No not Trump’s one. The wall you hit when time is short, inspiration is spent on other things and you haven’t written a blog post in three days. That wall. Yes I’m writing about you. The last few days/weeks have been hectic. We are right in the middle of the pipe band competition season in Victoria and it’s been non-stop. In the past three weeks I’ve travelled to Bendigo, Ballarat, Echuca, Deniliquin, Wagga and Griffith – some for work, some for band. This week alone I will clock up over 1000kms of travel and last week from Sunday to Sunday it was nearly 2000km. That’s a long time on the road, and it’s a long time away from family. Travel of this type is of a mental burden too – concentrating for long periods of time on the road, traffic, and avoiding wildlife is tiring and having attention left over for other more fun things is difficult.
I set out to write a blog post on every week day as a means of achieving my 1000 posts OKR, however time has been against me – particularly on work days where I’m out of the house early, on the road and then home late. There is no time for an enjoyable pastime like writing, or a necessity like eating well or getting enough rest.
And when I finally get back to a semblance of normality, I find myself bereft of ideas. What the?! On the drive in I had several thoughts about what I could write today and when I sat down – gone. Poof. Like a fart in the wind (a phrase I love). So I thought, hey I bet others out there hit this wall, maybe a bit of a ruminate will help get past it and I can move on with something more interesting! As I think about this situation more, its apparent that protecting that creative time is very difficult, but equally rewarding. On the days where I husband my energy and creativity, then it’s easy to punch out a few hundred words about what ever is on my mind. But a late night, plus a rushed morning and the circumstances for generating a good blog post is impacted by the Wall.
This outcome is clearly linked with my priority of rest and focusing on managing my energy levels well. Easier said than done and I’m sure I’m not the Lone Ranger struggling with this. Keeping space and slack in the day means that there is time for my brain to drift and find its way to interesting things. Having back to back meetings / travel / things to do is the opposite of this situation. It’s apparent for me that I need time for the mind to be untethered to meetings and To Do item lists so that I can tap my creativity. It’s the sledgehammer for my wall. Now I’ve had a moment to relax and write about this, it’s spurred some ideas for future posts so I hope you stay tuned.
I have chosen a picturesque looking wall for the featured image, but the reality is my wall is ugly, dark dirty grey and formidable. How surprising it is that rest, relaxation, mindfulness are exactly the right fluffy things to smash such a wall down!
Angus' Blog 