Grow With Soul: Episode 149 - A Beautiful & Replicable Creative Process
Today I’m excited to share with you a lot of thoughts I’ve been having about process; about the creative process, about working process, about processes that are beautiful and pleasurable and that work. This thinking came about after an August that didn’t go to plan, so we’ll talk about that, and then get into the nuts and bolts of defining process, describing my own beautiful and replicable process and get into thinking about process as a practice for grounding into a generative life.
What I talk about in this episode:
Grounding myself in work
The working process that works for me
Replicating your process
Enjoying and achieving via your process
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Read the episode transcript:
Today I’m excited to share with you a lot of thoughts I’ve been having about process; about the creative process, about working process, about processes that are beautiful and pleasurable and that work. This thinking came about after an August that didn’t go to plan, so we’ll talk about that, and then get into the nuts and bolts of defining process, describing my own beautiful and replicable process and get into thinking about process as a practice for grounding into a generative life.
I had a tough August. I’d been looking forward to it as a last hurrah of summer, a pause between launches, but various external meteors hit in the space of the week, leaving me rocking wildly on my axis for most of the month. I was oversensitive (for a week I let one line of unkind feedback question whether I carry on), I was worrying, I was overthinking and questioning what was wrong with me, and generally I was just, well, sad.
And yet I kept working. And actually, work got me re-balanced, got me steady, got me through.
Perhaps that feels counter to the whole message? The whole “work in life”, finding fulfilment, radically prioritising, thing? I think even I can get to a place where I’m almost arguing from a “down with work” position, although this is really more indicative of the dominance of the “work and life” narrative – that we are so used to its omnipotence that even while striving for something different we end up separating the two.
Because it’s never been about hating work, or not wanting to do work, or work being bad. It’s always been about having work as a beautiful and pleasurable part of the whole. And in August, as I lost grip on my usual “oozy” pursuits, the things I do to access joy and selfhood, work stood up to the plate as a grounding activity.
I didn’t find that grounding in walking like I usually do, partly because it has been too hot and the routes are too overgrown to go out, and partly because I was thinking about things too much on my walks. I haven’t read a single book this month (the first month all year!), I think because I have been unsettled and too in my feelings to also take on the emotions of fictional characters. But work I could do.
I had ideas I was excited to develop, I had the focus of what I needed and wanted to do, I had the creative flow to share and show up in light and curious ways. I enjoyed myself, sharing my daily to do lists to Stories, getting out the felt tips and paper, writing things I was proud of. It was a pleasure to get up and get to work each day, and feel like, in spite of everything, here I was holding it together, here I was capable and achieving and living.
It's funny because when I think back to August last year, the opposite was true. I was trying to get the house sale over the line, trying to hold all the finances together, trying to find somewhere new to live. And through it all I physically could not work. Could not have an idea, could not write, could not post, could not figure out a direction. I was beyond blocked, beyond lost – work was another thing on the list that was going wrong and needed to be sorted.
I think the main difference between then and now is that I’ve come to a settled place with my work process. I know now that the things that used to make me panic are now just a part of it to sit with and wait to be over. I know how to stimulate ideas and capture them when they arrive. I know how to make it a lovely experience to be working in each day – lovely in a way that’s true for me, not in an Instagrammable way. I know how to best flow with my energy and no longer operate from guilt or shame. I know now how to do this, and how to keep doing it.
Sooo…. What is my process? I have been sat here for thirteen minutes since writing that question trying to come up with the words to describe something that is quite ephemeral. Because when I say “process” I don’t mean the steps, the routine, the one foot in front of the other system to getting somewhere. I mean the way in which I work, the bubble within which I create flow, create focus and, well, just plain create.
I think it’s easy for us to believe we are just one podcast about the perfect morning routine away from a never ending source of productivity and flow. And yes routine might be a part of a process… or it might not. Routine might actually squash a creative process (that’s my experience, I need a very light and changeable routine to stay flowy). But I’m getting ahead of myself. I suppose what I’m saying is that process is the container in which you do or don’t have a routine, the container in which you do the steps and also the planning, the container in which you have ideas and make things. Process is an energetically-led, unique way of working.
Sooo… what is my process?!
It is staying afloat and keeping calm and being connected to myself and making decisions and focusing on where beauty and joy can be created along the way. In real terms, that looks like preventing panics and spirals by understanding that the difficult first half an hour is a part of it and doesn’t actually mean anything. It looks like riding out the little tantrums my brain has about creative problems and then calmly returning to the work rather than giving up at the first scream.
It looks like short daily lists that alleviate pressure but regular checking in to project plans to remain on track. It looks like paying attention to where my energy and excitement is directed, and investigating whether that’s a sign of discomfort to wait out, or whether it’s a sign that I need to change direction - and what that looks like is noticing my excitement being drawn to Plan B, but following through with Plan A until I can feel the excitement is true and not a distraction.
It looks like making swift calls about changing up the daily tasks or deciding not to do something, without guilt or shame or making up the time. It looks like prioritised space in the day to be outside and to be moving my body. It looks like a relaxed, grounding morning routine of tea, music and affirmations.
It isn’t that I ever really sat down and said “let’s define and design a process”. But I think something in me knew that I couldn’t have, and didn’t want to have, another experience like last year where I was unable to work creatively, and something in me knew I needed this invisible container that I could head into like a bomb shelter, if need be, and carry on working amidst everything. Until comparing the last two Augusts I don’t think I’d fully realised how important process was, and how much it was working.
As I’ve been thinking about this, the phrase “beautiful and replicable” comes to mind to describe process, or what it needs to be. Because it can’t just be something that allows you to get one thing done, it has to be replicable across all of your work and all of your creative projects, it has to be something you can use to get into anything that requires focus and flow. And for it to be something you can use to get into work, it needs to be beautiful because you need to not dread it. It needs to feel safe, and comfortable, and pleasurable to get the best out of you.
My process is replicable because it is a way of living, not just a way of working. Empowerment in decision making, prioritising, listening to my energy and a low pressure, calm approach can be applied in most situations. And it is beautiful because it has lots of room for things I want to do besides work, it has fancy little touches and, most of all, it enables me to feel the way I want to feel when I’m working - happy, and in control. I want to be clear: none of these things are what is required for THE beautiful and replicable process, they are what’s required for MY beautiful and replicable process. They are the things that bolster and enable me to access my creativity, access my flow, be a version of me that I want to be. Yours will be different.
A working title for this episode was “process as a spiritual practice”. That wasn’t quite what I meant, but it also wasn’t not what I meant. It was the only word that could come to mind, but being someone who doesn’t know a lot about or go in for a lot of spiritual practices, it wasn’t really hitting the nail on the head for me. But what I was trying to say is that process isn’t just about getting things done, it’s about being in your life in a grounded, pleasurable way. As I was describing at the beginning, process has been a way for me, during difficult times, to find a way into doing things that make me happy, give me confidence, and bring me out of a potential spiral.
This next bit is important.
The way that process becomes elevated into this practice, into something that is grounding and generative and creative, is by being as much about enjoyment as achievement. When we think about the way we work we use words like productivity, efficiency, focus, organisation, effectiveness. Only after we have thought about those words do we (maybe) think about creativity, joy, flow - as nice to haves, but we’ll go without if it means we get as much done as possible.
Process as a practice is as much about enjoyment as it is about achievement. The pleasure and the creativity and the flow and the ooziness is equal to the productivity and the organisation and the effectiveness. They embrace and uplift each other: in the last year I’ve created more output than I have in four years. I’ve come up with and created three major courses, I’ve written a book proposal, I’ve blogged consistently with posts I’m incredibly proud of, I started posting on social more regularly, I have a Notes app full of ideas I can’t find the space in the calendar for. I also went on a three week trip to Lisbon, travelled to see friends and family, hiked most days, woke up late, took myself on day trips. Achievement happened because I was enjoying it, and I was enjoying it because I was getting things done I was proud of. It works.
So that’s our show. My hope is that it gets you thinking about the way you’re working, about your relationship to enjoyment and achievement, about where there’s room for more beauty and pleasure in how you work. If you’re excited about it, there is a sneak peek of something at simpleandseason.com/process.