How do I begin writing after so long.

There are two options that come to mind.
1) It is easy, just write anything. It may be bad but that is worth the price of getting back into writing.
2) It is difficult because writing when others may read it is a power and power should be used wisely. It should be used carefully. So I should take the time to plan.

I think starting is usually better then waiting until conditions are perfect.
I have waited too long to start so many times in my life.

There was a time a few years ago when I just ended a season job that took up my entire being for the summer. I was doing something I loved and it made it impossible to focus on anything past that experience.
However, it also didn’t pay very well so I needed to find work very soon after the summer ended. I spent two weeks researching jobs and places to live. I had many ideas but nothing sounded ideal. It was overwhelming for me to try to decide what I might be doing for the next six months or year. It finally hit me that there is some wisdom in the saying “A good plan today is better then a perfect plan tomorrow”

I picked a city to move to primarily because I wanted someone colder for the winter. I sent job applications and emails to rooms for rent in two days. I left without getting any responses. I knew two people so I had a place to stay for at least a couple days. Even that fell through in the first two days so I needed to find a place to live even sooner. Almost magically I did. I had a job, and a place to live in under a week. I had accomplished more in a few days then I did with two weeks with my face stuck to my computer screen.

The only problem was that I chose something that I didn’t enjoy. I was in a new city without friends or things to look forward to. I wanted the challenge of making a life in a new city but it was a false challenge. It was hard just to be hard. There wasn’t any reason to push myself like that. Looking back now I can see that I did not know the whole lesson. I was pushing through just to prove to myself that I could. I set a goal from outside the situation and once I was in it I felt obligated to continue. I was taking the saying too far. “A good plan today is better then a perfect plan tomorrow” the part I didn’t understand was that the real wisdom in it is about choosing your plan based on the circumstance that you are in currently. I thought it was about not waiting for the perfect plan, and although I still think that is part of it, it is also about the ability to choose again when the information changes.

There is an advantage that is gained when acting quickly. It can compensate for some of the disadvantage of having less information. Jumping into action is an important skill to me and so is continually deciding. When the situation changes I get to choose again. Choose, choose and choose again.

So now I’ve written for the first time in months.
Jumping in might not always be the best option but it is often possible to jump in and jump right back out when the situation turns out to be different then you thought.
Thanks for reading.