A few years back, some friends and I shot a web series. It was about our lives at the theater company where we worked and no, it wasn’t very good.
I wrote an episode about dealing with writer’s block. The opening shot featured my desktop, including my favorite coffee mug at the time, which read, “Whenever work feels overwhelming, remember you’re going to die.”
This was something I used to motivate myself back then. “Better hurry up and get the work done now,” I’d tell myself. “Otherwise all those ideas just go with you when you’re gone.”
I try not to think like this so much anymore. Instead, I drink my morning coffee from a different mug.
Instead of rushing to beat the deadline of all deadlines, I’m now trying to see the trees instead of the forest. I wake up each day, sit down, and write. I focus on what I can get done today because today is all I have. “What can I contribute today?” I ask myself. “How can I improve today?”
I like this new coffee mug much better.
joshua chamberlain 