Cutting into a pause

After a long pause from blogging it can be really difficult to get back to it. The same resistance is there for exercise or any other habit. Once the pattern is broken it becomes incredibly difficult to get going again.

Steven Pressfield wrote “The War of Art” in which he looks at all the issues that create resistance, and what we need to do to ensure that the creative habit is nurtured and sustained. There are some great messages in this book. For example, he distinguished between the amateur or hobbyist and the professional. The amateur waits for inspiration to get writing, the professional gets writing and finds the inspiration. It’s a message that others have made, but still valuable.

After a long break, the key thing is to just start, to get back to it. And above all else, to make sure that we don’t set the bar too high. It’s so easy to keep raising that bar, saying to ourselves “It’s been a while. The next thing I write (or paint or whatever) needs to be absolutely brilliant.

But we just need to do it. Like this example I am producing here. It’s good to be back…