The Nirvana Fallacy

No, not the band.

Maybe you have one of those friends. You know the one I'm talking about, right? The one who says, typically after you mention that you're a writer yourself, says something to the extent to "oh, I've got this idea for a book, or a story, or whatever, but there's just not enough time to write it. Maybe someday."

And maybe you've told yourself something similar, at one point or another. I know that I have. Because there are days when I don't feel like it, days where nothing sounds good and the idea of being artistic is about as appealing as pulling my teeth out with my fingers. But that's the thing about making your passion your job, you know? You don't get to quit. You show up, even on the days when you're hungover. Because that's what it means, to do this thing, to do it for real.

I titled this post the Nirvana Fallacy, and there's a reason for that. It's a term that refers to one of the particular mental deceptions we subject ourselves to, just one of the ways our brains mess with us. When we experience this thing, we tell ourselves that the reason we're not doing what we feel that we should be doing is because the situation just isn't conducive to the action. We tell ourselves that if things were just this certain way, then then we would knuckle down and get it done. But, you know, the rent is due, and it might rain today, and my toe kinda hurts, so maybe I'll write tomorrow instead.

Tomorrow is never good enough. And so we never get started. We never move past that phase where we want to write, to actually writing. And really, that's the only step, the one, single barrier between being a writer and just "wanting to write." Because anybody can write. We can all string sentences together. But it's overcoming that recalcitrance, that belief that I'm going to write "someday" instead of "today."

Writing is work. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it is to be done because you really do feel inspired, but that's the thing; anybody can write when they're inspired. Just like anybody can cheer for the Cardinals when they win. It's fun. It's easy. Try doing it when you don't feel like it, trying slogging through a draft when you'd rather be doing anything else in the world, even the teeth pulling. It's like cheering for the home team even though they're down by four touchdowns and the quarterback just got sacked in his own end zone. Overused sports metaphors aside, that's what separates us from those who aspire to do something, and those who actually do it.

You know, it's somewhat ironic that I'm using football to make my point, since I don't really like football all that much. Maybe that's not irony at all. I always get confused about what's ironic and what's just coincidence.