Some mornings, in a perfect world, you might wake up, have a coffee, finish meditation, and say, “Okay, today I’m going into the shop to work on a lamp.” This idea comes to you, you can see it, but to accomplish it you need what I call a “setup.” For example, you may need a working shop or a working painting studio. You may need a working music studio. Or a computer room where you can write something. It’s crucial to have a setup, so that, at any given moment, when you get an idea, you have the place and the tools to make it happen.

When you don’t have a setup, there are many times when you get the inspiration, the idea, but you have no tools, no place to put it together. And the idea just sits there and festers. Over time, it will go away. You didn’t fulfill it—and that’s just a heartache.

— David Lynch, from his book, Catching the Big Fish

I know a lot of people who can go down big rabbit holes of setting up their tools and work space and then never produce anything, but lately I’ve been feeling like I don’t have enough of a setup to turn the ideas that come to me into reality. Including writing in this blog!

I have been writing pretty religiously in my personal offline journal(s) this year and have barely missed a day in 2019. I think that practice has created enough of a habit that my writing process is fluid and the output is readable enough that it might be worth starting to write for an audience (even if small or imaginary). (And when I say “worth it” I mean more for me than them).

What am I setting up for? I feel like I just need a decent desk at home. I tried hacking a bit from the couch on Saturday but it hurt my back being hunched over the laptop screen for a few hours.