If you wait for the perfect moment when all is safe and assured, it may never arrive. Mountains will not be climbed, races won, or lasting happiness achieved.
French actor, singer, and dancer, Maurice Chevalier, was born on this day in 1888 (died 1972).
Circumstances are never perfect.
We can sit around waiting for everything to be just so, for the planets to align, for the check to clear…oh…wait…
I told you recently that I took a week off from the day job to clean out and reorganize my home office. I have done so, and I’m still quite pleased with the results.
I have a space for reading, for art, and of course for working on the computer.
What I didn’t manage to do was to create a perfect writing environment.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. This setup is pretty sweet. I’m surrounded by things that bring fond memories and things that inspire me. I did realize recently that I failed in establishing a place for a good nap.
But none of it inspires me to park my backside in my chair and write, write, write.
(points if you went for The Seagull reference)
No, that still takes discipline. And, if I didn’t have the discipline to do this when the office was a disaster, or when I didn’t have an iPad to take to a coffee shop, or when the chair or the lighting just wasn’t right, well, I’m not going to spend a lot of time doing what I need to do.
The days where I can’t wait to sit down and type away are few and far between.
Most of the time it’s a struggle to look at the screeen and to make my fingers work.
In other words, as much as I know this is what I’m supposed to be doing, it’s still work.
So, retiring from the day job, getting a new PC, having a beach retreat…all of those things are nice to think about.
But if I’m not writing here. I’m not going to write when I have those things.
Darn it.
There’s not going to be a perfect moment to climb that mountain of writing.
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