Just. Write.

Amanda, just write. Put words together. Type them out. Scrawl them on paper. Text yourself. Just. Write.

Why don’t we do more of the thing that burns inside us? We let work take over. Kiids, groceries, laundry, all push our passions to the back burner. And now as the holidays approach, our lists grow longer, and our days grow seemingly shorter.

Yes, I stop sometimes to just sit and rest. Sure, I steal an occasional half hour late at night to read a little of my book. Certainly, I spend my morning time wisely to ensure I have time for peace and prayer.

But writing. What’s holding me back?

I hear you shouldn’t wait to feel inspired. I’ve read that you need to write often to improve. I follow experts who say you just start, go with it, without fear of judgment, without concern for grammar and structure, without worry over how you’ll be received.

Then I look up, and it’s been a month since I’ve written anything other than policies, marketing copy, or some quick Facebook posts.

Then I turn around, and I’m justifying my failure to write by coming up with excuses for why I haven’t.

Then I put my phone down, and I marvel at how I spend more time reading about the how-to’s and best practices of writing than actually writing.

Then I dig deeper, and I realize I’m being perpetually insecure about my writing, quibbling over what topic might interest anybody, whining inside about it being haaaaard.

Oh, stop it.

Amanda, just write. Turn off the insecurity, the quibbling, and for heaven’s sake, the whining. Stop reading about it, and do it. Of course, it’s hard. If it was easy, everybody would be churning out blog posts, articles, and novels by the bazillion.

There are crap writers out there who believe in themselves more than you, getting actual writing jobs, chasing contracts, and self publishing books. Come on. You can do this.

Just do it. More. Often. Regardless.

Make it happen. Just. Write.

(Need your own brand of tough love? Go replace “writing” with “[insert your passion here]”. We can do this.)