I remember having a hard time after my first son was born. It's not an easy transition becoming a father.

I felt like I didn't have any time. I wasn't really drawing much satisfaction from work at the time, and so it felt like I was constantly running between different duties.

Where was the joy?

I was chatting with my therapist at the time, and we were talking about what I would do with my life if I didn't have obligations. What life would I create if I could just snap my fingers? I didn't talk about laying on a beach, I talked about filling my life with people and with purposeful work. Something that felt good to me. I gave him a few examples.

One of those examples was writing. And then he asked me a question that fundamentally changed the trajectory of my next few months:

"What if you got up early to write?"

And I said: "You're crazy. I need my sleep. It's the only thing that allows me to function right now. The only thing keeping this house of cards standing. I can't wake up early."

And he said: "Why don't you try it?"

And so I did.

I was so surprised at what a difference it made. I set my alarm an hour earlier. I was excited to wake up every morning.

And I wrote.

I got pretty deep into a novel before life derailed me. I started focusing more on coaching, and since I coached late at night, early mornings were difficult.

But that feeling of creating something - that never left me. It was fulfilling.

And after all this time, I find myself back there. Staring at the keyboard. Feeling the intimidation of a blank page. Feeling the joy of being creative.

I'm going to be writing. Want to write with me?

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Dealing with new-parent blues 👶💙🎶