We all carry a lot of stuff with us. Our houses are full of junk that only seems to multiply, despite our best efforts to get rid of it.
And even if you don’t have a life full of physical things, you likely have more than your share of mental baggage.
And all that clutter loves to get in the way of our writing.
I brought this pile of nap time and outdoor things home from my daughter's preschool in the spring of 2020. I washed it and folded it and left it in this very neat pile, hoping that she would use it again that year. Spoiler alert: it did not move.
And so our piles of stuff migrate from the literal to the metaphorical. From a pile of physical things to all the hurdles out there in the world that get stuck in our brains. The stuff moves easily from our conscious to our subconscious. And when our beautiful words are trying to migrate from our brains to our fingertips, they get lost in the maze of thoughts and worries and anxieties and a mile-long to-do list we know we will never finish.
Just write anyway.
Seriously. Pick up a pen in the midst of it all and just start to create.
If you don’t, the project that you’ve been putting off until now will sit in a corner of your brain until the kids go back to school. Or until next year. Or until a decade from now. Because between now and that "someday," there will be a million other reasons not to write.
When you give yourself permission to write through difficult times and in the midst of all the clutter, you’re also giving yourself permission to write crap. Total crap. You’re not writing the next great American novel or the perfect sales funnel or even a final product. You don’t even need to write complete thoughts or sentences.
Just start writing.
Today, you’re just writing whatever random, seemingly unconnected thoughts come to mind. Tomorrow? That’s unwritten. Some of the best content has started with horrible writing. Because when you allow yourself to create in a mindset where you otherwise wouldn’t, new thoughts and ideas are discovered that never would have come to light otherwise.
Today, give yourself the gift of writing badly.
Just start writing.
How have you broken free of a mind full of clutter? Inspire others by sharing your best tips in the comments.
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