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Juggling Creation and Confusion
Creativity often comes with confusion. So much of being creative is a cultivation of play, but for a wandering mind, play itself can throw us into multiple directions.
Wandering minds excel at building, improvising, connecting unlikely dots. But that creativity often explodes in all directions, leading to overwhelm. The very playfulness that fuels invention can also bring decision overload—leaving us collapsed in uncertainty, our energy scattered across a thousand “what ifs.”
It’s all to easy to give up.
But when we can hold on to the fog of confusion, we often start finding a way forward, sometimes even with a sense of deeper meaning and mastery with the work.
Between spark and mastery, the storms of confusion are regularly found.
How Creativity Grows in the Messy Middle
My own writing process is messy. Organizing notes, rearranging chapters, screaming internally (sometimes externally)—it’s all part of holding confusion. As I sit with the sensations, resting my mind within, sometimes patterns emerge.
Mastery isn’t about having all the answers, but more often in staying with the questions.
Anchoring in Daily Rhythms
So, how do we find clarity amid the creative storm?
- Be with the confusion: Feel it. Point at it. Where is the disconnect? Sometimes, just pointing to the foggy patch helps you find a path through.
- Consider being with your work daily: The Daily Visit (episode 4 of the Rhythms of Focus) can lead to a powerful harnessing of a primal cycle. Short, frequent creative sessions allow confusion to “settle” and your unconscious mind to puzzle out solutions between. Over time, this rhythm supports both emotional resilience and emerging insight.
- Pause for play: Notice when creativity tips into overwhelm. Sometimes, a gentle pause—restores the sense of safety and possibility.
Mastery grows, not by banishing confusion, but by sitting with it—turning uncertainty into a deeper connection with your work, and ultimately, with yourself.
- Kourosh
PS For an extended discussion of today’s newsletter, check out episode 19 of the Rhythms of Focus.
What is Productivity?
Productivity is many things. For some, it is about doing a lot in a little time.
But, truly, productivity is so much more. It is about:
- Setting yourself up for success.
- Being focused where you want to be.
- Doing things that you find meaningful.
- Being creative, sometimes even in harsh environments.
- Forging your own paths.
- Finding your voice and delivering it well.
- Knowing and actively deciding on your obligations.
- Knowing where and how to say “no”.
- Avoiding procrastination.
Too often, many of us fall into just going along with and fighting whatever the world throws at us. “Go with the flow!”, we say. Meanwhile, we might think, “I’d like to do that one thing. Maybe one day I will.” The days go by. The goal never arrives, and then we wonder why or blame circumstance.
But when we learn to take charge of our lives and the world
around us, we start living life with intention.
Of course, striking out may seem scary. It takes courage to live life with purpose and on purpose. Roadblocks and worries, fears and concerns show up everywhere.
This is my passion. I want to help you to find that sense of your own unique play to meet the world so that you can:
- Create a life that is yours.
- Find and follow an inner guide in a way that works for you and those you care for.
- Decide on your obligations and meet them while building the world you want.
Productivity Journal
“But it was all going so well!”
What do you do when the day’s rhythms shift out of your control.
Juggling Creation and Confusion
Confusion can be an all too frequent friend of the process of mastery. How can we manage it?
Juggling Creation and Confusion
Confusion can be an all too frequent friend of the process of mastery. How can we manage it?
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