Monday Memo #10
Embrace the stuck
The Monday memo is food for thought to fuel your week.
Hi everyone,
Our next Collaboratory, Exploring Stuckness, with Bill Keaggy, “Exploring stuckness,” is coming up this Wednesday.
It’s got me thinking about the role stuckness plays in our lives. What is stuckness anyway? Stuckness is at heart a lack of something. You feel stuck because something is no longer flowing the way that you want it to. Stuckness is the flip side of flow.
The nature of creative work is that it is novel. A new episode of a show that repeats the same old story is not creative, it’s repetitive. There is no formula for creativity. Creative work requires a continuous willingness to explore new territory, to experiment. And in experiments, there’s no guarantee of success — in fact, if your experiments are always successful, they aren’t really experiments, are they.
There needs to be a risk of failure in any experiment or adventure. The outcomes can’t always be known, and they can’t always be good.
If you are happy with the result of every creative project you do, chances are you’re not making progress. The stuck is important. It matters. It’s the dissatisfaction with your work that shows you where the problems and challenges are, that pushes you to experiment, try new things and improve.
Flow is a feeling of continuous energy, learning, growth. If you’re in a creative groove, in the zone, that’s great, and you ride that upward curve for as long as you can. But if it’s a creative curve, there will inevitably a flattening, a plateau, or the curve will become so steep that it becomes a cliff, a wall, an obstacle.
Stuckness is embedded in the concept of creativity. It’s a necessary element. If you want springtime, you have to accept winter. And if you want to lead a creative life, you have to accept stuckness.
This week’s exercise.
This week’s exercise is kind of a non-exercise. Embrace the stuck. Stuckness is one among many things in life that are unpleasant but also unavoidable. Lean into your stuckness. Lean into the pain. Explore the feeling. Write about it. Ask yourself what you can gain from it. Like all things, stuckness is not forever. It will pass.
Later this week, we will spend some time exploring stuckness. Whether you’re stuck right now or not, please come. Stuckness is part of the creative life, something we all must learn to live with. We can embrace the stuck together.
Updates.
Our next Collaboratory is this Wednesday, February 21st, from 9-10:30 AM Pacific (Noon-1:30 PM Eastern, 5-6:30 PM GMT). Our topic will be “Exploring stuckness” with my longtime friend and colleague, Bill Keaggy.
On March 6th, we will hold an “Open House” Collaboratory to preview and showcase some of the courses that we currently have in development. Get ready to hear from some of your peers who will be launching courses in the School of the Possible in coming months!
Collaboratories are held on the first and third Wednesdays of every month. They are free for members. Members, your joining instructions are “below the fold.”
If you’re stuck (and also if you’re not!), consider joining one of our Friday Campfire calls. They’re free to join, anyone is welcome, and we talk about things that are fueling our creative energy and inspiring us. The energy is infectious.
Become a member by upgrading your subscription, or you can buy a one-time ticket for the February 21st Collaboratory here.
As of this week we have 46 members. The first 100 members will lock in the $20/month rate forever.
If you’re already a member, thank you. You’re making this possible.