How staying in the void can help you excel and boost creativity? 💡
Including some life lessons from Miss Lauryn Hill.
How to meet the void? 🌫️
Imagine a situation where your work-weeks look like this - you jump from one meeting to the next, struggling to finish work within one day. Feeling (sort of) satisfied and exhausted at the same time.
Now, after this long ‘crunch’ you find yourself with an empty schedule. Feels foreign and anxious righ? No wonder. You might be craving to, again, fill it with meetings or busyness just to feel safe and reduce anxiety.
Don’t. You just met the void, cherish the moment 🫶
What is the void? 🌚
The void, in this context, is an empty mental space that can be uncomfortable to be with. It’s the space that can create tension, makes you wanting to escape to work, social media etc. It also carries answers and ideas you didn’t even think about.
It’s a vacuum that craves being filled yet it’s best to fill it after some time. Not in the very moment when emotions arise. Only after settling-in it gives the most ripe fruits.
Befriending the void to excel and stay creative
Wait, but why should I do that? Well, when you’re in a grind you default to what you know. You thread on autopilot using what is easily accessible to your brain - patterns, habits and known solutions. Only when the brain has the time to slow down instead of being busy with foreign content it can connect the dots. Then the magic happens.
Befriending the void means:
Not reaching for solutions right away if the situation does not demand it - many don’t yet people push towards it due to anxiety or fictional pressure coming from hustle culture. 👉Ask for more time, give things a second or third thought.
It’s easy to copy solutions for other places but they are taken from another context different from the one you’re in.
Use the time you have to full extent - contrary to the popular opinion to make decisions promptly 👉 use the time-frame you have to the fullest. This helps in sorting through the data and gaining new. It’s not about making a perfect decision but an informed one.
Let’s give some space to Miss Lauryn Hill for a second (18:16 through to 21:55):
"I'm not in the studio right now and everyone thinks I'm crazy. [They say] you need another album out, the time is running out. (...) For a little while I listened to that. I was in the studio working real hard, trying to get it done. And music was created. (...) but it wasn't my best. It wasn't my best because there was no substance, because there was no experience.
I went to the studio, then to the stage and back into the studio again. The only reason why the Miseducation was the album it was because a myriad of experiences before the production part, before the creation.
I realised, I can't create and not live."
This brings us to..
Let yourself experience the moment without judgement - this point builds on two previous ones. 👉 Being in the situation and actually experiencing it without the need to preconceive an answer will help you be more precise in your response. It will also deepen your understanding of what you are dealing with.
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