I spend a lot of time in my head. How about you?
I like dreaming up new things. Solutions, upgrades, better ways forward. We’re strategists, communicators, people-activators. There are endless things to learn on the topic, infinite ways to skin this particular cat.
Add in all the related topics – psychology, engagement, health, wellness, leadership and life. I could make stuff up for ever and ever and never feel done.
Creativity is everywhere. In writing the next great novel, crafting a weekly email, a new strategy, or devising a new process for organizing your socks.
I put myself in this position all the time. I love new ideas. The process is exciting, daunting, frustrating, powerful, vulnerable and so rewarding in the end.
It’s always a choice. Do we do the same thing we always did? Or do we reimagine it? Find a better way? Build a new thing? I always seem to opt for a version of the latter. And what ensues….
A spark of an idea, a vision.
A foggy picture in my mind’s eye about what could be. Then I try to make that real and hit all kinds of road blocks. Translating the idea into a tangible thing worth sharing.
Literally making it real…on the page, in the email, presentation deck, workshop.
My process? It’s random. I go big and consider everything I ever knew on a topic.
No. Too big. No focus.
I look to other categories, new sources, mix that into the idea soup.
What is that doing here?
I wheedle it down.
Nope, not the big impact I’m after
I build and tear down
I lose the goal
I make something entirely different
I start over
I procrastinate
Need your desk tidied up, anyone?
In his book, The War of Art, Steven Pressfield calls it Resistance. That invisible force that pushes back hardest just when you’re about to finish. I get that.
It’s safer to stay stuck in the swirl than to hit send, publish, share. It’s a meandering road. High on effort. Low on resolution. And the worst feeling of all….wasted time.
Think what you could have done with that time!!
Alphabetized my Spotify playlists
Matched all the Tupperware to its lid
Watched every dog video on TikTok
I’ve been doing versions of this long enough to know it’s all part of the process. Doesn’t make it any easier. It is a struggle. But a struggle I knowingly, willingly and excitedly take on routinely. And sometimes, I’m happy with the result, at least until I decide to change it.
Rick Ruben, the uber famous and reclusive music producer wrote a book about creativity.
He says: All that matters is that you are making something you love, to the best of your ability, here and now.
And so we press on…making things up.
I hope you get to make something you love today. Design a new route to the office, create a new recipe for chicken thighs. Whatever it is, all that matters is you love it.
Because every act of creation, no matter how small, is a vote for the kind of person you want to be.
New to One Thing Thursdays?
Each week, I share something I’m learning, living, or working out in real time. It’s part storytelling, part reflection. I hope there’s something in it for you too.
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Mary
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