Feeling Stuck? Try This

It’s an easy way to move forward

Hello

I have a simple message today. Follow your curiosity. You never know where it will take you.

Sometimes we have life mapped out and decide that things should be like this. Sometimes we achieve like this. And sometimes we don’t.

And sometimes we discover that like this doesn’t seem to fit anymore.

This is what has happened to me. Nearly three years ago I started this Substack to provide gentle mindset writing advice, to nudge people through the internal perils of being a writer. I had done research with writers to find out what their problems were, what they were worried about and then I wrote articles on those topics.

I did well and several professional journalists and writers loved my work.

But then unexpected life things happened. Thanks to long-covid I got struck down with chronic fatigue syndrome. I couldn’t give as much energy to this newsletter as I once had. Then my husband fell down a set of steps and sustained a traumatic brain injury. This turned both of our lives upside down in a major way.

Two years ago, it was very painful to have to scale down and abandon my writing goals. I’m now at a point where my energy has improved, the circumstances with my husband though still horrendous have stabilised and I can start to think about making progress again.

However, when I look at this Substack and how I used to position myself, it doesn’t seem to fit anymore. It’s not where I’m at and it’s not what I want to write about.

So instead, as I tiptoe into a new life, I am following my curiosity.

This has led me to joining a choir and singing for a performance of Handel’s Messiah. It’s a strange choice for someone who has been a Buddhist for over thirty years but it is has been on my bucket list for a long time. It is a truly fabulous piece of choral music. Every rehearsal fills me with joy and my friends have commented that I light up every time I talk about it. I can’t believe that little ol’ me gets to sing the magnificent Hallelujah Chorus.  

For my paid subscribers I’ve also been writing about insights I get when I visit my favourite tree in our local park. I come up with little snippets of wisdom that make you ponder how to apply them to daily life. These articles have been well received.

None of this fits the like this that I conjured up three years ago but it is bringing me immense joy.

If you feel a bit stuck or your plans have gone awry or you have no idea what you want, I will leave you with this advice from creativity guru, Elizabeth Gilbert. In Big Magic she says:

So how do you find the inspiration to work when your passion has flagged? This is where curiosity comes in.

Passion can seem intimidatingly out of reach at times – a distant tower of flame, accessible only to geniuses and to those who are specially touched by God. But curiosity is a milder, quieter, more welcoming, and more democratic entity. The stakes of curiosity are also far lower than the stakes of passion… Curiosity doesn’t ask nearly so much of you.

In fact, curiosity only ever asks one simple question: “It there anything you’re interested in?”

Anything?

Even a tiny bit?

Where might a tiny bit of curiosity take you? Elizabeth Gilbert concludes:

You might spend your whole life following your curiosity and have absolutely nothing to show for it at the end – except one thing. You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you passed your entire existence in devotion to the noble human virtue of inquisitiveness.

And that should be more than enough for anyone to say that they lived a rich and splendid life.

Plodding gently

Cali x

Photo by Marek Bubenik on Unsplash