Don't Hesitate

Don't Hesitate

Hesitation kills creativity.

When we have an idea... when we're inspired by a thought, when we've laid out a task in front of us...

We take a moments pause (instead of a plunge).

And in that moment of pause, our thinking mind activates and starts cycling through what we will say, what we will write, or what we will make.

And the subtle pause kills our best work. Because that subtle pause introduces a different form of thinking. It activates our strategic mind.

You'd think that it would be helpful to use strategy in your work.

You'd think that it would help to allow thinking to help guide what you make.

But this is an error in order.

Thinking happens best after our work is done, and miles before our work starts again. Thinking is for setting a direction.

Work is for work.

As soon as you sense you are about to put pen to paper, what we want is for the thinking to stop and the doing to take over.

Because our best work is done without a filter.

And the thinking creates a barrier between us in our work, it jumbles the magic and replaces it with strategy and “trying.” And the audience can tell.

Now it's possible that we're all on a spectrum, and my natural place used to sit on the "thinking too much" end. Whereas some are "doing" all over without ever having thought about it, even before hand.

But if you're like me, thinking creates a variety of complex pathways to go down, and at each turn, there is a decision. This is a slow and imperfect way to produce something.

Instead, simply working is like slowly rolling down a hill, you've got momentum thanks to a pull of gravity. Small changes to direction are made with little thought, and it's apparent when the work is finished and you're at the bottom.

What many will learn and few will say...

Is that the best work we create, the best ideas we have, don't come out through a long, hard, process of thinking. At least not when they arrive.

They arrive when we let ideas slip out, allowing action to happen without pausing to think, first.

When we go with the pull, instead of putting our arms and legs out to stop ourselves.

And that makes all the difference.

xx David