I've been Languishing lately, going through the motions with a lack of both motivation and focus in varying periods, basically feeling Blah! But still, I've been going through the motions. I first came across the term languishing in an article by Adam Grant in "The New York Times" ( I'll drop a link to the article below). And it stuck with me. It feels like burnout, but we still have energy, its not depression because the hopelessness wasn't as high as that would entail. It's just a feeling of being joyless and aimless. This mental condition is one of the most predominant feelings in the COVID world we live in today.
But that's not what this weeks newsletter is about. I've been going through a period of introspection as a creator and a professional. I was questioning every aspect and trying to understand what should be changed and what shouldn't. And while I'll pick up the professional part another day, I'm going to address the creator part today. I've tried a ton of stuff as a creator. In fact, I got myself so muddled up and twisted in recent times ( I'm guessing the languishing hasn't helped) that I was questioning more than solving.
That's when a simple exercise helped me out,
I took a sheet of paper out and wrote four simple questions on it:-
What do I enjoy?
What don't I enjoy?
What makes me want to quit ?
What else do I want to create?
I sat down with these questions and spent the night putting down points. I then let it be and picked it up in a few days and tried to unpack what I'd put down and make any changes my mind was telling me to. And after a couple of weeks of doing this, I finally managed to find some clarity amidst the fog engulfing my mind.
So, did this exercise take away the feeling of languishing? Not entirely, but it did help me find clarity in a muddled mind. Give it a shot and see if it helps you too.
Weekly recommendations
Adam Grants Article on Languishing and why it may be the dominant emotion of 2021
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/19/well/mind/covid-mental-health-languishing.html
Seth Rogen has written a book!! About his life!! And he’s on Conan O’Brien’s podcast to tak about it. And its by far one of the funniest podcast episodes I’ve ever heard.
?si=VugnKBNRScyEYkDUuyp-_g&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A3u26tlz7A3WyWRtXliX9a9
In my weekly “shameless” self-plug, I made a video about what I’ve been doing as a creator over the last year.
Quote of the week
”Our own life is the instrument with which we experiment with the truth”
- Phil Jackson ( Sacred Hoops)
✌🏽
Share this post