Figuring it out while you do it

Yesterday I wrote an article on Medium called "What did I make today?" where I talked about the illusion of progress, resulting from the feeling that you got a lot of things done simply because you did something related to work, without actually creating anything.

Today I wrote another article called "Fearing exposure to failure - Antifragility and its uses", where I talk about the concept of Antifragility and how it helped me learn a little bit of C# while actually coding instead of just watching a bunch of tutorials, reading a bunch of articles and searching for books about how to code.

As some of you who have been writing for a while know, there are times when you feel like writing, when you're in a certain "mood" that allows you to write more, better, and faster, a "mood" that results in good work being done.

If you know what type of mood I'm talking about, then you know that you, and any other person out there who's writing, or doing anything creative at all, have a lot of moments when that mood just isn't there.

You want to write, but you're stuck, not knowing how to start, not knowing what to write about, not even knowing how your article should look like. If you're an artist, then you may look at your empty page, desiring to draw something on it, but being unable. Your body and mind just don't want to help you make anything.

I lacked that mood when I wanted to write those two articles yesterday and the day before. I just didn't feel like I had the necessary mood to write. I wanted to do it, I wanted to publish something, but I didn't feel like writing.

And the same thing happened with other activities like coding and 3D modelling.

It also happened many times in the past.

I've been trying to figure out a way to get out of that "nothingness" state and get into the mood to create for quite a while now, and I never managed to do it. No matter what kind of motivational video I watch, no matter how many articles about work I read or how well I'm trying to optimize my day and my work, I just cannot get myself into the proper mood to create something.

The only thing that gave me the best results so far, the only thing that's been working more than anything else, is just doing what you want, with or without the mood, and figuring it out while you're doing it.

The hardest part is to keep yourself active while doing that thing and accepting that you may suck for the moment. If you're writing an article, you can visibly notice how you write slower than usual, how you have a hard time finding the words you want, and how you can't find a way to put your ideas in order.

The secret is to force yourself to do it until you get something out of your effort. It may take you more than usual, and you may need to do additional editing, but at the end, if you try really hard, you should be able to come up with something decent. Maybe not great, maybe not the greatest work of your life, but something decent enough.

So, if you're struggling to create because you're not in the right "mood", and things just don't seem to work out for you the way they should, just keep going until you create something. Then publish, or share, or whatever you like to do with your end result. As you do that, you will eventually learn that creating isn't always about finding the right time to work, but about working and waiting for the mood to come.