September 30, 2023

The Muse sees the butt in the chair

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Writing daily can be tough. I’m about three years into daily blogging, and I still struggle quite a bit. The difference now is that I don’t wait to be inspired.

Prior to 2020, I’d post “when I felt inspired”. This led to 14 posts in 2019, 9 in 2018, and similar numbers going back to 2004. I’d find small streaks of frequent posting, but it relied on random inspiration.

In his book “Turning Pro“, Steven Pressfield calls it out:

The professional does not wait for inspiration; he acts in anticipation of it. He knows that when the Muse sees his butt in the chair, she will deliver.

This can apply to most anything that you want to do. Simply digging in and doing it helps to get things going. That doesn’t mean it’s always easy, but I find that putting in the effort tends to lead to the inspiration much more consistently than the reverse.

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