I just got home from a beautiful, sunny, morning walk. Not only is it Sunday morning, but where I am right now, it’s Easter, which means the streets are blessedly empty. Just the sun, trees, birds, and occasional whining cat are out and about.
I got home filled with positive impressions and opened my laptop. YouTube asked — resume video?
Suddenly, a weight settled on my shoulders.
I have a habit of leaving music playing when I go out of the house. It happened this morning too, until YouTube paused it at some point. Now it was asking if I want to continue.
My finger lingered over the resume button. I could see the next song that would play. It was both appealing and repulsive:
Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street.
I’m telling you all this as an example of a real problem I’ve noticed in my life.
My mind is becoming a closed garden, with songs I have known before and humor and ideas I have known before as the only plants that have a chance to take root.
I’ve listened to Baker Street, by my estimate, some 13 million times in my life. Do I need to listen to it again? No, in fact, it’s become irritating. But do I want to listen to anything else, anything new? Not really.
I don’t have a solution to this problem.
Perhaps you have a solution for me.
Or perhaps you don’t. Perhaps just have the same problem, and feel a little excited that at least one other person shares your problem.
Or perhaps not even that. Perhaps you don’t have this problem at all, but you just found it curious to read that somebody could experience such a deep life crisis around the topic of Baker Street.
If any of these is true, then I guess I’ve done my job.
Because when I opened up my laptop, closed down YouTube (sorry Gerry), and got to work, I made a list.
It was titled, “10 problems I have in my life right now.”
Making this list wasn’t depressing. In fact was a relief to get it out of my head and on to the page.
#8 was the “closed garden” problem above.
#6 was that I have no email topic for today.
Well, at least that problem’s solved for now.
So maybe you can do the same. If you have to come up with ideas, topics, or content, start by making an honest list of problems you have in your life. And then pick one of those problems and write about it.
It always does well for me when I send out an email like that.
“You mean you make lots of sales like that?” you ask.
What, have you been reading my “10 problems” list?
The answer is no, if you really must know. I don’t make sales like that, but that’s because I don’t have enough offers to sell. That’s a real problem in my life. Well, at least until I turn it into a topic for another email. If you want to read that when it comes out, or if you’re interested in copywriting and marketing, sign up to my email newsletter.