You Don't Need inspiration–You Need a Chair

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

–Stephen King 

The biggest myth we can buy into is that our favorite artists and creators are “geniuses” who are always inspired. We let movies and books construct idealistic images of artists and inventors–super cool depictions of people who smoke cigarettes, and have no kids, and who live in lofts, and wear their shirts a few buttons open. 

These idealistic images are just not real. Creative inspiration is fleeting. It’s not a prerequisite to creating something meaningful. The only prerequisite is sitting your ass down in a chair and working on something. Every day. 

People cling to the idea of “inspiration” because they don’t want to do the work. Creating when you’re inspired is easy and fun. But after a few hours, you’ll lose that inspiration. If you don’t keep going, your work goes unfinished. Do you think Stephen King, who has written 87 books was always inspired before he wrote? Definitely not. He just sat down and started typing. 

The image of the artist you have in your brain from that one movie is holding you back. Let it go. Replace it with yourself. Get a calendar. Commit to doing the work.

In fact, it’s the only way to reach your goals.

P.S. The gif at the top of this post is Stephen King. He’s a very normal person. Just like you.