It was around the year 2000.
I was tucked up in bed, drifting off to sleep when I thought: that would be a great idea for a blog!
Those were the days when Blogspot (later Blogger) and Wordpress were the domains (in the literal sense, not the web one) of entrepreneurs and freelancers. We were still on a high from watching how free online publishing tools popped up all over the web.
These were the days before YouTube was the broadcast channel of choice for many, before Google became a verb and TikTok conjured up unwanted noise rather than the sound of silence.
These were even the days before podcasting turned into one more marketing avenue.
I got out of bed, switched on the computer (no flat screen then), logged into my Blogspot account and set up ilovelorca.blogspot.com.
I wrote three posts over the next few weeks - and ran out of steam.
It was yet another example of how my creative juices often morph into tangible outputs that fizzle out.
I blame it on technology - it’s made it very easy to turn a thought into something you can share, that others can read, view, listen to or even hold in their hands. It’s definitely the force behind my spiralling creativity.
From then to now
Many of these ideas became decent ventures and survived the initial enthusiasm-fuelled weeks. But now that I have more free headspace than ever and that my schedule is mine to construct, I’m having to learn to extend the idea-through-to-action period. Especially because now a lot of my ideas come out in a book-format, and the promise of co-writing with LLMs means that even minuscule insights seem to have book potential.
(Note I said “the promise” when referring to writing with genAI - in reality it’s less of a promise and more of a skill that takes quite some time to master.)
So I’ve learned to sit on an idea when it comes up.
I write it down and wait.
I’ve got one “note” in a note-taking app where I dump everything.
This goes all the way from “subscribe to Oliver Burkman’s newsletter” (I heard him on a podcast recently) to “suggest audiobook for loneliness book to Bree”. It’s not that easy to hold back the impulse of immediately taking action towards something that sounds promising and/or exciting. I action the ideas at the end of the week, not as they come.
This has helped me to hold back from launching the Pilates for Actors programme (it will come, it will come), writing outlines for countless books I won’t have time to write in this lifetime, relaunching the 21st CWork Life podcast, and launching many new shows.
Now I understand the issue
By holding back on my impulse, I’m starting to understand my behaviour.
Many people have ideas, talk about them extensively and take no action.
They enjoy thinking of the finished product.
So having to start from cero is going back a long way from the part of the process they get their kicks from: visualising the end result.
But I’m process-driven.
Which is unfortunate.
Because I get high when thinking through HOW something could come to fruition REALISTICALLY.
I get high on thinking through the process.
And, as I’m already thinking about the process, why not start taking the first steps?
So I’m learning to hold back.
That is, until I’ve deliberately made space in my plans for something new.
For now, I’m tucking away lots of nice juicy ideas.
Sometimes I’m crossing them off forever; most times I’m thinking whether it’s something I can start this year, or next, or, or, or…
But I have come up with one little rule for tackling my book projects, and I will share that in a future post.
For now, I leave you now with this little drawing - it’s been a while since my drawings took over where my words left off. It’s nice.
(I was going to draw a nice coloured one on my iPad but the pen needed recharging (technology!), so I sketched it out on the Remarkable instead.If you wanted the end of this to say, “I took out my sketchbook and pencil”, pretend the drawing is on a piece of paper instead.)
