I’m seeing and hearing that a lot of people are skirting burnout at the moment (myself included).
I also hear a familiar refrain ringing in my ears: How could I let this happen – AGAIN?!
Today’s Creative Urge is dedicated to what I like to call The Shit Pit and the questions you can ask to pull yourself our of the existential mud.
What the heck is a ‘shit pit’?
Put simply, the shit pit is a place you may find yourself in when you feel heavy, flat, demotivated, uninspired and just plain blah. It’s a place where very little work happens, only wallowing.
And anything can send you into it, too: a difficult conversation, a failed launch, a slow month in business or even the come down after achieving a huge goal.
The shit pit doesn’t give a SHIT about where you’re at in life either – it doesn’t discriminate and can find you when you least suspect it.
So, what can we do about it?
Don’t play the blame game – get curious instead
When you’re up to your tits in shit, it can be really easy to blame the world. To look externally for what went wrong or worse – why YOU’RE wrong.
But humour me for a moment: What if instead of raging at the sky, you paused just long enough to turn inwards and ask yourself:
What happened to get me here?
What’s blocking me from seeing things clearly?
What support do I need to get out?
Better yet, whip open a fresh page in your journal and answer those Qs on paper.
And if you find that your answers are ‘I don’t know’, ‘I don’t know but I know there’s something’ and ‘I don’t know but I know I need someone’, I’ve got a few things that might help.
Expect tough times to arrive and you’ll always be prepared
If you’re not expecting it, of course it will come as a shock. But, because you’re human and likely doing life off the beaten track, there’s going to be some mud along the way.
But that’s why we’re here together – we can support one another by throwing a rope down into the shit pit to help pull each other out.
Creatively yours,
Dr Maz xo
PS: Reminder… I’ll be speaking at the awesome VisConf 2023 event in October. If you like creativity, drawing, cool people and getting inspired AF, then this is the event for you! Early bird tix are on sale til September 1st, so hop to it pals!