Be the Butterfly
Today, I was a kite, a butterfly, a rubber ball, a tiny, little paper boat floating down the stream of imagination. I didn’t let my needs dictate what I did. I just went with the flow. And you know what? I got a lot done.
I’m not trying to get you to shave your head and go meditate on a mountain. This is the real world where real stuff happens, but I am going to tell you something which may well make you think I’ve gone off my rocker.
For all the chatter I give you about believing in yourself and focusing on what you do and hitting deadlines and goals and not giving up, there is another component, and that is letting it all go. Let all of the distractions of what needs to get done. You need to be the Kung Fu Master who is existing in the simultaneous moments of being and not being, doing and not doing. What you’re looking for is transcendence and it’s not something words can truly encapsulate, but I’m brazen, so let’s give it a go.
If you’re a runner or have seen running, there is the point where it sucks (figuratively and literally), but you break through and you touch nirvana, you get a runner’s high where the whole world falls away and you are truly in the moment. Good writing can take you away like that as well. You get immersed in the doing and you forget about the white noise of reality–you don’t think about food, the cat, the cat’s food, or if it’s too hot or too cold or if the neighbor really needs to practice the same drum solo like he has done every spring for the past three years. It all falls away and you get to create.
You can gear yourself up for these writing sessions in a few ways:
1. Feed yourself.
2. Get done any little things weighing on your mind. Give yourself about 15 minutes to sort out the world. (Heck. I just did that before I started writing this post. I put on water to boil (for spaghetti) and put some chicken breasts in the oven. Time maximization and distraction eliminated in one fell swoop. That stuff took five minutes to prep and I come out ahead cause I’m not worrying about it hanging over my head.)
3. Go to the can. (I’m serious. Treat your writing session like a road trip. Go before you get in the car. You don’t want your frail, pitiable humanity to distract you, do you?) Every time you get up to stretch your legs, you should make the effort. Again, killing two birds with one break.
4. Have some water and a snack nearby. (Nothing major. Just a little something to keep up energy levels if you’re in the groove.)
5. Get to writing.
There you go, some facts I’ve never really seen addressed anywhere, but, if you’re human like me, you may find them useful.
Until next time, I bid you, dear reader, adieu!
