Finding flow

I tend to get caught in mental loops, chasing myself around in circles. Often I find the solution is to get these thoughts out of my head and “onto paper” – I say this in quotes because I almost always turn to Microsoft Word to work through times like this. At the moment, I’m working on a document to address my problems with flow. Here’s what I have to say to myself…

I’m having a lot of trouble with feeling blocked by problems that seem like they don’t relate to the Life Planning I’m trying to do. While the big picture stuff is important, the smaller details are what will make that possible. Flow isn’t just about being in a nirvana-like state of massive productivity. It’s a spectrum, like everything else in life. Right now, my flow is pretty much Jell-O. It wiggles, it jiggles, but it doesn’t really go anywhere. So I need to start with baby steps. Getting to molasses-like flow will be an improvement.

The two main issues that are blocking my flow are my body health and my environment. Because they are both of high concern to me and reminders are constant, I’m finding my focus constantly pulled away from Big Picture thinking. Allowing structured time each day to make progress on both these areas will allow me to put aside those worries.

In the midst of working through how to address those two issues, I decided to make a quick blog post because I’m really liking the excuse-busting approach I’m taking so far. I started by listing the main things I want to work on, and WHY. The why is really important, otherwise it’s easy to mentally downgrade their importance. Next, I listed all the excuses I make to myself, followed by a response to counter excuse. I know the logical answer to all of these, but sometimes it’s hard to remember. I’m thinking of making some flashcards for myself to keep on hand when I’m feeling excuse-y. In the meantime, I’m going to print out the Word document and use it in my visual journal.