declogging your creative workflow

 
 
 

this week I've been feeling a bit heavy/clogged/traffic-jammed/stuck -- in terms of art & business work. this is an all-too-familiar sensation for me, but now I finally realized why.

I'm attempting to do everything all at once.
I want everything to happen all at once.

I'm feeling clogged because I'm greedy/impatient in how much I want to do. it's like trying to fit 8 things through a narrow door, or swallow 5 things (without chewing). a very natural urge when the to-eat list seems endless and overwhelming -- but, of course I will choke!

I want to do a gazillion new projects while I still have a long list of unfinished things, weighing me down. I want to push forwards in expansion -- before I've released & completed what I'm already working on. this is my reoccuring pattern: tons of initiation energy and excitement around new ideas -- then stuckness at completing/releasing into the world.

I'm realizing: both cannot happen at once. they happen in cycles. the cycles can overlap, of course -- but not everything all at once.

my creative work can be divided into 2 phases:

Initiation: Birthing Energy

the possibility, expansiveness, and excitement of birthing a new project or idea -- when everything feels nebulous. anything is possible. I sketch, dream, doodle, create.

Completion: Death Energy

the nitty gritty work of bringing the project to the end. allowing it to finish, to be released into the world. to surrender it -- by sharing it with others. allowing it to leave me, and go out into the world (where I have no control over how it will be received).

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you can look at these as: planting a seed (birth) vs. harvesting a fruit (death). the reality is that fruit have seeds, and death leads to birth -- thus the entire process is cyclical. I wrote a post going into this in more depth: the lifecycles of a creative project.

questions I'm asking myself regularly:

  • what's keeping me from completing / letting go / releasing this project? (perfectionism? overthinking? fear? scarcity?)

  • what wants to be released (completely) today?

  • what wants to be born (a little) today?

everything will NOT get done all at once. but it will happen in seasons, aligning with your cycle.

this post was originally written for my weekly newsletter, guide.notes. get it in your inbox, every thursday by signing up here.

 
creative practice, growing a businessKening Zhucreative process, paralysis, overwhelm SOS