This began with a conversation. (photo by indigo_jones)
You are an artist of life – we all are. I have talked deeply with enough people to know that most, nearly all, of us have a life in mind that we are trying to build. For some of us there are more ideas and visions inside our minds than we could manifest in a lifetime.
The visions that exist beneath the surface can be debilitating. So grandiose, so amazing in concept these ideas often paralyze us by the shear breadth. You think: How could it be possible to birth all of these wonderful ideas to the world? I wouldn’t know where to begin. Perhaps you don’t even ask these questions. Instead you are just stuck.
There is a direct correlation between size of plans and friction of action. The bigger the plans inside the head, the harder it is to start and gain momentum. There is also a correlation between the size of the plan and the need to express the idea out of the mind and into the visual or physical world. By this I mean that if the idea/plan is big then it becomes necessary to write the idea onto paper to see what it looks like.
Next time you are paralyzed by big try this process:
- Barfing – Start by barfing up all of the ideas trapped in your mind. Like I mentioned yesterday most of your thoughts are stuck beneath the surface and will never see the light of day. If you leave them there, this will eventually lead to festering… and you don’t want that. Barf up these ideas. Get them out on paper… all of them. Give yourself at least 30 minutes to allow the subconscious to rummage around, loosening up stuck thoughts, bringing them to the surface to be disgorged.
- Cataloging and Organizing – Once you see all of the thoughts in front of you try cataloguing them. Do certain ideas belong together in some way? Are there separate ideas here or one singular idea? Are there steps within a process?
- Prioritizing – Now that the ideas have physical form, now that you can see them, prioritize at least 3 of them. Pick which one you are going to act on first. Which of these small items will be the first to go, the first to help gain some momentum.
- Act – Lastly all you need to do is take action on that item. Once it is done move on to the next item on the list, each time acting on the small.
In summary: Make the big idea physical – get it out of your mind. Once you can see the ideas, make sense of them. Prioritize and pick a small item to take action on. Repeat as necessary. Live the dream.
I’m one of those people with a ocean of ideas who becomes paralyzed. Thanks Ben for the inspiration & information.
C
Thanks for the barfing-to-acting framework! HA!
I find in my coaching clients that sometimes, they know what the vision of their artist life is. But their routine kills momentum and inertia sets in. I recently came up with some suggestions on how to mix it up in order to get “unstuck” and back to acting on your barfing, as you may say!
Carrie~ Good to hear from you… happy to help!
Kenny~ Couldn’t agree more. Just by speaking the words about what we want can be helpful in starting to get action. Barf it up.
This process is definitely helpful, especially putting the tasks on paper and making the idea physical – kind of like making a bunch of mole hills out of a mountain. The only thing I would add would be 5. Congratulate yourself. Use the good feeling of successes at completing a task as fuel for the next one.