Sir Isaac Newton‘s first law of motion, that a body at rest tends to remain at rest and a body in motion tends to remain in motion unless acted upon by another force. My paraphrasing and current working philosophy: A body in motion tends to stay in motion. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. This applies to the mind also.
Where do you find motion? Where do you get a jumpstart?
There are key movies scenes that stick with me. When it comes to finding a jumpstart, motivation, overcoming writer’s block, there is one movie scene that lingers as practical advice, Finding Forester. In short, a young boy has trouble starting to write. Sean Connery’s character pulls out his book and says, “start writing until the words become your own.”
Wednesday, I published a podcast episode that lasted 40 minutes based on 3 paragraphs in “this one wild and precious life” by Sarah Wilson. Yesterday, one thing my daughter was doing created a blog post.
A few months ago, I was able to ask Dan Dougherty, creator of Beardo (HOME | beardo-comics) where he gets his ideas for his strip on “life”. Silly question, in retrospect. His answer was a variation of “the things that happen in my life” (my response, duh). Like anything else, it is a muscle. When you do something and keep doing it (a body/mind in motion), you train yourself to notice to pay attention.
Want to write but cannot think of anything. Grab and book and start writing. Want to record a podcast and cannot think of anything. Grab a book and start reading. Want to draw but cannot think of anything. Grab a book and start reading. Or think through your day. What did a boss do? A lady in line at the store. Something you heard in a podcast. Something your kid did. Something someone else’s kid did.
There is a world of things to block you from doing *blank*. Do not let that blind you to the worlds you could be creating.
Posted. Not Perfect.
A Vegan Father, navigating a non-vegan world.
A Better Father 