“One day you’ll wake up and there won’t be any time left to do the things you’ve always wanted to do.” – Paulo Coelho

When people tell me they’re thinking about writing, I tell them, “Ideas and books in your head help no one.”

Have you ever thought of it that way? If you have EEE (Experiences, Expertise, Epiphanies) that would benefit others; it’s almost selfish to keep them to yourself.

Writing doesn’t come from arrogance, it comes from service.  It’s an offering, a way of saying “Here are my lessons-learned. I hope they might be of interest and value to you.”

Yet, many people start with the best of intentions and then life intervenes. They get distracted, busy, overwhelmed, tired.

They put their creative project aside to deal with other priorities – and never get back to it. That’s a path to regrets.

Are you procrastinating, waiting for more time?  Face it. You’ll never have more time than you have right now.  If you want results … plant your bottom in a chair and start writing.

1. “If you wait for inspiration to write; you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.” – Dan Poynter
2.  When asked the secret to finishing his 500 page masterpiece The Power of One, author Bryce Courtenay growled, “Bum glue!”
3. “If my doctor told me I had only 6 months to live, I’d type a little faster.” – Isaac Asimov
4. “Ideas are easy. It’s the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.” – Sue Grafton
5. “Inspiration usually comes during work, not before it.” – Madeleine L’Engle
6. “I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at 9 a.m. every morning.” – Peter DeVries
7. “I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper.” – Steve Martin
8. “I made a startling discovery. Time spent writing = output of work. Amazing.” – Ann Pachett
9. “Ever tried and failed? No matter. Try again and fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
10.  “It’s never too late – in fiction or in life – to revise.” – Nancy Thayer  
11. “If you want to write, you can. Fear stops most people from writing, not lack of talent. Who am I? What right have I to speak? Who will listen to me? You are a human being with a unique story to tell. You have every right.” – Richard Rhodes
12. “The way to resume is to resume. It is the only way. To resume.” – Gertrude Stein
13. “Best advice on writing I’ve ever received. Finish.” – Peter Mayle
14. “When I am writing, I am doing the thing I was meant to do.” – Anne Sexton
15. “You can sit there, tense and worried, freezing the creative energies, or you can start writing something. It doesn’t matter what. In five or ten minutes, the imagination will heat, the tightness will fade, and a certain spirit and rhythm will take over.” – Leonard Bernstein
16. “I went for years not finishing anything. Because, of course, when you finish something you can be judged. I had pieces that were re-written so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sending them out.” – Erica Jong
17. “Once you’ve done the mental work, there comes a point you have to throw yourself into action and put your heart on the line.” – Lakers basketball coach Phil Jackson
18. “The faster I write, the better my output. If I’m going slow, I’m in trouble. It means I’m pushing the words instead of being pulled by them.” – Raymond Chandler
19. “When you speak, your words echo across the room. When you write, your words echo across the ages.” – Chicken Soup for the Writers Soul author Bud Gardner
20. “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” – Carl Sandburg
21. “I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.” – Pearl S. Buck
22.  “Planning to write is not writing.  Writing is writing.” – E. L. Doctorow
23. “I think the worst, most insidious procrastination for me is research. I will be looking for some bit of fact to include in the novel, and before I know, I’ve wasted an entire morning delving into that subject matter without a word written.” – James Rollins
24.  “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” – Pablo Picasso
25. “There’s a trick I’m going to share with you.  I learned it almost twenty years ago and I’ve never forgotten it … so pay attention.  Don’t begin at the beginning.” – Lawrence Block
26.  “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.  You wait and watch and work and write; you don’t give up.” -Anne Lamott
27. “I write because I cannot fly, but words can, and when they land, worlds appear.” – Susan Zeder
28. “If there’s a book you really want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” – Toni Morrison
29. Aviation Pioneer Chuck Yeager said, “At the moment of truth, there are either reasons or results.”
30. “If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.” – Rollo May. Author John Kotter said, “Do you know the #1 precursor to change?  A sense of urgency.” It’s time to feel a sense of urgency about getting your ideas out in the world. What’s the story you’re born to tell? The knowledge you’d like to pass along?  The legacy message that could inspire others?  The time to share it is NOW.                                                                                 Promise yourself you’ll sit down somewhere, sometime each day and take ten minutes to move your project forward. You will never regret getting your ideas into the world. You will only regret not getting them out there … sooner.  As my mom used to tell me, “A year from now, you’ll wish you had started today.”              –   –   –   –   –   –   

SAM HORN, CEO of the INTRIGUE AGENCY, TEDx speaker and 17-time Emcee of the world-renowned Maui Writers Conference, helps people create one-of-a-kind projects – businesses, books, presentations, funding pitches –  that scale their influence for good.  Her work – including IDEApreneur, POP!, Tongue Fu!  and Washington Post bestseller Got Your Attention? – has been endorsed by Stephen Covey, Dan Pink, Tony Robbins, Marshall Goldsmith and featured inFast Company, New York Times, Forbes, INC.  Her inspiring keynotes receive rave reviews from such clients as NASA, Intel, Cisco, Accenture, National Geographic, EO, Four Seasons Resorts and Capital