As somebody that 'started late' in the creative journey, one of my anxiety points is 'making up for lost time'. Amie brings me back to reality though. The time I have to work with is in front of me, not behind. There is value (for my process) in deadlines, pushing a little bit. Then there's the fact that you can't force some things! They take time to grow.
To build on that idea...I feel like starting "late", as you put it, can help you in the way that you can use your life experience even more. I know that I think and feel much differently in my forties than I did in my twenties!
Exactly! The fear of thinking you're not doing enough, fast enough, makes you believe you've lost your sense of urgency. Which is always true: As long as you are focused on the mission, the work will come together when it's time for it to happen.
As someone who leers towards doing and creating things anxiously, it's important to remember that any work performed anxiously won't be nearly as good as work performed with great love, and just like any loving relationship, it may take years, perhaps your entire life to unfold.
Great perspective that we have decades to be creative. My creativity has evolved dramatically over the years, from fashion design to writing and art. The amazing thing about creativity is that as my life and body change, I'm 79, my creativity evolves along with my life!
I absolutely do not need to be frightened right now. This was what I needed right now. I’m craving a soft, delicious life where I’m bathing in creativity, dancing with it and watching it slowly come to life and sparkle ✨🐦🔥❤️🔥 thank you for this.
Amie, thank you so much for writing this! It resonates so much with me and was exactly what I needed to hear. Sometimes, during my morning pages, I ask the universe to give me all the time, space, and energy I need to accomplish what I need to accomplish in this life. It helps me trust that my life will be as long as it needs to be for me to do all of the creative work I'm called to do. Thank you for framing it this way, inviting ease and space and patience into my process!
YES. It seems as soon as I begin creating something new, the urgency sets in, as if I have "this" much time to get it into the world or someone else will, or the goodness of the idea will fade, or the time when it would have been received is just gone. I hate the urgency. I love this idea that life is actually quite long when it comes to the things we hope to accomplish in it. Where "life is short" works for me is when I am trying to make the day as pleasant as possible. Everything I wish in life, in summary, is about wanting to like my days. I used to think I had to accomplish the stuff before I earned the right to like my days, and now I focus on liking my days as if they might be it. I don't like a day in which I don't put at least a little of me into creative work, so the "accomplishing stuff" stays theoretically on track.
Love this perspective. The life is short perspective has always made me feel stressed, like I’m wasting time, like some things I have to focus on right now are stealing my opportunity to be great, better, living all the dreams. But life is long. And thankfully.. there is still time, there will be more time.
Have you read Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silva? She is an ADHDer too and her perception of this - allowing, embracing, surrendering - it really helped with my anxiety. Sending lots of love. Great article, as per!!!
I was having such an anxiety-filles day today, pressuring myself around getting "unstuck", feeling guilty for feeling frozen in fear and doubt. This is relaxing, like a big yawn. We can soften and play.
This is something I am coming to terms with, right now, to some degree. Working on my fourth novel in a vastly different way than my first three. NOT RUSHING. And it is PAINFUL! I rushed through my first three books, and though I am very proud of them, the nature of my fourth book is demanding that I slow down. ALL I want to do is write. I'm 45 and I feel like I am only just beginning my author career. And my ego says, "you're 45. Half of life is out of your control now. You've got one half left. WRITE."
I often feel late, like I'm running behind. This story says that I need to create more now to make up for lost time and keep up with every passing day. When I listen, I often burn out quickly and stop creating at all. Slowing down—reminding myself that despite the feeling of no time, I actually have the rest of my long life to create all the things I want to create—and creating less more often has been a huge help for me. Thanks for yet another reminder to luxuriate in where I'm in the process now!
Yes! I’m in this phase right now as I move (slowly) into my second chapter career in therapy. It takes time to train in this profession, I can’t rush it and it’s challenging everything I ever knew about work and urgency. I’m learning to settle into this new pace, and your reframe is so helpful right now 🌿
"Remember, as artists, writers, thinkers - we are not like athletes, we don’t need to retire at 35. We get to create things for life." - so much YES! Thank you Amie! My nervous system has just completely reset x
I relate so much to this, the chapter on patience, and needing to have finished all the books like yesterday. The other day I went on Pinterest to try refuel my motivation to write one of my 17 book ideas (all part of an interconnected universe to my already published titles), and I came away with 8 new ideas and plunging despair. Like how am I ever going to get to the finish line? I already spend year(s) in a single title.
Although I know I technically have a long life (if lucky), there’s all the other things that put pressure that it all needs to happen now. It’s the biological clock saying time’s running out for children. It’s the disabilities, chronic pain and lack of income. It’s the wanting to see success and financial freedom to live out my dreams and make my own choices to live the way I want while young. It’s the death anxiety telling me I’m on borrowed time. I lost my parents at a young age, and am just a couple years of being the same age as my mum when she died. The past 10 years have flown by to therapy, burnout and chronic pain, hardly living the life I wanted to live at all and I definitely feel like I discovered self-publishing too late. Even if I mentally could write the rest of my life, I don’t know if my body would be able to. I have this dream that in five years I’ll see enough success with my books that I can write at my leisure and spend more days illustrating (my new love) based on my books. It’s just hard to tune out all the pressure.
As somebody that 'started late' in the creative journey, one of my anxiety points is 'making up for lost time'. Amie brings me back to reality though. The time I have to work with is in front of me, not behind. There is value (for my process) in deadlines, pushing a little bit. Then there's the fact that you can't force some things! They take time to grow.
Thanks Amie!
To build on that idea...I feel like starting "late", as you put it, can help you in the way that you can use your life experience even more. I know that I think and feel much differently in my forties than I did in my twenties!
Exactly! The fear of thinking you're not doing enough, fast enough, makes you believe you've lost your sense of urgency. Which is always true: As long as you are focused on the mission, the work will come together when it's time for it to happen.
So good.
As someone who leers towards doing and creating things anxiously, it's important to remember that any work performed anxiously won't be nearly as good as work performed with great love, and just like any loving relationship, it may take years, perhaps your entire life to unfold.
Great perspective that we have decades to be creative. My creativity has evolved dramatically over the years, from fashion design to writing and art. The amazing thing about creativity is that as my life and body change, I'm 79, my creativity evolves along with my life!
I absolutely do not need to be frightened right now. This was what I needed right now. I’m craving a soft, delicious life where I’m bathing in creativity, dancing with it and watching it slowly come to life and sparkle ✨🐦🔥❤️🔥 thank you for this.
Amie, thank you so much for writing this! It resonates so much with me and was exactly what I needed to hear. Sometimes, during my morning pages, I ask the universe to give me all the time, space, and energy I need to accomplish what I need to accomplish in this life. It helps me trust that my life will be as long as it needs to be for me to do all of the creative work I'm called to do. Thank you for framing it this way, inviting ease and space and patience into my process!
YES. It seems as soon as I begin creating something new, the urgency sets in, as if I have "this" much time to get it into the world or someone else will, or the goodness of the idea will fade, or the time when it would have been received is just gone. I hate the urgency. I love this idea that life is actually quite long when it comes to the things we hope to accomplish in it. Where "life is short" works for me is when I am trying to make the day as pleasant as possible. Everything I wish in life, in summary, is about wanting to like my days. I used to think I had to accomplish the stuff before I earned the right to like my days, and now I focus on liking my days as if they might be it. I don't like a day in which I don't put at least a little of me into creative work, so the "accomplishing stuff" stays theoretically on track.
Love this perspective. The life is short perspective has always made me feel stressed, like I’m wasting time, like some things I have to focus on right now are stealing my opportunity to be great, better, living all the dreams. But life is long. And thankfully.. there is still time, there will be more time.
Have you read Outrageous Openness by Tosha Silva? She is an ADHDer too and her perception of this - allowing, embracing, surrendering - it really helped with my anxiety. Sending lots of love. Great article, as per!!!
I was having such an anxiety-filles day today, pressuring myself around getting "unstuck", feeling guilty for feeling frozen in fear and doubt. This is relaxing, like a big yawn. We can soften and play.
This is something I am coming to terms with, right now, to some degree. Working on my fourth novel in a vastly different way than my first three. NOT RUSHING. And it is PAINFUL! I rushed through my first three books, and though I am very proud of them, the nature of my fourth book is demanding that I slow down. ALL I want to do is write. I'm 45 and I feel like I am only just beginning my author career. And my ego says, "you're 45. Half of life is out of your control now. You've got one half left. WRITE."
I can relate to this... I'm on my first novel, and I'm 41!
Right?! I feel like I've got all this lost time to make up for.
I often feel late, like I'm running behind. This story says that I need to create more now to make up for lost time and keep up with every passing day. When I listen, I often burn out quickly and stop creating at all. Slowing down—reminding myself that despite the feeling of no time, I actually have the rest of my long life to create all the things I want to create—and creating less more often has been a huge help for me. Thanks for yet another reminder to luxuriate in where I'm in the process now!
Yes! I’m in this phase right now as I move (slowly) into my second chapter career in therapy. It takes time to train in this profession, I can’t rush it and it’s challenging everything I ever knew about work and urgency. I’m learning to settle into this new pace, and your reframe is so helpful right now 🌿
Definitely needed this today Amie 🙌
Reading ‘We Need Your Art’ as we speak
"Remember, as artists, writers, thinkers - we are not like athletes, we don’t need to retire at 35. We get to create things for life." - so much YES! Thank you Amie! My nervous system has just completely reset x
I relate so much to this, the chapter on patience, and needing to have finished all the books like yesterday. The other day I went on Pinterest to try refuel my motivation to write one of my 17 book ideas (all part of an interconnected universe to my already published titles), and I came away with 8 new ideas and plunging despair. Like how am I ever going to get to the finish line? I already spend year(s) in a single title.
Although I know I technically have a long life (if lucky), there’s all the other things that put pressure that it all needs to happen now. It’s the biological clock saying time’s running out for children. It’s the disabilities, chronic pain and lack of income. It’s the wanting to see success and financial freedom to live out my dreams and make my own choices to live the way I want while young. It’s the death anxiety telling me I’m on borrowed time. I lost my parents at a young age, and am just a couple years of being the same age as my mum when she died. The past 10 years have flown by to therapy, burnout and chronic pain, hardly living the life I wanted to live at all and I definitely feel like I discovered self-publishing too late. Even if I mentally could write the rest of my life, I don’t know if my body would be able to. I have this dream that in five years I’ll see enough success with my books that I can write at my leisure and spend more days illustrating (my new love) based on my books. It’s just hard to tune out all the pressure.