Time to get back to creatively writing

And use some of this nervous energy for good

I spend way too much time in my head. It’s a problem. My brain never shuts off. Can anyone else out there relate, or is it just me?

Some medical professionals would be more than willing to help me with my little problem. There are medications they could prescribe, I suppose, if that’s what I wanted. It’s not. Definitely not!

What I have found over these last several years is that I’ve gone away from what I enjoyed the most about what I did even before I wrote my first book. I wrote all the time. Journals. Post-It Notes. Scraps of paper. There are more spiral notebooks than I care to admit to. And, of course, on my laptop(s) (oh, how many mindless writings are on the legion of dead laptops at the top of my supply closet).

I wrote all the time.

Some fiction. Okay, a lot of fiction. Humorous stories (if only to me) that I often commandeered for my “Blogger” blog. Much to my wife’s chagrin.

Writing was my way of dealing with the stress and listlessness I often felt as an entrepreneur. It was a way to channel my energy and do something productive with it. But it was also a way of showcasing my personality and quirkiness as I was discovering what it meant to be an entrepreneur. Oh, those early days….they were magical.

But somewhere along the way, I got away from it. I think it was a consultant friend of mine who advised against using my blog, or my writing for that matter, for anything other than supporting the brand. I distinctly remember her saying that anything that doesn’t support what you are trying to build (as a business) is a distraction - to me, to my potential clients and to the potential readers of my book. The “audience” I was supposed to write for only expects Ripple-Esq posts and nothing more.

So I stopped stoking the creative fires. Even my journaling got boring. I stopped allowing my mind to play. In the process I became boring myself. I just stopped letting my writing freak flag fly. In fact, I folded it away and put it under my Scooby-Doo boxers I never wear.

My oldest son told me during one of his last visits here that he misses the crazy text stories I often shared when he first got a text-enabled phone. Apparently, my story about the “Cholo Snake” still makes him laugh when he thinks about it. I wrote it bored one day sitting at a Starbucks waiting for some jackwad who was running late to meet with me. I was blowing off steam at the time, but it made an obvious impression for him to remember it this many years later. Oh, how I wish I had held on to that story. It was funny if I do say so myself.

Here’s the thing, I am not the best writer

However, when I found my flow, I didn’t let that stop me and the words came from some unending well of inspiration. Well, until it ended (it always ends doesn’t it?). Well that or the coffee in my cup had gone painfully cold and the staff would give me a death stare for coming up for like my 15th free refill (Yo buddy, free refills aren’t free for the whole day ya know?).

I just remember starting something and before I knew it I’d look up and an hour or two had gone by just like it was nut’in (homage to Conor McGregor). I love those times. I especially love those memories of just being in the moment. I wasn’t writing to publish or even to share it with anyone. I just wrote because I loved writing.

Recently I listened to Stephen King’s “On Writing” a book he wrote for aspiring authors. Even though I have written a book that is now in its third edition, I still don’t fancy myself an author, much less a writer. Neither does my former editor, I’m sure.

I still want to be one (both?), however, someday.

In Stephen King’s book, I found inspiration and it allowed me to have some deeper thinking on becoming a writer while listening to it at the gym. That is probably why this is coming up for me now and what inspired this post. That or I couldn’t think of anything else to write about.

Writing proved to do so much for the stress I was dealing with daily. So why did I ever get away from it? Hell, some of my best creative ideas came from writing, but because it didn’t support the work mission, I never wrote them down. What a waste!

Bottom line, writing, for me, is an activity that seems to tickle my soul like a squirrel tail 🐿️ on the nape of my neck only can. Why did I go there? I have no idea. Especially since I don’t know what a squirrel tail feels like. I imagine it’s soft.

Maybe it’s because a random squirrel jumped off the tree outside my office window as I typed this? Who knows. Queue up the squirrel reference from the movie “Up” here! But I digress as you know I tend to do.

The point is, writing has always been an escape for me. Spinning tails just for the sake of spinning them or making a broader, more important point by telling a story is what I love to do. So why did I get away from it? I don’t really know. I suppose that bad advice I got so many years ago that my interests and writing must only be solely focused on building my brand won out. What a crock of horse 💩 huh?

Doing it for me

Maybe what I’ll write here won’t sell many of my books or encourage any of you to hire me to come speak to your teams. That’s okay. Maybe I’ll just write it anyway. Maybe through it all, you’ll see a mixture of work-brand-supported posts and some just “What the Hell was this guy drinking when he decided to write this?” kind of posts.

Either way, I am going to start Rippling writing for me and see where it goes. Feel free to come along for the ride…or not.

But freeing myself to enjoy the creative adventures my mind craves to take now, more than ever, is probably the biggest Ripple I can create for myself, especially as we look towards the start of a new year. Now feels like the perfect time to lean into it.

I hope you’ll stick around. If for no other reason but out of curiosity. I feel my mind opening up and unbinding itself after a long, difficult slumber. I’m ready to let the clutch out and see what happens.

God help us all.

Ripple On!!