waters
And with one splashed word
tell her
"Soon.
Soon Lil."
And with your reminder
"Be brave.
Let the words be your navigator.
Splash your words
Like thin stars in the night sky.
Have them lead you to the quiet place.
Trust in the words
To bring you home",
I will murmur,
"Soon Lil.
Soon".
Started writing a comment but just couldn't finish. :) There is no replacement for doing. "There is no beauty but the beauty of action." -proverb.
Definitely something on our end. I am afk, headed to camping for two days. Perhaps forwardslash can have a look. FYI my troubleshooting messed up the #blog. tag, which I can't fix from my phone. If you re-edit, it will update to your personal tag. Hopefully FS can figure it out, otherwise I'll get it as soon as I return. Sorry about that.