Free From Distraction

The blank page teaches me again and again that everything created starts inside of us. Where else could it come from? The words do not grow there on their own. Maybe sometimes I wish they would, especially when I’m sitting at a new page and feel like there’s nothing in me worth sharing. Those are the days I’ve become distracted by what’s already created, all those other stories and songs, those other people and the lives they’re living and words they’re saying. Or, worst of all, distracted by everything I haven’t created but feel I should have, and the page is just a reminder of my shortcomings.

I don’t mean to speak unkindly of distractions. Nothing is better when I’m drowning in a whirlpool of my own misery. In such moments I’m telling myself a story I don’t want to hear, but am so fixated on it I can’t seem to tell another. How nice when something comes along, whether a friend with a joke, or a song on the radio, or my cat jumping in my lap, and my attention moves. What a relief to be released from that story. Such a relief, sometimes, that I can start believing there’s no better feeling. Easy to get addicted to distractions as they become my safe harbor from a storm that seems to follow wherever I go.

It isn’t long, however, before these harbors become prisons. Fear holds the door, as my mind swirls with thoughts of an uninteresting, unfriendly, unworthy world. Such is the trap concerns for my own safety lays, trading in my freedom to explore for a small island of experience that promises nothing will change. It’s a false promise, as before long what was once comfortable is now confining, and what was delightful is now tedious.

It's why I love the arts so much. I know people turn to novels and movies and music because they feel life is hard and they want an escape. Fair enough. Yet the best art I’ve known, when I turn my attention to it, reminds me of something that always been available within me. These are not distractions but connections, reminded as I am of my own curiosity and my own stories, and the moment I surrender my attention to what most interests me, I am free.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com