The weekend is over, the story isn’t

Monday showed up again.

I know. I know. You weren't ready. Nobody is ever ready. You were just getting comfortable. The couch had finally learned your shape. The remote was within arm's reach. You had a whole system going…snacks on the left, phone on the right, absolutely zero responsibilities in any direction.

And then Monday walked in like it owns the place.

Because it does. Monday owns the place. And the sooner we make peace with that, the better off we're all going to be.

Here's what I need you to understand about this particular Monday though. This one is different. Not because the calendar flipped or because some motivational poster told you "new week, new you" — please, we are too old for that. It's different because you are different than you were last Monday.

Last week you wrote something. Last week you pushed through something. Last week you sat down with an idea that had no business becoming anything, and you made it into something anyway. That happened. Nobody can take that back. Not the weekend, not the couch, not even Monday.

You are a writer coming off a productive week, not a person starting from zero. There is a massive difference. Act like it.

Now I'm not going to stand here and pretend Monday morning is easy. It isn't. Your brain is still somewhere between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Your motivation is technically present but it's moving slow, like it drove instead of flew and just pulled into the parking lot. Give it a minute. It'll get there.

But while you're waiting on motivation to park the car and find a seat. Start anyway.

Because here is the secret nobody tells you: motivation doesn't show up and then you start. You start and then motivation shows up.

Open the doc. Write one bad sentence. It doesn't have to be good. It just has to exist. One sentence becomes a paragraph. A paragraph becomes a page. A page becomes the thing you were so sure you couldn't write on a Monday morning.

And somewhere around sentence three, you're going to feel it. That thing. That quiet little spark that reminds you why you do this. Why you chose the page over the easy thing. Why you keep showing up even when showing up is the last thing you feel like doing.

That spark doesn't live on the weekend. It lives right here. Monday morning. Blank page. You vs. you. And you always win this one.

So here's your assignment for today. One thing. Just one. Open whatever you're working on and move it forward by one inch. Not a mile. Not a chapter. One inch.

Because an inch today beats a perfect plan that never starts. Every single time.

The weekend rested you. Now let Monday use you.

Let's get it.

—Marlon Dean, WhiteHause Publishing | The Writerz Block