Follow your ebb and flow
I have another draft sitting somewhere in a digital dungeon. It’s supposed to go out before end of this week. But it’s not ready. The agonizing search for a clear way to express the idea and finalize the draft forced me to take the time and write to myself instead:
I ask that you follow your ebb and flow. You can’t force ideas out of yourself. You can’t quit either. But you can nudge the idea out of yourself by following your own rhythm.
Base the extent of your (in)action(s) on how inspired you are. Never force it. Follow it like the water following the terrain and makes itself into a pond or lake.
Never quit. Gently nudge yourself to the direction you’d like to go. Unable to write a draft? Write a word now, another when you feel inspired, and another after sometime. Few more words and you have a sentence, a paragraph, a whole story.
Inspirations lead to a state of disciplined pursuit of excellence. Until then, work with the bursts of inspiration.
Finding inspiration is overrated. You don’t need Pinterest or Instagram, or any digital devices for that matter. To find inspiration, you simply need to slow down. Stop checking your phone as soon as you wake up. Stop compulsively picking up your phone when it beeps only to end up doomscrolling. Slow down, take a deep breath, and take the first step. Literally go out for a walk. Feel the texture of the ground, notice what’s around you, the transience of it all.
Start there and follow yourself.