This is when the flood of mental interruptions and impulses come along. It’s when you sit down to do some work or whatever you have to do that you suddenly remember that you are thirsty, need to go to the bathroom, or that you haven’t replied to your bosses email, or forgot to RSVP that dinner invitation on facebook.
Then you know how it goes. You log in to facebook for that quick reply and end up being there for 1 hour talking to some friend or reading an important article.
Then when you decide to do your work again, it’s lunch time.
You need to eat right?
But… if you resist those initial impulses, after more or less 20 minutes, you end up with a solid buildup of mental energy that get your ideas flowing for the task at hand.
That’s why many experienced writers tell the novice writers to just start writing something, even if it’s complete crap. It gets those initial 20 minutes out of the way to a state of enhanced mental energy and focus.
After those initial 20 minutes or so, a very pleasant mental energy builds up in you.
For me, this is the most pleasant part of the process.
I love the feeling of mental energy buildup. It’s like my brain lights up and it’s fully activated.
I never go through a day that I don’t experience it one way or the other. Even on non-working days, I experience this feeling somehow. Whether in my morning concentration practices or by reading a book or simply by thinking about some important topics.
But to get there, you need to go through the initial 20 minutes. This is where the pain is located. It’s when you need all your Will and focus to resist those impulses.
As you can probably deduct for yourself, the “initial 20 minutes” don’t necessarily need to be 20 minutes. You’ll find that in some days it may take you 10 seconds while others it may take you 30 minutes.
Sure, there are ways to make this easier and more controllable.
We talk about this on several courses, particularly on the “Concentration and Mind Control” training. But it’s never a smooth process every single day. It just gets easier with practice and increased mind control.
