Call me a nerd (I admit it freely), but one of my favorite things to do as a child was back-to-school shopping. While most of my peers were groaning about heading back into the classroom, I was clicking my heels at the prospect of buying a new Lisa Frank notebook or a Trapper Keeper. (My favorite remains a notebook with dolphins swimming around the globe. It defied BOTH biology and astronomy.)

While I was excited about the inter-species marriage between a purple cat bride and golden retriever groom (they were the Romeo and Juliet of the animal kingdom), these notebooks would never get filled. I would inevitably horde them for personal use and claim that “they were too good for school.” I would write in two or three pages at the most.

What notebooks would be used in school and have every single page filled? Those marble composition books.

Why?

Because they aren’t that pretty. (No offense, notebooks.)

There was no pressure with that notebook. Did I cross out a sentence? Who cares? It was not a beautiful notebook.

There was sweet, sweet freedom in its plainness.

So my challenge to you is to go to your local drugstore and buy the ugliest notebook possible. Or at least a composition book. Then fill it.

You don’t need gravity-defying dolphins or a panda with a paintbrush. You just need pages. Go out and write in them.

Need help filling your notebook? Check out my coaching packages.