Now that I've closed my practice, one of my goals (along with learning to BE) is to create Write Well University, a program to help people become stronger writers. I've been working on this for over a year, and I have so many notes and ideas and works in progress that sometimes the whole concept is overwhelming.
I've created a creative space in my bedroom that's different from my office. My office is all about Virtual Angel and AssistU, and things like reading blogs and checking e-mail always seem to take precedence over creativity. So I've created this beautiful space in my bedroom with a bulletin board that my husband and I built and painted, shelves of books (including the Oxford English Dictionary - all twenty volumes!), a simple yet elegant desk, and lots of light.
One problem: my computer is in my office, and all my files are on that computer. Now, considering that my computer is a laptop, it IS portable. I use it in my office in a docking station so that I have all the luxuries of a good monitor, keyboard, and mouse. But here's why it's a problem: my computer is almost four years old, and it is soooooooooo slow. We're talking ten minutes to boot up, and sometimes that long to shut down. So if I want to use the computer in my creative space, I have to shut down the computer (5 - 10 minutes), lug it upstairs (remember that this is a four-year old computer, and it's heavy!), turn it on (10 minutes at least to boot up), and then get cracking. Then, when I'm ready to take it back down to my office, repeat.
I get that this time shouldn't be a factor in my working on Write Well U. But it is. When I have to look at a possible 40 minutes of inefficient, unproductive time, I'm not interested. So, Write Well U is benched and doesn't get playing time.
Hmmm. Two spaces that need a computer, but only one computer. Current computer is ooooollllddddd. Solution? Buy a new computer!!! At first, I thought I wanted this computer, but Chris convinced me that Mac computers have better hardware and are more reliable. Pluse, the new MacBooks have the ability to boot both OSX and Windows. What's not to love? We've ordered my MacBook, and help is on the way! I'll have one computer in my office, and the other in my creative space.
Maybe knowing I was getting a new computer soon helped break down my mental barriers around working on Write Well U. I spent a few hours this week working on Write Well U (and I lugged the old computer upstairs and did the whole wait-to-shut-down-and-then-wait-to-boot-up dance). Interestingly, but probably not surprisingly, the ideas for Write Well U have just crashed right in, even after that day. My brain tingles with all that I can do.
Was the whole no-computer-in-my-creative-space a real barrier or just a perceived one? Probably mostly a perceived barrier, but when you give something life, it becomes real all right. I had let the inefficiency and inconvenience of not having a computer in my creative space become a barrier, not just to working on Write Well U, but to the flow of creativity that I need to get this thing going.
It shouldn't have mattered, but it did.
I've gotten rid of one obstacle, and I wonder what others I've created, or have let become obstacles, that I can remove. Elsewhere, where do we put obstacles (or, again, let them become obstacles) that really impede life?
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