Getting out of a rut
Sebastian Ernst
Creative Strategist | Mentor and Coach to successful creative professionals | Bringing strategy & structure to your creative ideas | CPC | ELI-MP | Sportswear Footwear Design Lead @ adidas
"You should try some of the exercises you share in your newsletter yourself!"
I tensed up.
With this sentence my wife exposed my insecurities and the reason for my frustration and disappointment recently creeping in.
These last couple of weeks, my energy and attention was scattered towards many things, a lot of them misaligned with my vision. I poured myself into work. At the same time, I was preaching a healthy approach to creativity on my social channels. I was not practicing what I was preaching.
When life is difficult, overwhelming, or you feel a dreaded sense of despair about your future, there is a dissonance between expectation and reality. Filling that gap with more theory is a trap most fall into. Here's what to do instead:
Accept your reality
Okay, you're not living up to your own expectations. So, what's your reality? Can you be thankful for the life unfolding in front of you, at this moment?
You can accept your current state, learn to observe and sit with it and still be an active participant in building a better future for yourself.
To practice self compassion and acceptance, you can use the?RAIN framework.
See the opportunity
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Feeling frustrated is part of growing. Your emotional state will change when you cross a certain threshold. If you push through that threshold, you will experience a creative "runner's high"
Focusing on what isn't depleats energy better used for movement towards that high.
See the difference between concept and experience
Concepts can only be created from experience. All the concepts and "tips" you read about have a source in experience. So how do you know if you should adapt a concept? You have to experience it. This way, you can build you own concepts out of a multitude of experience.
The Bottom Line
The beliefs, ideas, or thoughts in your head do not match the present moment that is unfolding in front of you.
And because you give them too much attention, they take priority over and mask your perception.
Accepting, reframing and experiencing can bring you out of the expectations and concepts back into the present moment.
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If you experience frustration and disappointment in your life, so much so that you are unable to create positive action towards a better reality? I can help you.
Send me a DM to schedule a free discovery coaching call.