Tuesday Tips: Avoid Excuses

I keep trying to think of the things that really helped me become a published author. Some of them on the surface seem so simple, they are almost too obvious.

To say, "Avoid Excuses" is very simple and easy to say. It's not so easy to do.

Most aspiring writers I know need a lot of planets to align to get work done, much less finish a project. Here is the key piece of information everyone needs to know. You can't wait until you feel like it. Because this is the truth: 

You are never going to feel like it.

With me, there are only a few seconds that happen in my brain before the Excuse Engine fires up and talks me out of getting up from my warm bed or sitting down to write or going for a walk. My Excuse Engine was finally tuned over the prior 50 years to steer me to the path of least resistance.

I have learned to be decisive, to act, in that instant.

I never hit the snooze button. I get out of my warm bed early, even on weekends. I blog in the morning and work on fiction in the afternoon. I have learned to never give my brain a minute to consult the Excuse Engine because it always can find an excuse. As soon as an idea hits my mind, act, write it down, email myself, get up, do the thing!

Try this: Don't hit the snooze button. Get up right away. It will only suck for a few seconds that then you will be glad you did. There will be a subtle pride in yourself the whole day. It will start on a positive note. You will sleep better the next night. The snooze button is evil. It is stealing your life away, five minutes at a time.

--All you have to do is ACT before the Excuse Engine cranks up.