Some of you may know the brilliant writer and prankster, Derek Sivers. I'm a big fan.
In a recent note he wrote:
"When you experience someone else’s genius work, a little part of you feels, 'That’s what I could have, would have, and should have done!' Someone else did it. You didn’t. They fought the resistance. You gave in to distractions. They made it top priority. You said you’d get to it someday. They took the time. You meant to."
I have felt this so many times, and I know many of you have, too.
He goes on to say you now have two options when that happens:
1) give up, knowing you no longer need to do that thing, or
2) shut off your phone and all the other distractions, make it a priority, and start, today, putting in the hours.
"It takes many hours to make what you want to make. The hours don’t suddenly appear. You have to steal them from comfort."
I was really struck by this. Doing what's meaningful to you really comes down to stealing hours from more comfortable pursuits and habits. Creative projects are HARD. They don't just happen -- you have to consciously slate in the hours, which necessarily means taking hours away from Netflix, social media, and all the other online and offline stuff we all do.
The clock really is ticking.
Anyone up for a Q4 sprint toward something meaningful, something you've always wanted to do? Imagine closing out the year with three months of solid progress on this thing.
If you're comfortable sharing, I'd love to know what yours is.
