I listened to three podcasts while at the gym. I came back and discussed them with my wife. Weighted down with juicy fruit ripe for the picking, my head was swimming.

 

It’s going to be easy to write in the morning, I thought. That’s what I thought.

 

In the space between a creative spark and a public proof of work are layers of evaluation and editing. There’s vague, imagined possibility, and then there’s concrete, specific actuality. To say that translating thinking into doing can be a challenge is a gross understatement.

 

We look at all the doing around us– the podcasts, articles and books, products, projects, all the accomplishments of others– and we perceive a kind of instant perfection. The standard is too high. And false.

 

How can my idea possibly compete with any of that? It’s not good enough.

 

I put myself in the context of completion, but I needed a context of creative flow.

 

Let It Flow

When your head is swimming, or your inner critic edits your ideas and actions before they can actualize, just let the little things flow.

 

So I wrote what popped into my head:
-Notes from the podcasts
-Chores to do
-Ideas for six new posts
-Work tasks
-A new post in 10 minutes (a la this post)

 

Then I made breakfast, did some chores, came back later and started this series. The first post didn’t survive. It wasn’t good enough. But it was good enough to get me going. All I had to do was stop thinking about it; I let it flow.