As I mentioned recently in my post about pressure and resistance, I’ve had a hard time getting started lately. I’ll sit down to work, and then I get distracted. At the end of the day, I’ve accomplished nothing on my to do list.

I feel like an engine that won’t “catch.” Turn the key, it makes the right sounds to indicate that the engine is surely starting. But as soon as you stop turning the key… silence.

Fear of doing it wrong

Another piece of the resistance, in addition to rebelling against the pressure: I fear doing it wrong or not being able to finish.

• I dread writing for a while on a blog post and then losing enthusiasm and giving up.
• I’ll think about a section of my book proposal but then worry that it won’t go well or I won’t be able to complete it.

You know what guarantees that I will fail? Not starting.

It makes no sense. Not starting feels safer, even though it guarantees the outcome I don’t want. Why should it feel safer?

And yet, I’ve spent several days this month with the engine turning over but not catching.

Fortunately, yesterday was a good day. Got a (fairly long!) newsletter email written. Yay! And today has been good so far too. Taking the pressure off is helping.

Blank is easy, but not useful

I had to laugh when I saw this. Here are the search engine optimization (SEO) ratings from Yoast for a completely blank blog post:

I had to laugh. That post (or book!) you never write? Sure, as a blank page, it might be incredibly easy to read. And, not having any words, it is unlikely to offend.

But it’s not exactly going to be engaging to your readers. With driving, to get somewhere, you have to actually start the engine. In order to connect through the written word, you must start writing.