Getting Unstuck
Posted on Monday, May 3, 2010 in Creative Habits, Inspiration
Stuck in the mud
A friend of mine is feeling stuck – needing a push to do the thing she wants to do. I gave her some advice that I thought might be helpful for anyone needing help moving from dream to action:
- Surround yourself with people who support your dream, and you. (Some people energize us; others drain us. Pursue the former.)
- Do things that make you feel like your best, most powerful self. For me, this often = yoga.
- Turn the abstract into the concrete. Make a schedule of all the steps you need to follow to turn your dream into a reality, and commit to it.
- Write about your dream. Write down what scares you: why aren’t you taking action? Don’t censor your response – why try to keep information about you, from you? YOU will know that you aren’t getting the full story. Tell the truth. The sooner you can start admitting what you want to yourself, the sooner you can articulate it to others, and commit to doing what it takes to make it happen.
Then, of course, there are opportunities like the blogathon in which I’m participating – a structured challenge that takes the choice away from you, in part, and puts you on a track to just doing something, without deciding whether to do it.
What else do you do to get unstuck?
Photo above by David Schenfeld on Flickr
Related Reading:
- Be in the scene you want to be in
- Sage advice from Martha Graham (from my former blog, Creative DC)
- Creativity: daily practice, or fevered state? (Creative DC)
Sleep on it? I also sometimes have breakthroughs in the shower, of all places!
All of your suggestions sound good though.
I sometimes schedule the step-after-the-next-step with someone, in a way that forces me to get the actual next step done because now someone is expecting me to do it.
For example, I told a client, “Wait till you see the lovely new packaging I’m doing to deliver your photos!” Then, well, I had to go purchase necessary items to provide said lovely packaging (which was part of a strategy to improve client experience and increase referrals).
It works for bigger things too. :-)
A 20 minute nap helps get me unstuck. Turning off the lights and checking out for a little while is a good way to hit the reset button.
Your advice is great. Especially like the 3rd on the list.
Great to meet you through #Blog2010!
In defense of drainers – I think I provide valuable anti-sycophancy services. It seems bizarre to me how pervasive and unexamined is the mantra “everyone deserves uncritical support in whatever goal they’ve most recently come up with”. It deprives people of useful feedback from the experience of their friends. “anything you can dream, you can do!” is too often untrue, and leads many folks to sadness, as opposed to a happier balance. (e.g. strange how many folks’ real dream that needs support and encouragement from all around them is so often show business.) I think “support” has become an offensively generic term, devoid of what used to be one of its key components – viz. “direction”….
WOV, I think if someone asks you for advice, or for your opinion, then you’re right…no point in cheerleading if it isn’t really how you feel. That’s being false, and what’s the point of false friendship. But sometimes people don’t want advice, or your opinion – they just want your support as they pursue something really important to them, even if you think it’s a bad idea. And I think being a good friend means being able to give that support, because after all, it’s their life, not yours…
Convinced?
Sara – I agree, taking a break from something (whether it’s 20 minutes or 2 weeks) can also be a great way to get unstuck… give yourself permission not to think about something for a while, let it marinate a bit in your subconscious, and then come back to it with a fresh mind. (Personally, naps – though I love them! – leave me feeling like I’m underwater, so restorative yoga is more of my go-to for a quick refresh/reset.)
Not quite! The balance between co-dependency and a sort of rude cultural imperialism over others’ lives is a hard one for me, but I do think we are still recovering as a society from too much emphasis on self-esteem as opposed to self-evaluation. I don’t think that giving someone support to do something I think is a bad idea is helpful…here’s where artfully managed silence provides a bolt hole for the ethical or courteous coward.
Also, I apologize for what is sort of a thread hijack.
No apology needed! And oh, how I’ve missed your distinctive turns of phrase… ;)
I do understand where you’re coming from. I too resist the blind “rah rah/I’m ok/you’re ok” ethos…and I value critical thinking. I guess what I resist is person A thinking it’s up to them to debunk person B’s dream. I’d rather see person A use their imagination and compassion and put themselves in person B’s shoes, and try to understand why something they’re having a hard time supporting might actually be “right.”
But perhaps this is a conversation to have over beer at some point. Or, we could just sit quietly and judge each other!
[...] to take responsibility for our own well-being. (I’ve written about this topic myself here and here.) The post offers a few tips for turning this advice into action; for example: Notice when you are [...]