100 Ways To Motivate Yourself, Third Edition

74. Do something badly

Sometimes we don’t do things because we’re not sure we can do them well. We feel that we’re not in the mood or at the right energy level to do the task we have to do, so we put it off, or wait for inspiration to arrive.

The most commonly known example of this phenomenon is what writers call “writer’s block.” A mental barrier seems to set in that prevents a writer from writing. Sometimes it gets so severe that writers go to psychotherapists to get help for it. Many writers’ means of earning a living depends on its cure. The “block” (or lack of self-motivation) occurs not because the writer can’t write, but because the writer thinks he can’t write well. In other words, the writer thinks he doesn’t have the proper energy or ...