Brash announcements work, at least in one way. They get attention.
Attention is useful when you have something to say.
Most of the time though, we don’t.
The energy you spent working yourself up to make that brash announcement is the same energy you don’t put towards the work.
Sometimes it is best just to float. Say nothing, be still, and let collect yourself.
Every once in a while your body and mind will tell you to stop.
Listen to it and:
Often, we ignore it and try to double down, or we feel a sense of guilt and beat ourselves up for recovery.
Don’t.
It serves no one and your creative energy, on fumes, probably leads to work that you wouldn’t be proud of, anyway.
Drop the guilt and lay down.
You’ll be up in no time.
When you start digging, it’s easy to notice progress.
The divot in the ground is visible. It’s easy to point to it and tell people “Look, I did that.” At the beginning, the change is visible and easy to share.
The hard part is after you’ve dug for a while. When you tell people about your progress and people say “It looks the same as yesterday.”
It is discouraging.
It’s tempting to start digging another hole and say “I’ll get to that other hole too.”
Odd are, you won’t. The new hole feels better than the other one. Also, the praise is coming in, and it’s easier to show your work.
Resist this temptation, because digging new holes becomes addictive. Whenever you get to the point of the first hole, and the praise starts to level off, you will start a new hole.
Eventually, you have a bunch of holes and nothing constructive to do with them.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 