The problem was, he couldn't get himself to sit down and write.

He'd get spurts where he would outline and maybe draft a few pages… but he'd always end up "getting blocked" and fail to show up and ship anything.

It's not that he wasn't serious, he just couldn't get himself to be effective.

If I were to talk to that guy today, I'd ask him: what do you do with your free time when you AREN'T writing?

If he was being honest, he'd say: Party, watch porn, play videogames, surf the internet.

I'd tell him that this was his problem.

I'd explain that compared to the instant gratification dopamine highs that he was used to, anything "productive" was going to feel like a slog through hell!

I'd go on to let him know that if he just put some time into cutting out all that crap BEFORE he started trying to amp up his writing game, he'd be WAY more effective.

If he did that, not only would he be able to build a writing discipline… he could get HOOKED on it to the point where he WANTED to do it.

But knowing that guy, he would have ignored me because he would have felt it would "take too long" to fix all of that and he just wanted to get that writing habit!

Now the reason I know so much about this guy is because this story is about me.

The truth is that sometimes you need to focus on cutting out your bad habits before you can build the good ones you're most excited for.

Start with removing your most damaging habits first and replacing them with basic self-care.

For example: quit porn and replace it with journaling, daily walks, and planning the following day each evening.

Once you get your baseline healthy you can effectively start playing bigger and bigger games.

UYAP! Mark Queppet

P.S. There WAS a way for the old me to clean his act up AND build his writing habit at the same time… but there's a trick to it that I'll be teaching you in this month's Apex Report - sign up now if you want to put your personal development on warp-speed!