Creative Pep Talk #87: Clear Out the Gunk

Sometimes life, and the world around us, gets to be too much. I hereby give you permission to take a break when that happens.

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Transcript

Please note: This is an unedited transcript, provided as a courtesy, and reflects the actual conversation as closely as possible. Please forgive any typographical or grammatical errors.

Nancy Norbeck [00:00:06]:
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity. Ordinary people, extraordinary creativity. Here’s how to get unstuck. I’m your host, creativity coach, Nancy Norbeck. Let’s go. Hey, everybody. This is Nancy Norbeck with this week’s Creative Pep Talk. And I gotta tell you, I, I had a little incident this weekend with water overflowing from my air conditioner through the drain that takes all of that condensed humidity that was in your house and and jets it out through the drain.

Nancy Norbeck [00:00:39]:
It turns out it’s a really bad thing if that drain gets clogged. As I found out yesterday when I had a mini Niagara Falls in my house. And the reason that that it gets clogged is that, you know, there’s you think it’s just water, but other gunk gets in there. And so, you know, over time, that gunk builds up. And if you don’t clear it out every once in a while or if it’s been longer than you thought it was, it’s clogged. And the next thing you know, you’ve got neighbors downstairs complaining that there’s water coming in, and where the heck is the water coming from? Oh, look. That’s where. So it made me think about how, you know, when you wanna do something creative and you wanna not get stuck, there are no guarantees that you’ll never get stuck.

Nancy Norbeck [00:01:30]:
But one way to keep doing it is to regularly clear out the gunk that could get all clogged up and backed up in your head. And honestly, the easiest way to do that is just to create something on a regular basis. Now there are people, and I’m more familiar with this from the writing community, who will happily try to tell you that if you’re not writing every day, you are not a real writer. If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you can guess what I’m going to say about that, which is that it’s complete crap. You write whenever you have time. You paint whenever you have time. You dance whenever you have time. The trick is you don’t need as much time as you think you do.

Nancy Norbeck [00:02:10]:
5 minutes a day is all it takes to keep you in that frame of mind that makes it easier to create. And the more you do it on whatever schedule works for you, the more you train your brain to be ready for it, which means that all of those little subconscious things are less likely to get in your way. They are less likely to clog up the pipe that causes Niagara Falls when you go to clean it out. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a good thing to me. Maybe because I just had a material experience with this, but it’s just so much easier to create when you’ve primed the system and you’re keeping all, all of the, the lines that the creative juice needs to flow along as clear as possible. So I encourage you to make it a regular practice according to what works for you. Don’t let anybody guilt you about having to write for 3 hours every day or whatever it is. It’s nonsense.

Nancy Norbeck [00:03:07]:
And also be aware that if you’re talking about your creative process, you’re in it. So that counts. Do what works for you. Make it make it fit your schedule, whatever way works for you. You’re also welcome to come hang out with us for an hour at an unconventional inspiration circle. I’ve just put those August dates on the calendar and they are in your show notes. We would love to have you, but at the very least, just stay in the process as consistently as you can, whatever that looks like, and it will make a huge difference. I promise.

Nancy Norbeck [00:03:38]:
So give that a try. Let me know how it goes. And with that, I’ll see you next time. If this episode resonated with you or if you’re feeling a little bit less than confident in your creative process right now, join me at the spark on Substack as we form a community that supports and celebrates each other’s creative courage. It’s free, and it’s also where I’ll be adding programs for subscribers and listeners. The link is in your podcast app, so sign up today. See you there, and see you next week. Follow Your Curiosity is produced by me, Nancy Norbeck, with music by Joseph McDade.

Nancy Norbeck [00:04:14]:
If you like, Follow Your Curiosity, please subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And don’t forget to tell your friends. It really helps me reach new listeners.