{"id":44,"date":"2015-01-13T21:37:09","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T21:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zachbarnesonwriting.wordpress.com\/?p=44"},"modified":"2015-01-13T21:37:09","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T21:37:09","slug":"dont-overthink-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/13\/dont-overthink-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Overthink It"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"long-8\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Poor little fellah. \u00a0Every time you watch it, it gets worse (funnier?)<\/p>\n

The windup in this .gif is intense, much more so than the actual ‘event’ itself. \u00a0Sometimes, I think that I’m very similar to Mr. Red-Underwear, and not just in the way I approach writing. \u00a0Kicking that ball is a big deal. \u00a0He really,\u00a0really<\/em> wants it to work out. \u00a0And what happens, besides pure hilarity?<\/p>\n

Well, he ends up on his butt.<\/p>\n

This can happen to adults. \u00a0We hold\u00a0expectations of ourselves that we import from stuff like TV, conversations, role models and the like. \u00a0And if we think about them too long or too hard, we end up on our butts, too.<\/p>\n

I’m not saying that if the prep had been shorter captain underpants would have kicked the ball–that’s probably just comes down to lack of\u00a0foot-eye-coordination–but this is a great analog for life. \u00a0If you’re poised on the edge of something you want to start, kick the ball. \u00a0Maybe it’s writing, maybe it’s knitting, maybe it’s learning an instrument. \u00a0It’s easy to overanalyze and overthink–it’s the ‘adult’ thing to do. \u00a0But what makes kids such great learners (of languages, of culture, you know) is that they don’t expect to be great on the first outing, and they’re not self-reflective when they make a mistake. \u00a0I’m sure that if we had the next eight seconds of video, that kid would get up and try again.<\/p>\n

So do yourself a favor: Get out of your own way and just kick the damn ball.<\/p>\n

\"I<\/a>
I don’t know about y’all, but these pictures inspire me. Hope they inspire you, too!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m on facebook at:\u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/zachbarnesonwriting<\/a><\/p>\n

And Twitter: @ZacharyBarnes4<\/p>\n

Like or follow me if you enjoy\u00a0the blog!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t steal\u00a0my words. \u00a0They\u2019re mine. \u00a9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We hold expectations of ourselves that we import from stuff like TV, conversations, role models and the like. And if we think about them too long or too hard, we end up on our butts, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[21,27,52],"tags":[56,64,65,113,142],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/02\/09\/joyful-overestimation\/","url_meta":{"origin":44,"position":0},"title":"Joyful Overestimation","date":"February 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm the kind of writer who joyfully overestimates his own ability every time I sit down to type. \u00a0And I'm sure I'm not the only one... \u00a0I smile, pull open my laptop, look at the pages before me and think, \"finish editing the whole book\u00a0today? hell yeah!\" One paragraph later:\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Inspiration\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/16\/rantasy-or-hi-fantasy-im-zach\/","url_meta":{"origin":44,"position":1},"title":"\"Rantasy\" or; Hi, Fantasy, I'm Zach","date":"January 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Place yourself in a writer's shoes, and you find yourself in an interesting situation. First of all, why'd you steal those shoes? Do they even fit you? Secondly, a person asks you \"what's your book about?\" the primary modus used to explain books is by genre. And that's where I\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Fantasy\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":40,"url":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/2015\/01\/12\/parentheses\/","url_meta":{"origin":44,"position":2},"title":"Parentheses","date":"January 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's how it worked: I'd play through and etude, and 90% of it was okay, but then I'd get to that 10% where the shit would hit the fan. I avoided utter embarrassment by employing the musical equivalent of cursing under your breath so that your mother can't hear you\u2026","rel":"nofollow","context":"In \"Mountains\"","img":{"src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zacharybarnes.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}