Current Status: Hurry up and wait.
Cultivating Resilience, Perseverance, and Mindful Waiting for Creative Success
Sometimes when I’m stuck, overwhelmed or both, I wish there was a hotline I could call and have someone tell me what to do.
Lately, everything has felt like a hamster wheel with no specific outcome or patterns to follow. "Hurry up and wait" is a phrase used to refer to a situation in which one is forced to hurry to complete a certain task or arrive at a certain destination by a specified time, only for nothing to happen at that time, often because other required tasks are still awaiting completion.
This is the cycle I’ve been in for the last few years, where the outcome of my career is completely out of my control and depends on the powers that be.
In the last few days, numerous friends have called me out to stop stressing and to chill out. I think at the core of it, it’s a form of burnout when you’ve been on a hamster wheel that doesn’t breed immediate results. How do you chill when you have no idea what each day looks like?
Cultivating resilience is the key to reaching your desired outcomes in any creative pursuit, but finding a way to do it without burning out is the challenge most of us face. Such is the life of being creative.
Resilience is not a trait but a skill that can be cultivated through intentional practices and mindset shifts. It empowers us to adapt, persevere, and embrace growth opportunities, even in adversity. Or when there’s absolutely nothing going on.
Think about the people in your life who you believe represent resilience. What’s one thing that they have in common? They know how to pivot.
You know I had to.
There’s a fearlessness that comes across in those who are adaptable. It’s not about having an obscene amount of positivity (we’re not about toxic positivity here) but knowing how to be grounded even when things seem grim. Resilient people look at things glass “half-full,” even in tough circumstances. Instead of viewing it as something happening to them or as a setback, they see it as happening for them and only as a temporary moment in the larger perspective of their journey. Uncertainty is embraced and viewed as an opportunity.
Something that I am still trying to grasp.
It goes back to last week’s article about comparing and getting to know yourself and your goals.
The key to the waiting period is to check in with yourself. Take the momentary delay or pause to reflect on what has been and what’s ahead. (A helpful self-reminder.)
For the week ahead, I want you to focus on these two practical things:
Prioritizing Doing Nothing
Find some time in your week to block out and do nothing.
We all need rest and quality sleep to maintain and optimize our well-being. When you get “bored,” you can find the mental space to think and be inspired again.
One of my favourite ways to get “bored” is lying down and playing Candy Crush. Before you call me a boomer, hear me out. For about 20 minutes a day, I’ll get on the app, and it’s usually while I’m mindlessly playing that I’ll usually think of something or be inspired by something I was originally stuck on. The game’s repetition and simplicity allow me to relax when I can’t sit in silence.
Audit The Last 6 Months
Block out an hour (or two), and instead of scrolling through TikTok, or watching Netflix, grab a notebook (or the notes app on your phone) and review the first half of your year.
What are three good things happened to you in the last six months?
What is something you are passionate about? Have you given yourself time to explore that passion in the last six months?
What is one area of your life that you want to focus on improving in the next six months?
Are you earning as much money as you would like to live the life you’d love?
Are you overspending? If so, where can you make adjustments?
Are you taking action to be the biggest, most successful, most impactful version of yourself you can be?
Taking time to see where you are, where you’ve been and where you’re headed makes the waiting period easier.
This week doesn’t have recommendations: now that you’ve read this newsletter (thank you), turn your phone off and touch grass or something.
It’s summer. Enjoy it.
See you next week.