Completed thoughts

I post one blog every day … but I also write a lot of other drafts.

What I’ve learned is that the hard part is not in writing drafts. There’s some work involved, but it’s not the hard work.

The hard work is in finishing. In completing a thought. In clarifying it. In translating nuanced feelings into sentences. And in evaluating the thought itself: its resonance, its worth, and its appropriateness for this blog.

One challenge for me (and for all of us) is to continue making drafts. Whatever “drafts” are for the work you do — the messy, bold, timid, unfinished, uncertain, behind-the-scenes work — keep creating them. Even if no one ever sees them. In delight that no one might ever see them.

And the related challenge is to be patient with the spirit that inspires the drafts. Don’t dismiss every idea that doesn’t quickly reveal its own path to the finish line. Some drafts — some ideas — need to be coaxed and tended.

Keep coaxing. Keep tending.