#334 - How are the ducks in your row stalling you?

There's a trap I've often fallen into: needing:

• The "right" notebook before I start doing morning pages
• A steady income before I start writing a memoir
• Enough followers before I upload my writing course onto Udemy
• Ample time to write––or else, I'll do it tomorrow

Sounds familiar?

If it does, know it's a fallacy. A trick of your Ego and the Ghosts to keep you where they feel safe.

But the result is real: when you don't feed it and let it breathe, your creativity dies.

In January of 2020, at the end of my tenure at the communication consultancy in New York, I'd come back from a run when I met with my life coach.

I was in a luxury resort in the south of Spain, attending my last offsite with the firm. I thought my deep unhappiness came from feeling distant from my soon-to-be former bosses and colleagues. Misunderstood.

But it wasn't the "right" time to leave––because, money. I wanted to write a book but couldn't start––because, time.

My coach interrupted my rambling about my longing for creativity with a piercing question: "how much longer are you willing to kill your poet?"

As if turning on a switch, uncontrollable sobs gripped my chest and I felt something unclutch. When the session ended, I grabbed my notebook and started writing, fast, without thinking. The floodgates had opened. My poet would live.

That's when I got it: the "right" conditions are what the Ghosts and Ego make you believe you need.

The "right" time, "enough money," "peace," whatever your fantasy-need might be. But it's only that: a lie. And while you wait for it to materialize, your creative drive withers and dies.

How much longer are you willing to stall?

Love,

Carolina