Discipline as a Routine

I can’t put my finger on it, but through a confluence of events, I’ve found more discipline to write lately. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a lazy streak, but I’m getting better.  I started dissecting what happened but I couldn’t settle on any concrete reasons. Then I came across two posts this morning. One was by Chris Brogan titled Discipline and the other was by Mindy Holahan over at the Accidental Creative entitled Cultivating Deliberate Focus. These posts summarize what has been transpiring in my life.  But first, let’s look at what has helped get me to this point.

One thing I started doing recently was listening to the Back to Work podcast by Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin. Merlin is all over the map during their talks but he comes up with some nuggets of truth. Sometimes he turns into the Merlin that yells at people, nicknamed “Mean Merlin.” That’s the Merlin that resonates with me most often. “Mean Merlin” will often tell you to shut up and do the thing you’re scared of. Don’t think about all the ways things might go wrong. Shut off the TV and Facebook. Stop with all the productivity hacks. Stop complaining about how you wish you had time to do the thing you want to do. Shut up and do something. Another great Merlin quote is “No one’s going to eat you.” We can think of so many things that could go wrong. All these doomsday scenarios keep us from doing what we want to do. What’s the worst that could happen. I’m not going to die if I try and write a book. I just need to shut up and do something. Read more