Post-it notes, to-do lists and whiteboard scrawling.
Half finished blog posts, word documents with just a few sentences on them and over 75 Evernote documents.
Looking at all this unfinished work brought up anger – the white hot anger that’s fuelled by frustration.
And then the frustration turns into waves of anxiety and panic.
That I’m wasting time, not accomplishing what I really want to.
And so I distracted myself.
Gardening, walking the dog, practicing yoga…all things that nurture my soul and align my spirit.
But the day came when the white hot anger became unbearable.
I’ve seen first hand that “worrying about worrying” isn’t healthy – it’s yet another distraction.
And yet, this can be the default setting.
Feeling stuck and cranky can lead to more procrastinating as we try to think our way out of the grey funk.
So what’s an alternative?
As a Melburnian, sporting mad AFL football fan, I remembered this quote from one of Hawthorn Football Club’s legends.
“At least DO SOMETHING! DO! Don’t think, don’t hope, do! At least you can come off and say ‘I did this, I shepherded, I played on. At least I did something.'” John Kennedy Sr, Australian Rules football player and coach.
Taking action, whether it’s for 10 minutes or 2 hours is my new antidote.
The willingness to take action, and to then act is the first step to gaining confidence and belief again.
Belief that your creative pursuit does mean something – that it makes a difference to you, your community, the world.
Confidence that you haven’t lost your ability to create – that your creative muscle thrives and flourishes when you take action.
