Some days – sometimes many days or weeks or months – you are going to awaken, and you’ll be more tired than or just as tired as when you went to bed. Everything in you argues with the alarm. You wonder how it’s 5:30 a.m. already. You wonder why you set the alarm for such an early hour, then remember you are trying to create a space in which you can do your work. Even so, you struggle not to throw the alarm against the wall. You argue with the voice that says to turn off the alarm and to pull the covers over your head.
You know you can’t listen to the voice; you have things to do even if you don’t have the energy or the mindset to do them. You have responsibilities – a spouse, the dishes in the sink, a job, a pet, this thing you’re trying to build whether it be a business or a collection of essays. You must arise, and you must do what you are called to do even if you know your efforts will be paltry and will require hours upon hours of editing and revising. You have no choice.
Thus, you sit in front of your laptop or a piece of paper. You write the horrible, no-good words. You write in spite of the mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion. You remember you are not alone with these feelings; other people are just as tired as you and are attempting to cope. They get up and go to work. They get up and write. They get up and get up and get up and get up again. They refuse to let the exhaustion, the soul weariness, to win. They do the work even when every word is a battle and every essay or blog post is a war. They do what they’re meant to do. So do you.
Image: Quinn Dombrowski (CC BY SA 2.0)
[…] You may fight through this need, and sometimes you must. You have no choice when a deadline looms, or a client or employer calls. Even then, you may find your mind and body rebel. They may shut down without your permission. When that happens, you have no choice: rest is upon you regardless of your opinion on the matter. If you do have a choice, if the work can wait, you must let it wait. You have to choose to rest. It’s what you need. It’s what your work needs. It’s what your clients and employers need – the you who is whole. The you who is rested and ready to do the work. […]