What do we do when we’re so rusty that it seems we’ve become completely disconnected from creativity?
This was the problem my client of mine was facing: it had been work, work, work for so long, they’d forgotten how to do anything else.
😖
And because the mind loves its habits—its neurological pathways of familiarity—every time they tried to think of something, it just came up with a list of objections.
Yup, we’ve all been there.
It’s a form of procrastination, isn’t it? Keeping the foot of thinking firmly on the neck of creativity, with its predictions of what’s going to happen, how we’ll feel, and why even trying is all just one bad idea.
🙄
But here’s the thing.
Because creativity is an unstoppable force—that we inadvertently apply the brakes to, with our thinking—in principle, all we have to do to get ourselves unstuck is to take our foot off the brakes.
But to do so, you might have to be a bit sneaky, so as not to wake the slumbering ego.
(Don’t let your mind hear what I’m about to tell you. Read it really secretively 🤫)
Creative nothing
That’s why, to my client, I recommended ‘creative nothing’.
Creative nothing is when you do something that the mind barely registers as creativity.
It’s doing something that’s got nothing pinned on it.
No outcome to attach to, no expectations to get the old left brain revved up, just something simple, a bit different but familiar, and fun.
So for me, it might be something like starting to get into a music mix. Literally just looking at my ‘Next Mixtape 🔥’ playlist on my phone, and idly pushing tracks around, to see how they could fit together; maybe checking the BPMs with a little app I have.
It’s the sort of thing that I love so much (but forget is even a thing, when I’m really busy for extended periods), that once I’ve got started, it snowballs quickly.
(You’ll have you own thing you’ve maybe just remembered, as you’re tiptoeing quietly around your mind, reading this.)
Most importantly, I have nothing on it. No skin in the game.
Sure, if I really get into it, there’ll be an end product, but really, I do it for the sheer enjoyment of doing it. (The journey is the destination, you know?)
It’s ‘creative nothing’ and once I get going (up late at night; headphones on, lost in music) it’s the most foot-off-the-brakes I could possibly be.
And—crucially—you’ll find that creativity begets creativity.
(My business coach pointed this out to me and you have him to thank for these Daily Reminders getting off the ground in the first place!)
The more creative nothing you do (i.e. the more evidence you get for yourself, of how creativity just flows, when you’re not being distracted by the mind’s bickering, insecurity and future-gazing) the easier it gets.
Before you know it, you’ve got your creative mojo back.
All from doing creative nothing.
Give it a go and—literally—see what happens!
💟
Giles