It doesn’t always come easy. Sometimes it comes very, very hard.
No, I’m not talking about a bowel movement, although you might be forgiven for thinking that.
It’s the writing. The blogging. The whole “coming up with new ideas” thing. Getting words down in a sensible order that makes a point, informs, or entertains.
Frustration is the feeling of thwarted ambition. Sometimes the thwarting is just a temporary derailment of will and purpose and, with time and effort, you can get back on track and steam toward your destination. (Hurray for railroad metaphors!)
The really bad thing about frustration is that it accommodates distraction. No, that’s too gentle of a word. Frustration supercharges the tendency toward distraction. Unless we can build the self-discipline to push through the things that thwart our ambition, we can enter a vicious cycle where by the following occurs (in true BASIC style):
10 WHEN INSPIRED BEGIN WORKING
20 IF ENCOUNTER CREATIVE ROADBLOCK
30 IF FEEL FRUSTRATED, GOTO 40
33 IF FRUSTRATION <= DETERMINATION, GO TO 90
40 LOOK FOR DIVERSION TO REMOVE FEELINGS OF FRUSTRATION
50 WASTE TIME WITH DIVERSION
60 DISCOVER THAT TIME HAS PASSED
70 DISCOVER THAT NO WORK HAS BEEN DONE
80 GOTO 20
90 DO WORK
100 FEEL SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT
110 END (SATISFIED, SOMEWHAT)
The key to avoiding frustration would seem to be avoiding distraction, as painful as it is. But what if you are trapped in the loop? What do you do to get out?
Over to you, dear Brainiacs. What do you do to get out of a rut?
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Dude, this is awesome.
I step away. Go for a walk or just do something else. The mind needs time to work things out on its own. Then I come back to it at least refreshed if not with the answer.
Michael Martine´s last blog ..Open Discussion: Where Do You Draw the Line on Deleting Comments?
@Michael – what, it’s just a BASIC program.
Fully agree, though, about walking away, at least temporarily.
Well, I must be the oddball here (stop agreeing with me, Mark:)), because I THRIVE on chaos and distraction.
Our company was built in a noisy kitchen with toddlers running around, dogs barking, (and plenty of red wine). Admist the chaos, my partner and I would write proposals, scripts for our TV show, and plot and scheme and plan.
For me it comes from working at a TV studio – always a scene of controlled chaos, within which I needed to have a level head and make the fast, good decisions a producer has to make. The distractions actually encouraged my creativity.
Now, when I sit down to write (a blog post or a proposal or a script), I NEED some sort of distraction. I keep the Twitter stream in the background, or pop over to Facebook periodically, or my email. If I’m stuck on something, looking at something else actually helps me find the words.
Strangely though, I can’t have music playing when I write. Noise, sure. But not music. Probably because I can’t sing and write at the same time.
Enjoyable read, Mark. The distracted mind only works out if you use it to your advantage.
Susan Murphy´s last blog ..A Simple Reminder About Real Life
@Susan – great comments, it’s good to get feedback from someone who “thinks differently”. I remember having to get used to working among distractions in university (and at home sometimes, come to think of it…
). I CAN work to music, though. Thanks for stopping by!
Can I direct you to “How To Get Things Done” ? http://wp.me/pHqcg-3K I felt motivated to write it after remembering my days in radio when we used to have to fill three hours of speech radio over and over again. It was exhausting and far moe traumatic than the blog writing I do now !
Lucy Thorpe´s last blog ..Social Media’s Role in Creating a Legend
Ha, I’m with Susan – I have to keep flitting around, because staring at one project means it takes ages to get done.
However, I have also learned to not ignore the siren call of motivation. If I have to drop everything because I’m compelled to power through something because I’ve finally hit the inspiration, then that’s what I have to do.
I solve that problem by pulling up stakes and doing something else. ‘Course, the challenge is to, er, get back to what I was tryin’ to do to start with. :-\
I don’t like distractions when I’m working but I move around a lot. In fact, the more I’m into something the more I move, I think. The dog destroyed my glasses the other day because I set them down while I was caught up with what I was working on, moving from one computer to another and back again. I was so wrapped up in what I was doing I didn’t see what she was doing or that I had left my glasses on a coffee table.
I have a theory about blocks and such. I think, as a writer, some part of my brain is always working on something. The problem is I want it right now but it’s actually being worked on in the brain’s R&D area, a place I’m not consciously aware of. I think I’m stuck but the R&D guys are looking at it this way and that, upside down and right side up, trying out this and that. Eventually, they send it up to the front office, to my conscious awareness and I think, “Bingo!” and I think I’m inspired. The frustration comes from a kind of middle management part of us that is firing off emails and leaving voice mails like, “Where is it? Deadline! Deadline! Process!” That part clogs up the works, making it harder for the R&D guys to send it up to the office. So I usually try to step away or do something else as a way of removing the middle management layer. The R&D guys usually make their deadline. It’s the middle management level, the sense of frustration, that causes delays.
Well, it’s a theory.
Bill´s last blog ..Writing is acting
btw … I’ve wanted to post my “theory” for a while so I’ve created a post using yours as the basis. I more or less pasted my comment into it.
Bill´s last blog ..Writing is acting
Right on! The easiest way to get stuck in the non-productive loop when I hit frustration is to allow the diversions to distract (GOTO 40). Suddenly it becomes vitally important (as I experienced just yesterday) to step away from the computer and sharpen all the knives in the kitchen, which were perfectly fine until the creative block set in; and from there to feel compelled to groom the dogs; to do anything, in fact, rather than blast through the block…
Sometimes “blasting through” with sheer determination will work, but often it just ends in a long fruitless staring at the screen, hands poised motionless over the keyboard. The only thing I’ve found that helps in that case is to stay at the computer but switch to a related (easier but tedious) task — one that calls on the methodical, analytical, nitpicking part of the brain rather than the creative juices. A half-hour of checking code or fixing broken links and the writing itself becomes a diversion!
Rebecca Leaman´s last blog ..How to Get Your Nonprofit into Local Newspapers
@Lucy – that’s a great post and well worth sharing!
@Andrea – I’m trying to be more mindful about NOT multi-tasking, but it’s difficult for me to ignore that compulsion at times. I don’t think it’s unhealthy to have multiple things on the go if you can break the work up into logical stages. But sometimes you’ve just got to focus.
@Robert – switching to something else is a perfectly valid strategy in my book.
@Bill – that’s a powerful way to visualize blockage, good stuff.
@Rebecca – that’s an interesting approach: basically don’t resist and let the urge have some fun. Hmm. Still takes some discipline, though.
Dude, have you read any stuff on Constructive Living? I think you’d find it particularly interesting. A lot of it deals with procrastination.
As for me, when I get stuck, like hopelessly stuck, I walk.
@Kat – I’ll check out Constructive Living, thanks.