What is your desire and how does the pressure to seek it create hesitation and conflict?
There is so much in life to compare ourselves against. Every direction we look we see what WE KNOW we can do. What in our hearts of hearts we would love to experience. Personally …
But then perhaps, in many cases, I see a wall that becomes built by the pressure of the activity. The very desire to create — write, sing, dance, hold a party, start a business, ask that girl out and build a relationship … itself creates a strain and wall to doing. To enjoyment. A painful way to lead the day.
Something I am challenged by at this moment and many a days. Here I share how I bust through these pressures and free myself from these mind prisons.
For me …
I see artisans making art — painting and more, and have a deep hunger to jump right in. I am also mindful to know when I do sit down with my daughter my drawings are struggling to keep up with her talent. She paints, draws, and crafts at a volume that would humble even the likes of TeamGaryVee. She cares about how it looks of course, but for her it is more the story she is telling in her art. What the mermaid is doing; what the giraffe is thinking; what is set on the tea table with the animals. She paints the backgrounds bold and beautiful colors, and makes everything large.
I on the other-hand lightly pencil my drawings and color them carefully. There is no background color, no rainbows, no there is only the white paper background.
Thinking of creating…
Today I spent most of the day thinking about creating. Thinking about writing. Thinking about cutting new videos and drawing together new stories. I thought about my TikTok .. juggled how much better my content would be if I had a better name, profile, etc … I thought of the posts I could create with the footage I took last week. I thought of how I could tell a story with the music I prepared this week.
I thought myself all the way from sunrise to lunch. Then I thought myself to the coffee shop.
How many of us have seen time slip away, with these same thoughts..
- It’s too early
- I should do X first
- I shouldn’t even start that project if I don’t have at least a few hours to work continuously (I don’t even sleep continuously, but heaven forbid I take a pause creating)
- etc…
Hesitation …
In the end it is simply this … we are hesitating. Hesitating to start, finish, and release.
The key to overcoming my biggest obstacles has been when I attack my efforts to delay. The second I think of delaying — I immediately need to cease the thoughts and just get working on it. It sounds simple but here is a sketch —
- I see I have an hour available in the morning because I woke early
- I think of the project I want to do
- My mind begins to toss in excuses, laundry, bills, and doubts even around how “good” the end product will be.
- This is the critical moment for me and you. We MUST just sit down and do. No fancy lighting, no fancy anything … just DO DO DO.
If I don’t immediately start then I find myself hours later wondering what happened. Hesitation is like social media feeds — if you aren’t careful you’ll find yourself consuming your time at a speed that’ll be baffling.
Just DO, the quality will work itself out .. but it is singularly dependent upon just starting.
The strain of wanting to do / be something
Now that I have shared that hesitation is a surmountable difficulty, it is important to understand what it is like when we fail in our efforts.
For me it is strain and stress.
For you it could be something else …
I work on other work that isn’t creative, valuable, but should be done at some point in history (certainly not in that vital moment of quiet and creative opportunity).
The Strain and Stress I experience builds in my chest and then essentially creates an anxiety around everything I do. It frankly isn’t pretty. What is important is to know — IT’S FINE. We can solve this pressure and strain by simply doing.
How you can overcome creative hesitation and unlock your creativity
Reflect on your day, week, and month. Do you have moments where you were buried in strain in stress on an important project — personal or professional? Were there aspects of hesitation (perhaps asking painful questions or exposing your lack of experience)? If there are creative desires and you haven’t been able to produce — think about how to rapidly go from that moment of DESIRE (“ohh I want to make a video about camp”) to PRODUCING (sit down; get started; stand up when you have a working prototype).
YOU can do it — and know .. the doing, repetitions, and enjoyment is what will lead to your happiness (or is your happiness)! It isn’t the output that matters so much as the creative journey you allow yourself to enter.
My way
Today was one of these days. I struggled and found myself disappointed and stressed. Literally self applied stress and bad vibes because I didn’t just do the creative work my heart desired, and I hoped others would enjoy.
My way today was to finally plan a simple reset — leave the office, find a quiet spot in a coffee shop, put on the headphones (loud), and face the wall. That unlocked me today. Tomorrow I plan to set a specific time to create, and do so guilt free. That’ll be the time to create and what happens then could be a crayon drawing or some full 5k video production.
What matters, honestly, one creator to another, is that we explore our art and let it become us. Let it change us. Let us experience all the possibilities, for if not, why at all be here.
About Me
I am a father, study of human behavior, strategist, cybersecurity executive, and a coach and mentor on a journey to give more than I receive everyday. I lead teams globally, build products, and daily an executive for a leading company where I serve the largest companies in the world using the largest cloud deployments in the world impacting the financial services, healthcare, and fintech industries. I provide these publications and content through my media agency to deliver insights and advantages. Mindset, mental strength, mentorship, personal improvement, health, fitness, and humanist ideas are drawn from personal research and practice. Everything read and heard is my original works and my own perspective. All rights reserved for noted authors and sources. I produce research and strategy, as well as provide advisory services that include inquiries, briefings, consulting projects, and presentations on published findings as well as bespoke speaking engagements where I often keynote at conferences, seminars, and roundtables annually.