Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.
– Rosa Luxembourg
Every now and then, when I try to make changes in my life, I get stuck.
Actually if I’m being honest, this happens with just about every major change I’ve tried to make, every major project I’ve undergone. At some point things get thick, progress gets slow, results vary, and I stop feeling the warm glow of forward motion that makes it easy to keep working.
There are three areas where I’m currently stuck – unfortunately they’re three of the main areas I’m seeking improvement.
I’m stuck on a girl. I’m still fooling around, still meeting new girls, still working my game when I can, but this girl is occupying entirely too many of my thoughts. There’s not much forward motion to be had, here – she’s from out of town and neither of us are looking for anything serious. This is the one I’m least worried about, but even so: stuck.
I’m stuck on a blog. I read a ton – it keeps me motivated, keeps me improving, and keeps me from getting stale. Most recently I dove in to a fiction blog called Worm. It’s very entertaining, but it is LONG – I underestimated how long it would take me to get through, and I’ve been reading it for too long, now. I’m still enjoying it, but I can feel the lack of new ideas slowing my thoughts, killing my inspiration, and (practically) depriving me of new blog posts.
I’m stuck on this goddamned rap post. I’ve limited my ambition for now to just doing a half-decent (on-time, at least) cover of Eminem’s “Rabbit Run”, and it is REALLY hard. I can sing along to the song with lyrics with no or very few mistakes, but with the instrumental version, it’s tough to keep time and not miss any lines. It’s prevented me from working on the parody, working on other songs, and making more posts on the blog.
There’s really one main issue here, and it’s the lack of anything new. It doesn’t feel like I’m making progress, and that’s starting to sap my motivation.
But you’re not just here to read about problems, and I’m not just here to write about them. The key to getting unstuck, I think, is doubling down or quitting completely. Here’s how I’m doing it.
For all three, I’m writing this blog post. It’s not progress on any specific task, but it is progress. It’s work done, it’s something built, and just writing it now is already building energy.
The girl I’m waiting out. She’s in town temporarily, and once she’s gone, I think things will naturally fade. If not, expect a post about that next weekend.
Sunday afternoon I’m going to double down on Worm. Sit down and read it until it’s done. Since it’s fiction and unrelated to life improvement I won’t be reviewing it here, but once it’s done I can move on to something more productive. Expect a post announcing this, since it’ll be a small achievement on my part.
And, finally, the rap. Sunday I’m going to record my “Rabbit Run” absolutely regardless of how good it is, and post it here. By midnight. Either that will give me motivation to get it right once and for all, or I’ll post it wrong – either way I can move on. Expect a post announcing the next project.
Die Gallantly 