My biggest problem as a writer is I don’t write. “A writer writes,” my friend J.D. keeps telling me. I have lots of stories and ideas. But I also have a wife and two little girls and a job and friends all this comes first. Then there is so much to read and I have so much to write and then the perfectionism creeps in and so I don’t know where to begin and now I’m overwhelmed which leads to paralysis so I just turn on the t.v. and end up doing nothing.
I tell J.D. I can’t get it all done. So he shares this story:
A young boy went to spend the summer working on his grandfather’s farm. The grandfather took his grandson to the back pasture, which was covered with brush, trash, and old farm junk. “Your job this summer is to clean up this back pasture so we can till the soil and plant some seeds,” the grandfather said.
After the old man left, the young boy looked around at all that needed to be done and became overwhelmed. The pasture seemed so large, and the brush and junk so deep, that he had no idea where to begin. Completely overwhelmed, he sat down in one spot and spent the rest of the day trying to figure out where to begin.
The next day, he walked back out to the pasture and was again overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done. He again became paralyzed by not knowing where to begin, and so again he picked a spot, sat down, and spent the rest of the day thinking of what to do. This became the young boy’s routine every day for the next several weeks.
When it was almost time to plant the seeds, the grandfather went out to the back pasture to see what the boy had done. He was astonished and confused to see his grandson sitting on a pile of brush. None of the trash and junk was cleaned up, and the brush was thicker. “What happened?” the old man asked. His grandson became ashamed. “I didn’t know where to begin,” the boy replied, and he went on to tell his grandfather about being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start.
The grandfather looked at his grandson and said, “If you had just cleaned up the spot you sat on each day, your work would be done.”
I love this story because, as a young boy, I would spend parts of my summers (and most of my holidays) working with my grandfather on his farm. I also love this story because I’m trying to clear out a few pastures (my office, desk and inbox) and plant some seeds (write some stories).
So what are you trying to create or do that needs some pastures to be cleared, and what pile are you sitting on that you can start with right now?
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| My grandfather and I on the farm. |
