The hardest part of consistently creating content is, well, the consistency part. I don’t know about you, but it seems like no matter what kind of schedule I put myself on—daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly—it seems like when the time comes to finally sit down and make something, I’m wracking my brain to figure out what it should be. It’s not that I don’t have things to say; it’s that I often forget all of them when it’s just me and the blinking cursor. What a terrible time for all of those great shower thoughts to suddenly vanish into thin air.
One of the best parts of consistently creating content is that you have to learn how to push through these moments and figure out how to get out of a rut. Ready or not, here comes the deadline. You either swim in the content waters or sink to the bottom. After a while, you find ways to help you stay afloat and keep swimming. I want to share with you four mental barriers to overcome and four simple practices that have helped me push through ruts and keep going.
4 Mental Barriers to Consistent Content Creation
Profundity
This has to be the most embarrassing mental barrier, but it’s a real one. When you’re creating content, there is a strong temptation to want to say the most profound thing. We want to be thought of as a profound thinker. Someone who thinks deep thoughts and can perfectly articulate them. The reality is that usually only a fraction of the thoughts we have are actually profound. Most of our thoughts are far simpler than we’d like to admit. Waiting until you can say something profound is the surest way to say nothing at all. It’s best to just start with the thoughts that you do have.
A better goal than being profound is being helpful. Instead of thinking, “Will someone think this is profound?” ask yourself, “Will someone find this helpful?” The moment you switch from a selfish mentality to a generous mentality, you take the pressure off yourself to come off some sort of way and are free to serve the person on the other side of the screen.
Another problem with profundity is that you’re usually having to search the back of your mind to find something that would actually be profound. That’s going to expend a ton of mental energy and take a long time to do. Something I’ve started saying to myself more is, “Top of mind, tip of the tongue.” I want to write about the thought that is the most easily accessible to me in the moment, even if it isn’t what I thought I was going to write about. The less friction there is between my mind and my words, the better.
Originality
The desire to be original has many of the same pitfalls as profundity. We think that everything we say needs to be an entirely original thought. But it doesn’t. I love how Austin Kleon, in his book Steal Like an Artist, talks about how ideas have genealogies. He asserts that “Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.” We are all building on each other's thoughts, putting our own spin on them, and applying them in new ways.
The alternative to originality is to let yourself be inspired. As I wrote in 3 Steps To Find Your Voice (And Why You Should Start Now), you want to collect dots, connect dots, and then communicate those connections. This article was inspired by a YouTube video I watched about how to get out of ruts. The content of the video couldn’t be more different than the content of this article. But the idea of getting out of a rut inspired me to apply it in a different context. It started to come together in my mind and was on the tip of my tongue, so I realized it was what I needed to write about. I took my own advice and connected a dot from this point to the book Steal Like an Artist. You don’t have to be 100 percent original. Be inspired instead.
Expertise
We often feel like we can’t write about something if we’re not an expert on it. Not too long ago, I had dinner with a friend who has written several books and hundreds (thousands?) of articles. I asked him, “Do you wait to write about something until you feel like you’re an expert on it, or is writing more like a way to process what you’re learning out loud?” He emphatically said the latter. Obviously, writing a book is a little different. But online writing and content creation are great ways to process what you’re learning in real time.
Remember, we’re asking ourselves, “Will someone find this helpful?” You don’t have to be an expert to help someone; you only have to be a few steps ahead. You can share what you’re learning and work it out in public. My colleague and co-writer, Patrick Miller, blogged his way through Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death in a multi-part series. Don’t wait until you’re an expert. Become a Chief Learner. Write what you’re learning. Write what’s helpful. Process out loud with us.
Applause
Even though I’ve written on the internet for over a decade, my writing career really took root after I had an article go viral from a major Christian publication. For a while, I felt paralyzed by it because I knew I would probably never be able to replicate that level of virality again. I knew I couldn’t get used to the high view counts, the applause, and the virality of it all.
I think that’s a common experience: feeling like something isn’t worth writing or making if it isn’t going to reach the widest audience possible. The truth is that going viral is like winning the lottery. Not only that, it shouldn’t even be our goal. Instead, we should be swinging for base hits, not home runs. We want our work to be for someone, not everyone. Our work should build on itself. Something we make leads to something else down the line, which bolsters another thing we make, and on and on. Think more like an architect and less like a superstar. It doesn’t matter how much applause you’re getting. What are you building?
4 Practices to Help You Get Out of a Rut
With those four mental barriers out of the way, here are five simple, proactive practices to help you get out of a rut and create consistent content.
Listen
The best content creators are the best listeners. They are listening to their friends and family in conversation. They’re listening to other people’s thoughts through books, podcasts, and videos. They’re listening without making snap judgments. The clichè is true: God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we listen twice as much as we speak. Always be listening for interesting things to inspire you or that you can include in your content.
Listening well means asking good questions. Go into every conversation with the goal of asking the most questions. In the conversation with my friend I referenced above, his answer was personally beneficial for me to hear, and it was also something that I could pass on to others in the content I create.
Talk
That said, there are times to talk. And sometimes just talking something out helps you articulate it in ways that don’t come as easily when you’re thinking to yourself. You can also work your ideas out with others. Talking out a thought with someone else allows you to see their reactions and receive feedback (or pushback) on it that sharpens your thought and makes it better. It helps you find holes and work to fill them. A good deal of things I write have been brought up in conversation first. Talk it out with a friend. They’ll help you make it better.
Live
The worst place to generate ideas is by yourself in a closed room. Get out there and live your life. Have experiences. Play with your kids. Talk with your spouse. Hang out with your friends. Go to church. Walk in the woods. Travel somewhere new. The point here is to live your everyday, ordinary life and take notice of your life. Pay attention as you live. What stands out to you? What’s ordinary? What’s out of the ordinary? Why do you do the things you do? Why do they do the things they do? What makes you feel joy? Frustration? Surprise? Pride? Shame? Why? Let your content come from your life more than it comes from your head.
Jot
Finally, jot it all down. A lot of times, something will be on the top of your mind or the tip of your tongue, but you won’t be in a position to create right then. So have a system for writing it down. I use Apple Notes, and I have two folders: Content and Thoughts. Sometimes I have a thought that I immediately know I will turn into a piece of content, so that goes into the Content folder. Other things are more random thoughts that I have. They’re not immediately recognizable as content, but I know I want to remember them, so they go in the Thoughts folder. (I have another folder just for good quotes I come across as well.)
As you can see, I jotted down a few thoughts for this article a few weeks back. That’s only half of this article, but once I decided I was going to write about this topic, I realized it fit here. So I used it.
Be ready to write down your thoughts at all times. You can later come back to the thought, evaluate if it was any good or not, and if it was, start working on it.
You Don’t Have to Be Stuck
If you can overcome these mental hurdles and instill these practices in your life, you don’t have to be stuck forever. When you feel the writer’s block keeping you from writing or making the video or podcast or whatever, you have the tools to overcome it. Over time, these techniques will become more natural, and you’ll find yourself getting unstuck quicker each time. As Seth Godin wrote, “It’s hard to get blocked when you’re moving. Even if you’re not moving in the direction that you had in mind that morning.”
So keep moving. Write what’s on the top of your mind and the tip of your tongue. Don’t worry about being profound, original, an expert, or getting applause. Listen well, talk it out, live your life, jot it down. And Just. Keep. Going.
Topics:
