Hard work without a purpose seems like hard work. Why am I doing this? In what direction am I struggling? What is the end goal of all this labour? I do not know, so I drag my feet.
Taking your life into uncharted territory you may need to build maps every couple of steps along the path. You are teaching yourself the journey as you go along, but it does not mean that you are lost. Being lost is a choice.
Even if you have to say I don’t know what lays at the end of the path, you can say here I am, and this is the point where I am currently standing. You can say I am moving forwards. Why? Why do you want to move forwards? To get somewhere. What somewhere?
When you write a story sometimes you jump off the cliff and you have to listen closely to be able to write the story as you fall. Sometimes you have a stunt mattress below and you know what you are falling into. Both are acceptable ways to get to the bottom of the cliff. Standing looking at the edge of the cliff forever and contemplating how scary it is will achieve only one thing – being scared.
Nanowrimo approaches. I choose to fall of multiple cliffs at once. Why? To make the story interesting, and make interesting stories.