I used to have writer’s block.

Bad.

I couldn’t write ANYTHING at all.

I’d stare at the white screen for what seemed like hours and then I’d soon after QUIT in defeat.

One moment I wrote works of staggering beauty and genius, the next moment I was paralyzed with fear.

“Oh good golly, what if the writing isn’t good enough?!”

What happened?

How did I go from the #1 greatest to the flat out weakest in the blink of an eye?

Fear happened.

Fear is the absolute #1 killer of creativity.

It isn’t that we actually run out of things to say, it’s that we become frightened of saying literally ANYTHING.

In my own case two things contributed to this fear.

I felt I had written a complete work of art and that anything else I wrote would take away from it
I was making a TON of money and I was scared of changing ANYTHING and messing up the gravy train

So how did I overcome these fears?

It took a long time, actually.

And even when I did start writing again it was extremely sporadic.

I languished in “writer’s block” for what seems like an absolute eternity.

Publishing here and there, but NEVER producing the quantity of work that I REALLY actually wanted to.

I let myself be controlled by the fear.

It wasn’t until I actually understood the fear that I learned EXACTLY how to control it.

We have to understand that fear is only mental, and the mental can actually be systematically controlled.

Like the Buddha said, “The mind is everything. What you think, you become.”

I decided to become GREAT again.

I decided to be in CONTROL of my own mind.

I committed to writing an article EVERY DAY for 30 days.

In the process I learned that writing an article isn’t hard at all… it’s actually rather quite EASY.

It’s easier than easy. It’s REALLY quite a breeze.

The hard part is committing to actually writing the article.

Once you have committed to writing the article, it becomes easier than easy.

But what happens before commitment?

I have ideas for articles all the time – constantly!

I always have SOMETHING that I WANT to actually SAY.

But SOMETHING seemed to always suddenly STOP me…

I would sit down to write down the title and a few notes but then the mind would say, “That’s enough for now, you can quit writing right now and finish this later.”

This voice is the voice of self-sabotage.

There is NEVER no later.

Committing to writing later is like committing to NEVER even writing it to begin with.

This is what the writer has to overcome, this liar voice that says that YOU can very simply DO IT later.

No!

If you want to do the work, you MUST do it RIGHT NOW when it is STILL fresh in your mind.

It will NEVER ever happen “later.”

The hard part is not writing, and there is no writer’s block.

The hard part is simply sitting down and committing to actually writing the words.

DO THE WORK!

I’ll do the work step by step.

I’ll write down the title and I’ll write down some bullet-points.

The mind will say “this is enough” but I will force myself just to continue.

I will flesh out some MORE bullet points.

Again the mind will say “this is enough” but I will continue to flesh out even MORE bullet points.

At this point the article is garbage and it’s EASY to WANT to QUIT.

But I KEEP ON going.

I flesh out MORE of the article, bit by bit.

Eventually the article that was once garbage starts to become quite GOOD.

I become glad that I did not QUIT, but again the mind will say “this is enough for now, finish it later” but I do NOT ever listen.

This is the voice of self-sabotage!

Don’t listen to that liar voice. Keep writing.

Eventually you will have started from NOTHING and ended up with a completed piece of work.

This work did NOT exist two hours ago and the mind told you to quit, but you didn’t listen.

You continued writing in spite of the voice telling you to quit and in two hours you made magic happen.

You created SOMETHING out of literally NOTHING, like an alchemist or a wizard.

DON’T LISTEN TO THE LIES OF THE MIND

Buddhists have long known that the mind is a liar.

Just because we THINK something doesn’t mean that it is true.

This voice of the mind is NOT the voice of intuition.

Intuition comes from the gut, not from the mind.

Often, what we THINK is the opposite of what is true and good.

The mind is the saboteur.

Writer’s always think “that’s good enough, I’ll finish it later” but this is a lie – it is almost NEVER finished later.

The work has to be done RIGHT NOW while it’s STILL fresh in your mind.

The longer you wait, the less chance that you will ever get it done.

I often say that friends and family will try to get you to QUIT and live a normal life and NOT be creative…

…but the reality is that friends and family are hardly the barrier to success.

The harsh reality is that YOU are the #1 barrier to your own SUCCESS.

If you CANNOT break past this barrier, then YOU will NEVER achieve SUCCESS in any field.

The mind will ALWAYS try to GET YOU to quit.

Quitting cannot be blamed on friends and family, quitting rests firmly on your own shoulders.

CONTROL YOUR MIND USING MIND CONTROL

The mind will try to poison you at every single turn.

This is WHY we respect successful entrepreneurs SO much…

Not because they are such wonderful inventors or businessmen, but because they have the ultimate power of will over the mind.

Because IF they can conquer their own minds, they can conquer absolutely ANYTHING which life might throw at them.

Creation is a triumph of the will over the mind.

We have to remember that it isn’t the mind that gives us SUCCESS.

Success is actually mindless – it is pure WILL that gives us success.

The mind rather just simply… gets in the way.

**Don’t be mindful! Be mindless! Empty your mind like Bruce Lee’s water.**

Kill the mind and work from the soul only.

The mind is an absolute liar, the soul is eternal.

Let the work flow from SOMEWHERE else and shut the mind up.

This is what the Japanese call Zazen (zen)
This is what athletes call being in the zone
This is what modern psychology calls flow state
Orison Swett Marden called it An Iron Will
Steven Pressfield says Do the Work
Jocko Willink calls it Mind Control

Elijah “The Realist” says BE MINDLESS.

The mind is a dirty, filthy liar and you must NOT ever listen to it.

How You Can KILL Writer’s Block

Do this and make no excuse:

Set aside 2 hours to write.

In this 2 hours you must write.

It does NOT matter exactly WHAT you write, it only matters that in this 2 hours you do NOTHING except write.

You will want to QUIT at first, you will look for absolutely any excuse to QUIT.

But you won’t quit.

You will be zen.

You will notice the thoughts but give them NO mind.

“During zazen, it is normal to have images, thoughts and emotions coming up to the surface, appearing from the unconscious mind. Do not pursue them or fight escape from them. The more you try to get rid of them, the more attention you give them, and the stronger they become. Try not to attach to them. Just let them go without judgement, like clouds in the sky.”

You will NOT attach feelings of good or bad to the thoughts of quitting.

You will notice them and then simply let them be.

You will have NO emotional reaction to them.

Those thoughts will be there, but you will not quit.

The thoughts will become meaningless. Empty.

In the end, you will win.

You will NOT listen to the liar mind.

You will create magic completely out of thin air.

You will ignore the mind and you will simply do the work.

Doing the work is EASY.

There is NO SUCH THING as writer’s block.

There is only listening to the liar mind, or NOT listening to the liar mind.