Spiral up

Why you might not feel like you're making progress (but you are).

There’s nothing I love more than getting sh*t done – give me a raging to do list, lofty goal or sizeable mountain to climb and I’m like a pig in the mud (lapping it up).

But sometimes, I can be crossing tasks off left and right, or even feeling the burn in my calves from the climb, and feel like I’m getting NOWHERE.

Today’s Creative Urge is dedicated to my favourite metaphor for the creative life – the SPIRAL – and why progress can be evasive the longer you’re on the climb.

The bigger the journey, the wider the spiral

One of the things that I love most about the spiral is the fact that it never returns to its starting point. It keeps expanding up and out continuously.

That’s what makes it a better analogy for creativity than a circle, which has no start and no end.

At some point, you likely made the decision to make something, thus kickstarting the spiral… or perhaps you were thrust into it by circumstance, getting handed a big fat sh*t sandwich to gulp down.

One thing I’ve come to understand is that as you accumulate new life experiences, you gather more dots or points of reference to connect in new and interesting ways that increases your knowledge (which is my definition of creativity, btw).

So if you consistently expose yourself to new things, over time your spiral widens, moving further and further away from where it started.

This might be why even though you’re doing all the things and kicking all the goals, you feel like you’re just spinning on the spot.

Progress becomes increasingly more incremental, less dramatic and virtually invisible unless you’re tracking it (which I highly recommend you do by journaling, more on that soon).

Measure your creativity by degrees of intention, not progress

You and I, we’re in this thing for the long haul, so the normal metrics for success don’t really apply here (yep, even dollars).

Before we can pick up a pen or hit the keys (laptop included), there needs to be a certain level of RESOLVE in our hearts.

Intention, in a creative context, is your determination to act in a certain way. It’s what sets the course for action and provides the energy to get you started.

So this week, how can you shift your focus to cultivating INTENTION instead of beating yourself into a bloody pulp for progress?

Absolutely keep progress in mind, but maybe it’s time to let something else take the wheel (especially if you actually aren’y getting closer to your creative goals).

Sing it with me (to the tune of life is a highway)…

🎤 Life is a spiral, I’m gonna climb it all niiiight loooong! 🎤

Creatively yours,

Dr Maz xo

PS: One of the things that sends a spiral down instead of up is clinging to the ‘known’. Often this happens when we say to ourselves that we need to know the HOW or the outcome. It’s none of your business what’s coming for you. What IS your business is what’s happening today. Create from the ‘unknown’ and let it guide you… who knows where it will lead!