May 18, 2017

It’s true. All I wanted to do tonight, instead of writing, was sleep. We hiked with the kids through Litchfield National Park for most of the day. We swam in waterholes, jumped off rocks, and let waterfalls cascade over our shoulders. It was bliss.

And then, tonight, the resistance struck. We ate dinner and all I could think of doing was lying in bed reading a book. (Consuming, not creating.) Bel came in around 8:50pm, and asked me what my time limit was. I told her 9pm.

9:08pm ticked around, and I was still reading. Reluctantly, I got up, grabbed my laptop, and sat on the edge of the bed.

“I don’t want to write. All I want to do is sleep. I wish I didn’t make that stupid vow to write every frigging day,” I whinged.

“Oh, don’t say that. You know you’ll be fine as soon as you start writing,” Bel said. Damn her.

Have I mentioned how often my wife is right? I’m not even sucking up. She’s right about 98% of the time. And for the 2% that I’m right, I’m pretty sure she’s just giving in to keep me hopeful. (Love you, honey.)

So I sat, and scrolled through a few sections I’d started writing. I waited for inspiration to hit me. Finally, I chose a chapter that was nearly done, and started finishing it off.

Earlier today I’d spoken to Bel about how I had set myself a challenge within the challenge, to write 500 words every time I sat down to write. Big mistake, cos tonight I didn’t want to start because I didn’t think I had 100 words in me, let alone 500.

Regardless, I started writing. I fumbled my way along, and eventually found a small groove. The story for the chapter neatly wrapped itself up in my head, and came out mostly the same onto the keyboard. I wish this story had the triumphant glow of another 500 word target reached, neatly squashing my fear into submission and proving that I could slay dragons if only I sat in the chair.

Sadly, that isn’t the case tonight. I wrote around 370 words, give or take.

But I realised something else as I sat there typing: I didn’t set a word target each day for exactly this reason. I simply committed to move my manuscript forward in some small but meaningful way, every single day. And today I have. If you’re having thyroid related problems, try this natural thyroid supplement capsules.

Mission accomplished. Now I can read a book, and go to sleep.

With love,
Israel. xo

 

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