“Monday 5 Things”….. 25 or 6 to 4 …..
26.06.08 by D. Paul Graham
Because the blank page isn't judging you nearly as much as you think it is. Neither is Monday.
“25 or 6 to 4” Writers Block, Ai Selfie, Savannah GA 2026
By Friday night I was seriously concerned that I would miss my first Monday 5 Things. Not because I was short on ideas. Quite the opposite. I literally have hundreds of notes, half-written thoughts, fragments of stories, quotes, and enough material to write at least three months of M5T’s. Yet every time I sat down to write last week, nothing seemed quite right. I'd start. Stop. Rewrite. Delete. Stare out the window. Watch some cat videos on Facebook. Refill my coffee. Grab another Red Bull. Sugar free of course. I convinced myself that re-sorting my camera bag was the responsible thing to do, because nothing says "serious writer at work" quite like avoiding the writing entirely. I was experiencing writer’s block.
Saturday morning over coffee with LA, in what we call our treehouse, I was kvetching about my writer’s block. LA suggested a M5T about blocks and reminded me of ‘25 or 6 to 4’ by Chicago. What I didn’t know is that the song was written in the middle of the night while songwriter Robert Lamm sat staring at a blank page, struggling to write and create. The title refers to twenty-five or twenty-six minutes before four in the morning. One of rock's most enduring songs emerged from a moment in time when its writer thought he had nothing.
The song got me thinking. Writer's block is rarely about writing. Most of the obstacles we encounter in life are simply different versions of the same thing. Resistance.
As I moved back to my computer, fingers flying over the keyboard, this morning’s M5T unblocks the block.
1. MOST BLOCKS ARE FEAR WEARING A CLEVER DISGUISE. I've become increasingly convinced that very few of us are actually blocked. What we are is afraid. Afraid the article won't be good enough. Afraid the business won't succeed. Afraid the conversation won't go well. Afraid we'll discover that we're not as capable as we hope we are.
Fear is remarkably resourceful. It rarely announces itself directly, saying, "Paul, you're scared." Instead, it says things that can trip you up. "Maybe you should do a little more research." "Let's think about this another week." "You're not quite ready yet." "The timing isn't right."
Fear often disguises itself as prudence, preparation, or perfectionism. The challenge is that fear feels productive. It allows us to spend hours rearranging the furniture without ever leaving the house.
I've seen this in business exits. Owners spend years saying they want to sell their company yet never take the first step toward preparing for an exit. They aren't blocked by market conditions, valuation, or buyer interest. They're blocked by their own uncertainty. The same thing happens in our personal lives. The antidote is rarely another plan. It's usually a small act of courage. One sentence. One phone call. One email. One meeting. One difficult conversation.
Fear thrives in stillness. It weakens the moment we move. Once we start moving, we often discover that the obstacle was never as large as we thought.
2. PERFECTION IS A SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE FORM OF PROCRASTINATION. Nobody admits to procrastinating. We often proudly announce that we're "still working on it." That sounds far more respectable.
Perfectionism is one of the few habits that receives applause while quietly sabotaging progress. We convince ourselves that we're pursuing excellence when we’re just avoiding judgment. If the project is never finished, it can never be criticized. If the proposal is never sent, it can never be rejected. If the photograph is never published, nobody can critique it.
The pursuit of perfection creates a comfortable limbo where nothing is completed and as a result, nothing is risked. Nearly everything worthwhile in my life started imperfectly. The first photograph. The first article. The first business engagement. The first issue of Revs & Redlines. The first version of anything is usually unimpressive. That's not a flaw. That's the process.
The world rarely rewards the person with the perfect plan. It rewards the person who gets moving while everyone else is still polishing the blueprint. Done is not the enemy of excellent. Done is often how excellent begins.
3. ACTION CREATES CLARITY. This may be one of the most expensive misunderstandings in our lives. Some people believe clarity comes first. They think successful people woke up one morning with complete certainty, a detailed roadmap, and absolute confidence. They didn't.
Clarity is earned, not granted. Clarity is gained through motion. As an investment banker, I've watched business owners delay decisions because they wanted complete visibility into every possible outcome. The problem is, certainty can’t be bought. You only discover the next piece of information after taking the first and next steps.
Life works this way too. The entrepreneur learns by launching. The writer learns by writing. The photographer learns by shooting. The leader learns by leading.
Waiting for complete clarity is like standing at the edge of a foggy road demanding to see the entire journey before taking the first step. You'll either wait forever, or once the fog clears you’ve missed the opportunity.
The people who accomplish remarkable things are often no smarter than anyone else. They're simply willing to proceed with incomplete information. They trust that the path will reveal itself as they move forward. Profoundly, it usually does.
4. THE LONGER YOU WAIT, THE BIGGER THE BLOCK. There is a fascinating quirk in human nature. The things we avoid often grow larger in our imagination. A difficult conversation delayed for a week becomes harder. Delayed for a month it becomes intimidating. Delayed for a year it becomes nearly impossible. The same is true of goals, projects, dreams, and decisions. What begins as a small obstacle gradually becomes a mountain because we spend so much time thinking about it.
Our minds are remarkably talented special-effects departments. Given enough time, they can turn a speed bump into Mount Everest.
The irony is that most things we fear are nowhere near as difficult as the anticipation surrounding them. That difficult conversation goes better than expected. The demanding project is usually less complicated than imagined. The tentative first step is almost always easier than the months spent avoiding it.
I've rarely regretted taking action to move forward. I've often regretted waiting, because the cost of delay is predictably higher than the cost of trying.
5. CREATIVITY IS A HABIT NOT A LIGHTNING BOLT. Who doesn’t love an inspirational story? A songwriter writes a hit song after agonizing to begin. An entrepreneur has a brilliant idea in the shower. A writer suddenly discovers the perfect opening paragraph.
Those moments happen, but they're far less common than we romanticize. Most meaningful work comes from just showing up when inspiration seemingly has entered the witness protection program. The writer sits down anyway. The athlete trains anyway. The photographer goes out anyway. The leader shows up anyway. Professionals understand something amateurs often miss. Motivation is unreliable, but habits are dependable.
The greatest creators aren't necessarily more talented. They’ve simply developed the discipline to work when they don't feel like it. Action isn't the reward for inspiration. More often, inspiration is the reward for taking action. The blank page remains blank until we begin. Then something interesting happens. The first sentence creates the second. The second creates the third. Momentum arrives. Ideas appear. Energy follows effort.
The muse, it turns out, prefers to meet people who are already working. The one-word answer to any block is profoundly simple. Start.
© 2026 D. Paul Graham, All Rights Reserved
Paul continues to believe that writer's block is often just perfectionism wearing a fake mustache.
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