By: Olivia Knott
Ironically before I wrote this blog post, I was temporarily hindered by distractions on my lovely technological device for nearly an hour. There are always a million things that I want to do and a hundred more that I want to accomplish but because of my foolish allowance to these easy distractions, I hardly pour into my passions as much as I would like to.
This blog post is obviously going to be about these two contrasting forces, the light and the darkness, the good and the evil if you will. I love writing, reading, and creating. These are my passions. I pray to always write and always pour into my passions. For most of my life, I have treated my passions like a hobby and I think that that is some sort of dishonor to the Lord who gave these passions to me. My priority in life–for the most part–has been getting an education and doing well in school.
I do consider myself blessed and fortunate to have never really struggled in school much. A lot of things come easy to me such as school, friendships, and stuff like that. That is really the grace and favor of God. But, when it comes to writing, I have hardly poured enough effort into that as I have in pulling an all-nighter to study for a frivolous exam.
Life is coming in really fast and I am going to be a whopping 20 this year. I am practically geriatric at this point-I’m going to start walking with a cane and talking with a shrill, croaky voice as I wear beaded strings around my glasses to keep them around my neck. No, I’m kidding. I’m really young but I need to grow up. I am always realizing things about myself that really need to improve and this is one of those things: putting more effort into my passions.
Everyday, I have committed myself to writing anything at all in any of the things that I am working on. Everyday I add to my stories, everyday I try to edit them, and everyday I try to reread them. I prayed to God to help me with this because I am naturally so lazy. I love to write but I don’t feel like getting my laptop, I love to read but I don’t feel like picking up my book, I love to create stories but then I don’t write down what God has given my mind to conjure up.
The distractions I have are obviously my stupid, dumb, idiotic phone (I’m kidding). My phone is not any of these malevolent things, it is a great tool for inspiration honestly and a great place for funny Instagram reels and occasional memes. Nevertheless, it gets in the way so much because it’s easier to scroll and laugh than it is to think.
Human nature is very simple but also very complex, much like how God is very simple but also very complex. But, human nature is simple in a bad way. If it is easier to scroll on our phones or actually put the pen to paper and write, the first option is obviously the first choice. I always used to say that writing was easy and I never had to struggle to write, but honestly that was because I was not writing everyday. Writing everyday is an actual brain workout.
Reveries-stupid, dumb reveries of delusion limerence-also capture my attention and temporarily (and regrettably) enrapture my heart. I realize I daydream whenever I am really bored. I always imagine the same things: me running into someone I haven’t seen in a while, a random guy coming up to me confessing his love to me, or me on Jimmy Fallon’s late night show talking about my books.
The biggest antagonist to my gifts and talents is literally myself though. I am the biggest problem. These distractions can’t have any hold over me if I choose for them not to, but because I allow it, I allow myself to suppress my passions. I think the only solution for overcoming distractions so that I can pour more into my passions is to discipline myself to do it.
I think waiting for the motivation to do anything will always result in that never getting done. Motivation is like a rare canon event-it just doesn’t happen often. People can motivate you but I am not gonna ask someone to please motivate me to write. That’s just insane (and embarrassing). There comes a point where I have to discipline myself no matter how I feel.
Prayer honestly helps a lot too though. When I was in college, I was struggling with actually writing everyday because school just came first. But, I would pray for God to help me write everyday and even though I still struggled just because I always had something to do, I did write for more days of the week than not.
My passions mean a lot to me, and as I am getting older I am realizing how important it is to put in more intentional time into my passions. I am 19 right now, but I am officially leaving my teen years in November and I really have to grow up. All of my immaturity has to be done away with and mistreating my passions by treating them like hobbies has to stop. I think everything in life comes down to a simple decision. You just have to choose what you are going to choose. Passion or distraction? Hard or easy? Rewarding or depleting?