When some of us who are known to be creative suddenly become less inclined to write or joke that we’ve lost our inspiration or zest for creating, usually there is more behind it than boredom or restlessness. For a lot of us, some thing or things impede our focus, get in the way of our imagination. The imagination becomes cluttered and much of what’s in there is ready for the junkyard but for whatever reason, some of us may not want to deal with the junk. So we leave the mess. And it grows. And grows. And at some point, we’re talking “Sanford and Son” level. (Look it up on Wikipedia or IMDB, kiddos.)
If something is standing in the way of your ability to create, generate ideas or find your focus, it may be you need some junkremoval. Take a few moments to think about what consumes much of your mind these days, where are your thoughts usually taking you when they are not in creativity mode. Maybe you’ve got family drama on the brain, money or work issues, dissatisfaction with some other aspect of your life — health, relationships, the environment around you (physical or emotional) — it can be any number of things or a mix of several of these roadblocks that are preventing you from getting into the frame of mind unique to your success at being creative, generating ideas or finding that flow. Whatever is getting in the way of you reaching that imagination — shine the spotlight on it. What can you do about it?
First, think quick fix. Maybe there’s a way to make a change in a process or delegate in some way to remove this obstacle from your path and put someone else in charge of this who can do something about it immediately. Second, maybe decide to spend one afternoon tackling it with a brainstorm session with a trusted friend or an expert in the field who can at least help you demote this obstacle from your attention span and otherwise, loosen its hold on your concentration.
Some problems simply can’t be tackled in an afternoon sitting, in a week or at all — but what can you do to lessen its impact on you? Is there another way to address it in your life that will at least pull it out of your creative or idea-generation workflow? Maybe in this case you can’t haul away or totally discard the junk, but you could move it into a room by itself or a closet tucked away so you can deal with it at another time. Does it have the ability to be shelved for now if it is imperative that you find your focus?
I wish I could give you some magic formula like one of those algebraic equations where X always calculates to a finite value. But the fact is we all harbor that junk in the attic. Others call it baggage. I call it junk because in the long run, it serves no purpose. At least with baggage, when you want to go on that trip to reflect, and it could be a healthy trek to take if in the end, you can pack up all of those memories and stow it away in some out-of-the-way place where you can barely remember it exists but know the lessons are there in those suitcases should you ever need to go there again for a quick refresher course. But junk? Who needs junk? EVER?! No one, that’s who. These distractions, misconceptions about ourselves, fallacies we subscribe to because somewhere along the way, we were led to believe they were truths…all of this junk just needs to go!
For those who go to work and are able to complete their functions on the job without any of the junk getting in their way, power to you! That must be nice. But if you are a creative, you know what I’m talking about. So much of this junk seeps into our thoughts and can lead us to doubt we have any ability to string a sentence together, let alone create a world or mythology others might want to subscribe to and set off on a beautiful journey with us. Getting rid of all of that junk that clutters our imagination and makes us think we don’t have the tools to do it, can’t afford the time to do it and surely won’t have anyone interested in reading it, these are piles of garbage that must go…whether it’s garbage day or not.
Haul —- It —- Away!
I write this primarily for the creatives and idea people out there, because this is what I know best. But whatever your job title or function in your current line of work, I send this message to each of you who continually struggle with self-doubt. Pull out the deepest, thickest trash bags. You know the ones for the yard leaves and weeds. Those super tough, cannot-puncture-with-a-sword Hefty bags that seem tall enough to haul away a palm tree! Load that metaphorical mess hauler with as much of those lies you’ve been believing and the clutter clogging up an otherwise beautiful channel of thoughts, inspirations and visions.
Haul away whatever is in your path to build a plan, develop an idea, create-create-create something wonderful – on the easel, on the piano, on the page…find it in yourself! And share it with the world!
Tell me what you’re hauling away or need to toss outta there today, and how you feel about it. I wish you, me and everyone reading this the good fortune of forging a clearer path to where we want to be. And as always, I thank you for reading. ~ Chris K.
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