A truckload of reasons to quit
There are hundreds of reasons not to do something. But the one reason that stands above them all is this: “I’m too busy.” It’s the king of all excuses—the one that kills our ambitions before they can get off the ground.
In his book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami chronicles his experience training for a marathon, while being a full-time author. He’s got to find a new assistant. He’s got to travel to give lectures at a university. He has to promote his new book, and write his next one. And he has to run.
“So I try, in the short amount of time I have, to take care of all these things as best I can,” Murakami writes. “And I have to keep up my running to prepare for the NYC Marathon. Even if there were two of me, I still couldn't do all that has to be done. No matter what, though, I keep up my running. Running every day is a kind of lifeline for me, so I'm not going to lay off or quit just because I'm busy. If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I'd never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit. All I can do is keep those few reasons nicely polished.”
I’m having a great time in the 15-Day Creative Consistency Challenge. We’ve got an awesome group of motivated creators, supporting each other and sharing creative work every day. Most importantly, even though they’re encountering hundreds of reasons to not do the work, they’re keeping their few reasons to do the work “nicely polished.”
This is an important lesson that creative consistency teaches you. Your mind seeks the path of least resistance, and thinks of so many reasons to keep you away from doing the work. If you let one of the few reasons to actually do something get dusty, or slip away, or if you negotiate with the mind for too long, it gets a foothold, and betrays you. You have to keep it up, as Murakami says. “No matter what, though, I keep up my running.”
No matter what, we need to keep the few reasons we have to do something strong.
P.S. Join the waitlist for the next cohort of the 15-Day Creative Consistency Challenge here. It starts up in the Spring. We’d love to have you.
