When it comes time to do your work, especially if it involves the creation of something, getting started can often be the quite a hurdle to overcome. We can wait to start until we feel inspired, but who knows when that will be. But ironically, many times if we go ahead and start, even if we don’t feel like it, eventually the creative juices will begin to warm up and things will begin to flow. It’s then that we’ll often meet the inspiration we were waiting on. But it only happened after we got started.
When asked whether he wrote on a schedule or when he felt inspired, author Somerset Maugham once said, “I write only when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.” Creating a schedule of when we will sit down and do our work may seem like it would stifle creativity. But it can actually turn out to be a great help if it helps us get started. A schedule is not the enemy of inspiration–it’s often a friend.