Do you want to drive the car or polish it?

Do you want to drive the car or polish it?

That’s the metaphor best-selling author Karl Ove Knausgaard uses to cure writer’s block. Writes Quartzy:

“Writer’s block, to the extent it exists, stems from a suspicion that your work may not be great, and a reluctance to face that fact. When you’re always polishing the car, as Knausgaard puts it, you never go anywhere. That means you won’t get in an accident or discover that the places in your imagination weren’t that great in reality, but it also means you can never find out what’s truly possible, what you are actually capable of accomplishing.”

Perfection is the work of the devil. If you want to go somewhere, you’re going to have to set a schedule and show up to work consistently.

The habit of writing daily is like practicing bicep curls or brushing your teeth, to the point you’ll feel empty when you don’t do it.

It is anticipation that’s the real mind killer. One would rather scratch the itch then toil in the inertia of what ifs?

Only when you start any activity does the fear dissipate. Remember Nelson Mandela’s motto: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

So set a daily goal and stick to it regardless of your excuses.