The early daze of creative endeavors

AKA: The sweet taste of New Idea Obsession™

So you’ve got a new idea.

The crush stage crashes into your psyche fast and furious. It's like being knock-out drunk or 10,000 miles high, swimming and swirling in the heart-pounding excitement triggered every time your mind tangles with the edges. Everything makes complete sense on the notebook pages that you so ferociously encrypt with details and sketches. You even blab incoherently like the town carouser and gush to bunch of people : I AM DOING THIS NEW THING! LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY NEW THING.

And then…

Then you take a break from guzzling all of the 2L bottles of Obsesh, because, you know, work and laundry and stuff. And the distance shakes you up from your bender.

Wait, what’s this about?
Should I be doing this?
Is this a thing?
Who was that back there???
No, no, no, no, no. I suck at this shit, I can’t ACTUALLY do this!

Ah, the creative madness negative feedback loop.

Or collectively, “Resistance” thanks Steven Pressfield).

It’s a bitch.

What’s the antidote to that sugary haze hangover that threatens your New Idea Obsession™?

Welp, as Mr. Pressfield puts it:

“Identify that dream and act to bring it into realization.”

Or more bluntly: “Do the work.”

So! If I were to write a prescription to myself, here’s what it would sound like:

First.

Acknowledge that New Idea Obsession™ is irrevocably delicious and probably good for me in proper doses. Or hell with it, guzzle that stuff whenever the mood strikes.

Second.

Remember the best part of the debaucherous night, when I was flying on all cylinders? Why was that? Identify the sweet and sexy secret words,* which my Idea whispered to me as it lured me into its oblivion.

Next.

Invest in schemes under the influence. Feeling particularly tipsy? Sign up for something that might help things along. Need a quick hit? Jot down a handful of “what’s next?” options with a really far away timeline. See, that’s not so bad.

Finally.

Place my unhelpful feelings (read: fears) ever-so-gently away up on a hard-to-reach shelf, and just do some of those things I jotted down. Get ‘er done. Do the work.

* Those words, which my Idea so softly and seductively whispered to me, connect like an electric cord directly to the outlet powered by my values. And those core-to-me values will lead to my ~WHY THIS? WHY NOW?~ compass. And I’ll definitely need a compass where I’m going because when I hear “core value” I’m usually like, nope.

Next episode, I’ll explore core value land. Let’s find the fuel it might provide my New Idea Obsession™ when we finally hop into our tricked out camper van and head for the hills.