For some of us authors, getting started is the hardest thing.
And I don’t mean starting a new story. I mean sitting down and typing that first sentence of the day. Once I have that down, my writing tends to flow on most days.
And sometimes, I have to start over every two paragraphs, fighting the same old resistance. Then it’s like pulling teeth. I’m sure you know that feeling.
Here’s something important: It’s not you. It’s not laziness. And it’s most certainly not your fault.
This is a safety program at work.
It’s telling us that something isn’t right.
Distraction by other tasks
Your mind is probably still on other tasks, trying to remind you of things that need to get done. That can be everything from more marketing to doing your dishes to getting your files organized or calling your mom.
There are two ways of dealing with this.
- You can use willpower to force your focus. This will take time and energy, but it’s quite doable. I will show you some EFT below to make it easier.
- You can learn to deal with all those tasks in a structured way. This will take some time to set up, but it will clear the way to focused writing time whenever you plan to have it.
Get yourself organized
I’m reading a book right now that goes into a lot of detail to help you (and me) set up structures and systems to give us more time for focused work. Writing, in our case.
It’s called “Getting Things Done – the art of stress-free productivity” by David Allen.
The first task he’s setting us is to write out everything you “should” be doing. In order for this to be effective, we need a “capturing” tool. I’m using a notebook for writing down the things I’m thinking about, and I’m using Trello to keep track of it.
The next step is to simply sit down, look at one of those “shoulds” and decide which action is necessary for the next step. That’s all. Just the next step.
Of course, if you want to, you can break down something you “should do” into a bunch of little steps – and this is where Trello comes in as an awesome tool. I’ll probably post about that in an extra installment because it’s so helpful.
This is something you can’t just do before your next writing session, obviously.
And yet, maybe this is something to consider doing. Getting organized like this is certainly not a simple task, but it will give you better focused time in the future. It will calm down your brain and reduced all those reminders of stuff you need to do – because it all sits safely in Trello or in whichever system you decide to use.
What a relief!
Start that writing session anyway
Now, clearly you want to write now, and not next week after getting all this organizing done. And there’s this resistance which is frustrating and making you run to Facebook or play Solitaire, or even do your dishes.
We’re all familiar with that. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get books written, and that’s what we authors are about.
So the trick is to reduce that resistance, to reduce our mind’s clamor and find the focus to write anyway.
This is where EFT tapping comes in.
It’s the best way I know to calm down and to focus. It’s also a great way to get a handle on emotions and on resistance. There is material for you to learn how to use EFT on my website, under Free Stuff.
For today, I have some tapping phrases for you to get started on reducing that resistance.
Tapping phrases
Even though I feel such resistance to writing and it really makes it hard to get started, I am totally okay the way I am, and I know choose to calm my brain and focus on my writing.
Even though there so much resistance to sitting down and focusing on my writing, there’s so much to do and my brain is so cluttered with stuff, I’m still totally okay the way I am, and I now give myself permission to ignore that stuff for an hour or so while I write.
Even though I feel so much pressure to get so many things done that it’s hard to focus on my writing, I’m still totally okay the way I am, and I now choose to focus on my writing for an hour, and attend to some of those things later.
Your Turn
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*image source F. Möbius
PPS: I can help you overcome old limiting beliefs, mindset blocks and emotions like resistance, fear, frustration or sadness. EFT is the fastest way I know to shift limiting beliefs, old thought habits and other kinds of blocks. Click HERE and send me an email. Together, we’ll figure out how I can support you best.
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