Salt of the Earth*

*REPOST from http://smpsboston.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/salt-of-the-earth/ I wrote this during my tenure as the president of SMPS Boston in May 2011, I've had trouble starting a project this week, which this post describes a solution to procrastination, and I'm dangerously close having not posted anything in a year's time...!!!

I was under the gun to write this blog and I didn’t know what to discuss. I’ve had time, but the inspiration hasn’t been there. It wasn’t writer’s block, but it wasn’t getting written either. In last month’s blog, I asked for guidance from you, and I wasn’t made a fool, thank you. I received two suggestions about Prezi  and sponsorship. I plan to write about both. I was going to tackle the first suggestion, but time, work, an unfamiliarity with the product, and other excuses got in the way. So, that left me with the second, sponsorship. Then I got writer’s something.

I’ll tell you something about me. My favorite band is the Rolling Stones, and Keith Richards is my favorite member. He has penned his autobiography, Life, that spent a lot of time talking about songwriting. The story goes their manager locked Keith and Mick Jagger in a kitchen until they came out with a song. Finally, they did and they never stopped writing together. There was no secret shared about the near continuous ability to write some of the most memorable lyrics and riffs. Keith said it’s in you, the trick is getting it out, never stop looking, never stop experimenting; you’re an antenna— pick up the signal and transmit.

American author Ernest Hemingway said write drunk then edit sober, baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra said baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical, and Beatles' Ringo Starr put in eight days a week after a hard day’s night. While I use these examples tongue-and-cheek, you’ve got to find a way to get over the hump. Write a list, file something, clean your desk or office, do something mundane, do something from start to finish.

I’m transmitting, but it isn’t making sense, or is it? The lesson I’m sharing is sometimes you can write yourself out of a situation, work yourself out of a lull, hum a tune that becomes “You Got The Silver.” It’s doing, it’s working, it’s plugging away. Inspiration sometimes is found through effort, rather than looking out the window.

I would like to know how you fix yourself. How do you work through the doldrums? How do you get over a stalled project?