Tell Your Mood to F*ck Off, Push Your Mind Harder, and Create
By: Jason Weiland
Tags: Writing, Blogging, Mental Health, Productivity, Creativity

Tell Your Mood to F*ck Off, Push Your Mind Harder, and Create

I found that if I have to wait to “be in the mood” to produce, I would never get anything done

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I know a few of you will disagree with me. “But Jason. You can’t force the creative process!” or, “If you have to force it, you shouldn’t be blogging in the first place!” I can see the comments when I publish this sucker.

A lot of people write for the pure joy and ecstasy of it. They write to free their mind and stretch their artistic muscles. While I aspire to be that way, I can’t truthfully say it is how writing and blogging are for me.

I blog for three reasons:

To earn money For therapy In the hopes that my stories can help another person get through difficult circumstances

I write a lot about mental health and how to overcome obstacles keeping you back in life. I write about blogging and entrepreneurship. I write about my family, my travels, and how to get a better life.

I write what I know.

I know why I have not been a smashing success and shot up to $10K a month on Medium — because I write about myself too much. Instead of writing about what’s in it for my audience, I write more “How to Survive if Your Life is Shit” pieces. Good-looking self-help gurus are much more marketable than the steaming pile of dooky that has been me and my life for 52 years.

I know I’m not where I want to be on Medium because I cannot fully embrace the listicle or the “10 Quotes from Elon Musk that will Make You A Better Writer” post.

It’s just not me, and even though I have “making money” as my number one reason for blogging, I can’t force myself to write clickbait headlines and vanilla pudding content.

Because the fact is that most times, I have to force myself to sit down and write, and I can’t push myself to write junk I don’t believe in.

You have to understand what is going on in my mind right now:

Voices are screaming at the top of their lungs, back and forth to each other, and the topic is me and what a shit writer I am. The voices are spouting the ugliest and most hateful things about me and my failure to do anything with my life. In the background, and equally noisy, I hear all the sounds from throughout my day playing at the same time at full-blast.

And, sitting in a little corner is my inner Jason — the voice that narrates my life moment by moment- the muse that helps me put words to the page.

My muse gets beaten and battered but takes it all with a smile on his face. He knows I have to be tough on him and not let him fall victim to the crap going on behind him. As exhausted as he is from putting up with the racket 24 hours a day, I still have to be firm with him so that I can write.

He wants to be comfortable and only write when inspired or in the mood. But I know him. If I wait until he is in the perfect mindset to create, I will be waiting forever, and my life will stagnate.

So I encourage and even raise my voice, even though I know he is doing his best. I crack the whip when he doesn’t wake up, and I push and prod him to keep his eyes open.

I promise him a long vacation somewhere with snow, wine, and every delicious kind of food he dreams about in his chubby little dreams.