Scatterbrained

For years I let this fester.

I got a new writing laptop this year and let it sit, for some unknown reason I was not ready. Why didn't the writing magically happen? The laptop is here, it is all setup, it is on a folding table by the couch, and I am ready to go - right?

Wrong.

Oh how wrong I was.

I had a 4-high shelf I was waiting on putting together, since I am on a home-improvement project here to replace all my shelves and reorganize years of junk in boxes. A lot needs to be gone through and gotten rid of, and it is just easier to have it all out and being able to sort and sift through the books and other assorted things in my garage.

So I put that new shelf to work. You shall not be for replacing nor sorting, what you shall be is a home for my imagination. I put the shelf together, found a perfect corner of my living room for the beautiful thing, and situated it right beside my favorite easy chair.

Then, I found every writing book, thesaurus, dictionary, grammar book, self-help book, reference guide, fashion books, and anything else I needed for crafting my trade and put it on that shelf - and that shelf alone. No other junk on there, just my tools and weapons of choice.

I have an entire shelf-full of great writing books, but I found them shoved around the house here and there, on a shelf in the hall, over there on the bottom in a bedroom, here and there, and none of them were in a really great spot to be pulled out and looked at - and certainly none of them were easily used and readily available when I needed them.

It is like buying one of those really nice tool sets from Costco and then putting every tool in a random and separate drawer and room of your house instead of keeping them together where you need them. These are just tools to fill junk drawers, guaranteed to piss you off in both never being able to find the right one, and also the dual curse of all that junk now taking up space in every damn drawer of the house.

What a mess.

How could you ever use tools like that?

Same with my writing books. And the new laptop and nice folding table went right on that easy chair, all my logins and accounts setup for one-click access, and every flat surface in the area cleaned and straightened up to look all pretty - so I don't have to stare at a coffee table full of junk and cords when I sit down to write. I do not expect to be writing about garbage dumps, so why should I have to look at one every time I want to relax and be creative?

And I found myself through this exercise to be more inspired and motivated than ever. It is not a game of "when I want to write now I have a place," it is "I have a place that makes me want to write."

A very subtle shift in tone there, but a critical one.

Never do things for "just in case you feel like doing it."

Do things that motivate you and inspire you to be your best.

And build the dream you wish to be in.