And yet again, a blinking cursor. A blank page. A keyboard, myself, and a whole jumble of ideas going around in my head.

I promised myself that I would write here every day, if possible. But sometimes I am just blank. No thoughts, head empty. Or a lot of thoughts, but on a different matter entirely (right now, Anki card formatting and the absolutely shitty editor they have). Days like these make me falter. They are discouraging to the point where sometimes I consider just giving up for the day. It’s not like I am going to write something worthwhile anyway.

Yet, here I am. Here I write, even when I can’t write. Here I write that I can’t write, that nothing comes, that I am dried of ideas by the day. And, who would have thought, I am actually writing something. Something that might even be going somewhere. And here I thought I was hopeless.

Sometimes I just need to start. Sometimes that initial impulse is the only thing I need to get moving fast, as an astronaut kicking a wall and flying around forever. And normally it is easy. I have a nice notebook full of ideas, a head even fuller, and the impulse to rant about whatever I want to rant about. Yet, sometimes I have nothing, or worse yet, nothing that I try gives me enough impulse to lift off the ground. That is when starting is most important. In fact, it is the only thing that matters. I grab onto the next train of thought and anyway I can I keep on grabbing until I have enough velocity to fly on my own.

So these times, I just promise myself to start. To write something. Anything. And not only on writing, but on anything that proves resistance. Just one Anki review. Just standing up and getting the cleaning things. Just a line of code. Just one paragraph to study. Just standing up. Just the start.

Citing someone I admire a lot: “Things have a way of finishing themselves.” I have found, over and over, that it is true. Starting something almost always ensures finishing it, with minimal effort. It seems counterintuitive, but it works! And it is easier to do something when the bar gets so low. Easy enough that starting is not that difficult. Easy enough that everything feels like a victory.

I have come to call this advanced psychological technique the Just Show Up technique (JSU for short). Every time I don’t feel like doing something, I find the minimal unit of effort required to start, and promise myself that I can do only that. Things is, standing in the street with the running shoes on, the path of least resistance is not to go back home, but to start running.

And it feels good. It feels like I have control. Like I am going somewhere with my life, and even if I do not know where, I know I am going to like it. I am taking control of my destiny, one start at a time. And from here, to the stars.