Are you a ‘push’ writer or a ‘pull’ writer?

Do you do your best creative work when you’re ‘pushed’… or ‘pulled’?

The other day, I was out for a run. Well, at my age, it’s more of a shuffle jog. I wind my way up the path I’ve frequented hundreds of times toward the loop around our neighborhood soccer fields, and as I turn the corner, I spot him: A runner in front of me!

There’s something hard-wired in me, but when I see a runner up ahead, I immediately increase my pace. An involuntary reaction. It’s kinda like greyhounds chasing the mechanical rabbit at a dog race:

Sure, my gait may transition from jog to canter, but the speed isn’t the issue. It’s the impulse to try to catch the dude ahead of me.

So I up my pace. And after about 200 yards, I see I’m falling further behind… and that dude is about 30 strapping years old… and he has tree stumps for leg muscles.

Rationality overcoming instinct, I grant myself an Old Guy Pass and downshift from second to first gear.

Farewell, youthful rabbit! Meanwhile I, the tortoise, shall continue to plug along, lacking fleet feet, yet ever persistent. Because as the old story of the rabbit and the tortoise goes…