I Don’t Want to Write a Blog!

Apparently the title of this blog is true. I can’t even remember the last time I wrote a blog. In fact, after deciding with a friend (and fellow blogger) to write my blog it has taken me over a week to put it on my calendar. Then after deciding, “Today is the day!” it still took me over an hour to actually start writing because apparently determining whether Google Chrome was better than Microsoft Edge was very pressing. And then why couldn’t I get the touchscreen function to work on my windows 10 screen on Google Chrome.

I stopped one part of my blog series (on the Twelve Steps) 2/3 of the way through – after I got several great pieces of feedback about how people are using it to help their clients and their own recovery. Uhh….For sure I am going to finish that! And for those have actually been following it, sorry for the delay. 

Now here is the crazy thing. Writing this blog – from the time I started to writing to right until now when I am about to publish it took me exactly 30 minutes (9:13 a.m. pacific to 9:43 pacific). 30 minutes! 1 hour (60 minutes) to procrastinate. 1 week (10,080 minutes) to delay. And about five months (201,600 minutes) to whine about the fact that I wasn’t writing a blog and talk about how much I knew I needed to. Wow.

And I am a writer. Supposedly. I mean two books, one curriculum, and two more books on the way. That’s pretty good credentials to consider oneself a writer.

But you get the point. Actually sitting down and doing it took almost no time compared to the amount of time I thought about doing it. And apparently it doesn’t even have a lot to do with having done it once before. It is all about discipline and focus -which is difficult to implement and easy to lose. But even more than that it is simply about doing it. Taking action. If I really wanted to write a blog I would do it. I can come up with a thousand reasons but at the end of the day that is the only reason: I didn’t write a blog until now. And this is not news. It is not brilliant. Or original. Thousands have come to the same conclusion. And, yet, it persists.

What ultimately helped me was:

1) Telling on myself to friends
2) Asking for help
3) Coming up with a plan
4) Having an accountability partner to help with the implementation and
5) DOING IT!

So here is a question: What do YOU have in your life that you want or even need to do that you are not doing? Is it possible the time you are taking to think about it is far beyond the time it would take to actually do it or get a good start on it? My guess? YES. No shame. No judgment.

My advice (somewhat unsolicited): Do something like those 5 steps above. Doesn’t have to be the exact ones. Most important, from my perspective: Don’t do it alone. You don’t have to tackle it by yourself. In fact, attempting to tackle it by yourself is likely going to keep you stuck. If that weren’t the case don’t you think you would have done it already? Screw rugged individualism – because it is running us ragged!

There is ALWAYS going to be a reason to not do something. And you and I are not alone. Apparently this is a deep part of human nature. Just Google procrastination. Or overcoming procrastination. WHOA! There is a lot out there. Books. Blogs. Articles. Seminars.

So that’s it. My first blog in months. About not writing a blog.

Geeze, this was so easy I should probably write another blog tomorrow. NAH, I have those episodes of Blackish to catch up on. But probably after that. Next week. For sure I will add it to my calendar…probably Friday. If I’m not too busy. I think I am supposed to set up a lunch. Or yoga. Or practice music. Or……

And so it goes.

But if you want help with YOUR procrastination I have a new online course coming out that will help you with it. Only $39.95. It will be available as soon as I finish it.