Sunday, 12th of November. 

It was around 9 AM - the usual time I sit down to write on weekends. 

I had a clear idea of what I wanted to write about - and I was convinced it was going to be a banger. 

I sat down. Waited 3 minutes for my laptop to load so I could finally open Google Docs…

And I wrote the first line, exactly as I had it in my head. 

But when I read it, I realized it didn’t sound as good on the page as it sounded in my mind, so I scraped that. 

I sat back and tried to think of a better way to begin my essay. 

When I thought I had, I wrote it down…

But it was even worse than the first one. 

This scenario repeated multiple times…

Until I got so frustrated that I decided I was not going to write any lengthy intro as I planned. 

I’m going to go straight to the point. 

So I wrote the introductory sentence…

And at that point, I had zero capacity to continue writing.

Problem with Perfectionism

Not that I never finished writing that piece.

I barely even started, which was strange - I never had any problems with perfectionism as opposed to many other creators. 

But this time?

It was different. 

I felt paralyzed. 

Literally. I was almost on the edge of tears because of how helpless I felt. 

I felt like the writer that was inside me - a huge part of my personality - just left. 

Or at least got buried somewhere deep inside. 

I’m not sure what was the cause - maybe my expectations were ridiculously high. 

Maybe I spend too much time fantasizing about what am I going to write and less time doing what’s important: 

Writing. 

I’m not sure. 

But I knew that if I wanted to keep moving forward, I had to stop this. 

So I decided to do what any writer would do: 

Solve my own problems by writing an essay about it. 

Two Modes

John Mayer once said that there are two people inside you: 

The writer and the reader. 

Writer’s block is when the reader doesn’t love the writer. 

You see, the reader is very cruel. 

It’s critical of every word we write. It’s the part of me putting these ridiculous expectations of how is my piece supposed to look like that left me paralyzed. 

Of course, the reader’s mode is important. I’d say that both writer’s and reader’s modes are equally important. 

The problem with most people is that they’re unable to activate them at the right time, and that causes problems. 

When you’re a writer in the reader’s mode, you don’t give yourself to properly exploit your ideas, because you’re editing them before you even have them. 

When you’re a reader in the writer’s mode (speaking of reading your own work), you don’t give yourself to see your ideas in their full breadth, thus you can’t edit them properly. 

For most people, the former is a lot bigger issue. 

The thing is: 

Everyone has voices inside their heads telling them their work is not good enough. 

The difference between professionals and amateurs is that pro’s are better at ignoring those voices than anybody else. 

As Andrew Kirby once wrote: 

Every master was once a beginner who questioned his work, not his potential. 

The good news is that everyone has this crazy potential in themselves - and that’s no matter if you’re striving to be a musician, entrepreneur, or writer. 

But in order to fulfill the potential, you need to put in the reps. 

Reps after reps after reps. 

Over time, you’ll learn to laugh at this voice. You’ll catch yourself being completely detached from it. It won’t harness your progress anymore. 

The question is: 

How do you overcome it?

Three Greats, One Approach

Steven Pressfield would get up every single day to write for hours. 

In his book War of Art, he writes: 

“How many pages have I produced? I don't care. Were they any good? I don't care. All that counts is, that for this day, for this session, I have overcome resistance."

Gary Halbert, one of the greatest copywriters of all time, would always set a timer for 33:33, knowing that the only thing he could possibly do was to write - or stare at the wall, and pretty much anything else. 

He couldn’t get up to get a snack or to call a friend. 

And because he would get tired of staring at the wall after some time - he’d eventually start writing. 

Or take a look Isaac Asimov (guy who published more than books throughout his lifetime) , who would get up every single day at 6 to write until noon.

And again - he wouldn’t care about the quality of what he’s writing. 

But eventually, this would trick his subconscious mind into writing good stuff, because it would be really stupid to write bad stuff for multiple hours every single day. 

All of these creators have one thing in common: 

They all give themselves the to create junk. 

Julian Shapiro has this idea of the Creativity Faucet: 

“Visualize your creativity as a backed-up pipe of water. The first mile of piping is packed with wastewater. 

This wastewater must be emptied before the clear water arrives.

Because your pipe only has one faucet, there's no shortcut to achieving clarity other than first emptying the wastewater.

Let's apply this to creativity: At the beginning of a writing session, write out every bad idea that reflexively comes to mind. Instead of being self-critical and resisting these bad ideas, accept them.

Once the bad ideas are emptied, strong ideas begin to arrive.”

To wrap this up: 

No matter at what stage you are - you need reps.

The voices in your head don’t want to see you put in the work - that’s why they exist.

But with each step you take despite their efforts to hold you back, you make them weaker and weaker.

Belief in yourself rises. Resignation to the voices crashes.

I hope you enjoyed this piece.

But as selfish as it might sound - I also don’t really care.

All that matters is that for this day, and for this session, I have overcome Resistance. 

Talk on Sunday,

Claudia