Admitting it is the First Step...

The blank page is intimidating to me, it always has been. There’s all this space and I have to fill it up with words, my words. What if I can’t think of that many words? There’s all this potential in a blank page; it can be so many things: a play, a story, a song, a drawing, a paper airplane :). It can be nothing too, though, even easier. Blank pages have destroyed many writers, potential writers, illustrators, artists, musicians, you name it. A blank page, a blank canvas, an empty stage. All these things possess seemingly limitless potential and yet they can be the ruin of the same artists that might turn them into something dynamic and explosive and introspective and self-actualizing. 

For me, it’s always been difficult getting passed the first step, the blank page. If I can get passed that, the rest will happen, it may not be easy, but I’ve started the engine and I’m moving forward. It’s a different step, a different action for different people. For your gym-goers, it’s simply getting to the gym; after that, you might as well get a workout in, even if it isn’t the best one or the longest, at least you showed up and put in the work. For an artist it might be conceptualizing an idea; even if you don’t end up using that idea, maybe it gave birth to a different idea and that one put paint to canvas. For a writer maybe it’s figuring out who your main character is, or what their special talent or super power is, maybe that gets you started. With musicians it might be putting a melody to chords or vice versa and while you’re trying to marry those two ideas a rhythm pops into your head that bridges the gap. Inspiration can strike at any time and when it does, nothing can become something before you know it.

I don’t know when it will happen, but I know that if I’m not doing anything, not moving forward, the chances are next to nothing that I’ll get struck with an idea. But if I put words on the page, if I start drawing or painting, eventually it will become something. I have to start though; have to get over the initial intimidation of the blank page. I have to get passed the voices in my head, the ones telling me it may not be good enough, people won’t like it, it would be easier just to wait until later, you’ll be more awake later, you’ll feel more inspired later, you’ll have better ideas later, don’t do it now…if I can just start typing, put one word in front of another and get something on a page I’ve already won. If you can put one foot in front of the other and get yourself out of your house and into the gym, you’ve already won. Getting started sucks; no question, no argument. But if you don’t ever start you’ll never finish, and finishing; there’s not a better feeling than that in the world (insert sex joke here). The feeling of accomplishment, that you’ve overcome the resistance the procrastination and you stepped up to the plate. Whatever you do once you get there matters much less, because if you never step up, you’ll never even get a chance to hit a single let alone a home run. It’s true that you’ll never strike out either, you’ll never have to deal with an idea not being well-received by everyone, you’ll never be criticized, you’ll never be ridiculed. But you will also never get the opportunity to know how it feels to create something, to bare your heart and soul to the world and have people take notice. Criticism makes you better; ridicule comes from people jealous that they didn’t have the idea first, and if your initial idea strikes out, you have a much better idea of what’s coming next time, things you did wrong, mechanical or mental errors and the next time you come to the plate you’ll be better prepared for what’s to come.

Whatever you have a passion for, make time for it, nurture it, develop it. Don’t forget that there are things that exist here that don’t include work and money and stress. There are beautiful things too, things you can create, things that others have created that you can derive pleasure from. Don’t be too afraid to take the first step, it might be the best thing you ever do.