Some days you don’t feel like writing.
The well feels dry, the ideas feel stale, and you’re convinced you’ve already said everything worth saying about your particular corner of the universe.
Today is one of those days for me.
Although in this case. You gotta be the big spoon sometimes. You gotta wrap your arms around your audience and give them what they need, even when you’re not feeling particularly inspired.
People need to hear the same thing seven, eight, maybe fifteen times before it actually penetrates their skull and gets lodged into the brain meat and becomes actionable knowledge.
Your brilliant insight from three months ago? Most of your audience never saw it.
That life changing advice you shared last week? It got lost in the alongside cat videos and political arguments and that one dude who just posts flat earther content 24/7.
I don’t expect everyone to read all my shit. At best, they’re skimming, scrolling, half paying attention while dealing with their own stuff.
So that profound thing you said once needs to be said again, differently, because the people who needed to hear it the first time were probably distracted by a notification or a crying child or the existential dread of Monday morning, or in my case. Friday coming up. Ugh.
Being the big spoon in this context, means showing up consistently, even when you feel like you’re repeating yourself.
It means understanding that your audience’s attention is scattered and your job is to keep serving up the important stuff until it sticks.
It means writing the same email about productivity or creativity or whatever your thing is, but finding a new angle, a fresh metaphor, a different story that makes the same point land differently.
Your audience needs you to be the consistent one. The reliable one. The one who keeps showing up even when inspiration feels as elusive as that unicorn perfect amount of sleep you wish you’re gonna get tomorrow. (definitely not me lol)
So wrap your arms around your content today. Be the big spoon. Give your people what they need, even if you’ve given it to them before. (that also does sound filthy but I’m gonna roll with it)
Now I’m off to go prep for tomorrow so I don’t have the most Monday of Friday’s ever.
Stephen Walker.