Showing Up to Write on My Worst Days
Why I write when I’m not in the mood.
“There will be good days and bad days. Days when you feel inspired and days when you want to walk off a bridge. (And some days when you can’t tell the difference.)”
-Austin Kleon, Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad
This story was inspired after reading Aman Arora’s “Should You Show Up Even on Your Worst Days?”
Some days it’s a struggle for me to find the strength and the enthusiasm to write anything, even my own name. I had my moments in the past, especially when I was suffering through some serious depressive bouts, but I wrote anyway regardless of if it was one sentence, telling myself “Something’s better than nothing, Bill.”
Writing is my passion, but it can also be a challenging experience when I’m not in the mood to write. Depression isn’t the only factor that’s negatively impacted my mood; financial woes, family drama, and stressful workdays have taken their toll on my enthusiasm and made me skip writing days.
If I wanted to take time off to not write, I’d be entitled to do so, right? A day or two, or maybe a week won’t kill me, would it? The world won’t come to an end if I gave myself a creative sabbatical from the pen and journal or my laptop.