What To Do When You Just Don’t Feel Like Writing

    Believe me… it happens. It happened to me tonight. I’ve been very busy, and like a lot of entrepreneurs, I’ve been so busy working to meet other people’s deadlines, I neglected to commit to my own. So now, it’s the 28th of the month, and I have about 3 hours to get this blog post written and posted. 

     I had a few good ideas for topics to write about, but they all needed more research than I had time for, so I added them to my blog-post idea list instead. This topic however, the topic of how to “get inspired” to write something meaningful when you’re not in the mood, I can definitely write about. 

     The first thing I usually do when I can’t come up with an idea is to head over to the Internet to see what other authors and editors are writing about. It doesn’t always work, but I might pick up a couple of ideas for future posts there. Sometimes I find a great post and repost it with an introduction explaining what I liked about it. The Internet did nothing for me tonight though.   

     What did provide me with the energy and inspiration to get writing was the book on the corner of my desk. It’s the proof copy of a book I just finished working on for a non-profit organization. It’s not a long book, only 58 pages, but it's full of pictures, and full color. I did all the work on this book; the layout, formatting, editing, cover, etc., and uploaded the final docs to Create Space (Amazon’s self-publishing channel) this past week. 

     The reason this book inspired me was because it reminded me of how important my successes and accomplishments are to my process, and then of how important your successes and accomplishments are to your process. No one can be inspired 24/7, and sometimes we get so caught up in the work we have in front of us that we forget about our biggest inspiration, all the people whose lives we’ve impacted in a positive way with our writing. For me, the book on the corner of my desk was a reminder of how amazing and wonderful it is for people when they finally get to hold their book in their hand, even if it is just 58 pages long.

     I don’t have to know what you’re writing about, how often you’re sharing your content, or what written format you’re using to share it, to know that one of the reasons you’re doing it is because you believe you have something of value to share. So the next time you’re sitting in front of your keyboard trying to remember why you decided to write in the first place, stop and think about someone you’ve helped with your writing. Think about how the person you helped might be able to help someone else in turn. 

     There’s no way to know how many people you’re going to help, inspire, educate, or entertain with your written words, or how many people might be inspired to take action because of them. But that’s what got you started writing in the first place… caring about what people might be able to think, do, and accomplish after they’ve read your words. Their success is your success. So the next time you’re having trouble getting motivated or inspired, think about those people. Remember that the obstacles you encounter are probably similar to the obstacles they encounter. Write about how you deal with one of those obstacles. That’s what I did here.