Trusting in the magic of one thing at a time

I’ve been having a difficult few weeks. My energy has been particularly low and I’ve been increasingly feeling behind.

Feeling behind

I’ve been working on the update of my little ebook, Sustainable Creativity for three months now, and at the same time keeping my blog and twitter updates ticking over, writing my fortnightly free microMag, and also launching a second, fortnightly subscription email letter.

Ignoring the panicked voice

I’ve been listening to the panicked voice in my gut telling me that I have to keep going, that I can’t lose momentum, that there isn’t any room to give.

That’s nonsense of course. I’ve learnt over and over again that the panicked voice in my gut isn’t the one to listen to, but it is the one that shouts loudest (particularly at times of low energy and illness).

Taking advice from the calm and wise voice

Luckily I also have a much calmer, wiser and consistent voice that tells me to be kind to myself, to take things slowly, that there really is plenty of time. I just need to remember to listen to it and follow its advice!

Trust in the idea of one thing at a time

One of the things this calm and consistent voice tells me is that I need to trust in the idea of one thing at a time. Sometimes that is just the need to work on one thing at a time throughout the day, and sometimes it’s over a longer period. Right now it’s telling me that I need to focus on one thing (the update to Sustainable Creativity) until I’ve finished it.

“Let the emails build up,” it says, “you’ll be able to catch up later.”

“Twitter will still be there in a few days,” it reminds me, “people won’t mind if you take a bit of a break.”

“Let your blog schedule slip, it really won’t matter.”

The magic of one thing at a time

So I’m listening and taking a bit of a break from everything but Sustainable Creativity. The magical thing is that I’ve already done more in a couple of days than I had done in the first three months of this year. I’m also a lot less stressed.

Of course listening to my calm and consistent voice doesn’t stop my panicked gut voice shouting and stamping its feet, but I’m learning to live with that.

Which voice are you listening to at the moment?

Update: version 2.0 of Sustainable Creativity is now available (and will be sent out free to all current readers tomorrow). If you don’t already own a copy and would like one use the code “march6″ to receive a discount of $6.00 on the cover price of $15.95. Anyone buying the current version of the ebook will receive all future updates for free as they are released. You can take a look to see what’s in the pipeline for the project here.