Overwhelmed with Possibilities?

Step 1: Press "Pause"

Step 2: Define What Matters Most to You

First, Dedicate Time for Reflection

When you feel stuck, it is only natural to take as much action as possible in order to get unstuck. But this approach might be keeping you stuck spinning your wheels and burning yourself out.

It can be so hard to slow down and create time for reflection when all we want to do is find our direction, but it’s so critical.

You must deliberately create & protect time in your schedule where you can escape from your typical day-to-day activities and dedicate your attention towards reflection.

Start by exploring your schedule: When might work for you? Can you block an hour a day? Will you protect your mornings or evenings for reflection? Or do you want to block out a whole weekend? Choose a time that works best for you.

When you dedicate time for reflection is less important than if you dedicate time for it.

Without dedicating time to reflect, you’ll just stay stuck.

Next, Change Your Environment to Spark Creative Thinking

When you’re in a rut, you need to change things up, and one of the easiest things you can change is your environment. Taking yourself out of your typical environment or workspace is a powerful strategy for sparking creative thinking. The novelty of the environment can spark novel ideas to help you break away from being stuck.

Go to a new coffee shop, the beach, take a walk, even rent a hotel room for the night - just get into a fresh environment that isn’t associated with your usual day-to-day busyness. If possible, this space should be as interruption-free as possible to allow for deeper thinking.

What are some examples of new, different places you would like to go?

Finally, Ask Yourself Powerful Questions to Clarify What is Most Meaningful to You

When we’re stuck, it’s often a sign that we aren’t clear on what’s most meaningful for us. The best way for you to fix this is to ask yourself some powerful questions about what you’re doing, why, and how.

These questions can help you look at what you are doing in new ways, challenge your assumptions, and articulate what matters most to you:

• Is this something I want to do, or is this something I feel like I should do? (this language distinction between “want to” and “should” is important).
• Does this project require me to expand my skills, or is it something that I can easily do?
• Does this project get me out of my comfort zone, or does it feel safe?
• Do I feel any "gut churn" (i.e. mix of anxiety, doubt, impostor syndrome), or do I feel 100% confident?
• How excited do I feel about this?
• What kind of impact will this have on others and me when complete?

There are no right or wrong answers here. Each situation is highly personal and up to you to decide which factors are most important to you.

One tip for asking yourself powerful questions is to simply ask yourself lots and lots of questions. The more questions you ask yourself, the higher the probability that you will find the right one that will spark a new creative insight that will help you get (and stay) unstuck.

Step 3: Use Even/Over Statements to Make Hard Choices

Dig deeper into the Even/Over Statement method with these great resources:

• Strategic Prioritization Using Even Over Statements
• Strategy is About Making Choices, Trade-Offs

What else?

Research shows that having multiple creative projects going at a time can actually be good for one's creativity, BUT this depends on what else you have going on in your life (e.g. day job, family).

It is better to have just one creative project and get it finished at a high-quality level than attempt to pursue multiple creative projects and flounder.

I would recommend having no more than one primary creative project and one secondary creative project going at a time to ensure you are able to make meaningful, consistent progress on each.

There are also some nuanced ways to prioritize and manage your creative projects that take into account things like what stage of the creative process the project is in, what type of cognitive resources are required for it (i.e. types of thinking and decision-making), and the extent to which other people are involved.

To learn more about how you might take into consideration some of these more nuanced factors and how they might affect your creative project prioritization, please don't hesitate to set up a free time to discuss with me (use the sign-in form below).

Step 4: Go Through These Steps with a Partner for Additional Perspective