Tuesday was a pretty busy day, which certainly isn’t unusual. And its also not unusual for me to have a late afternoon energy lag. I’d had a good burst in the morning, but then was struggling a little bit later in the day.
I had written most of my blog post for the day while Henry was at drum lessons, and then came back to it to finish up in the evening while the kids were watching an episode of Peppa Pig before bedtime. I was probably about two paragraphs away from the end of the post when it happened. The wall.
Runners often talk about hitting “the wall.” Having a moment where they just don’t want to run anymore, and are forced with the choice of either quitting or digging a little deeper to keep going. Weirdly enough, after 357 days, just a few days shy of a year of consecutive posts, for some reason I finally hit the wall.
Sure, I’ve had nights where I’ve been tired or haven’t had a lot to say and making the post was a little challenging. But I honestly don’t remember a moment like this one before. It was like my mind just screeched to a halt, and some voice inside me just said, “I don’t want to write another freaking’ word.”
It only lasted a few minutes, and I did power through, but considering how far I’ve come and how many of these I’ve written, a l was a little surprised to see the wall show up now, and like that.
I also had plans of working on a freelance project and working on my book that evening, and while I was eyeing up that wall, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to muster the energy to do any of that. After I got the kids to bed, I told myself I’d just do a few minutes work on each of those projects, just to have done something, and then call it night.
Well, it turned out that once I got going, I suddenly found some new momentum and wound up writing for almost 2 hours, and getting a whole lot done. I suppose it goes to show that even when you hit the wall, it is still possible to dig a little deeper and find another gear.
As if to punctuate that sentiment, I just stumbled on this clip earlier today. One of my favorite football highlights, where former Green Bay Packer Donald Driver hitting the wall about 5 times, but keeps on going.
Know your goal, see your destination and get there. If a bunch of enormous dudes couldn’t bring Driver down, a little writer’s block and carpal tunnel shouldn’t bring me down, either. Forward!
