If you've ever created anything that was focused around some kind of big launch, show, debut or reveal, you know the deal. As the time comes closer to pushing the button, all hell starts to break loose. Even if you've worked really hard. Even if you've done everything right. Even if you've created God-like spreadsheets to manage it.
Because you cannot lock down the future. You cannot predict exactly what will and won't work, nor can you see all possible paths until they're upon you. Opportunities you never even knew existed will seem to drop from the the sky while sure bets vanish before you.
It's important to be open to that. To stay fluid and be willing to see, respond, correct, embrace and build…on a dime. Staying linear may well get you to your goal, but it'll likely leave you far from your true potential, had you been willing to stay open to the unforeseen.
While you cannot lock down the circumstances of creation, though, you can profoundly change the way you experience them by cultivating the right personal practices and workflow adaptations.
I know this. The very project I've launched - Uncertainty - is the roadmap that reveals these strategies.
Talk about a prescription dose of irony, though.
Apparently, I'm human.
Over the last month as the launch began to ramp into high-gear and the need for me to protect my daily mindset and workflow practices like a mama bear protects her cubs rose with it, things began to unravel.
My mindfulness practice, which has been a strong psychological and spiritual keel, went from a once or twice a day practice to two or three times a week.
The critical workflow practices that normally fuel high-quality, high-speed, high-joy output in less time aren't nearly as locked in as they should be, and it's having an impact on both my output and my mindset.
Exercise dropped to once or twice a week.
Nutrition…are marshmallows a vegetable?
These are among the core lifestyle practices I need more than ever to be able to keep my mindset fueled, centered, hyper-creative and capable of responding to constant change. They're critical not only to my ability to thrive professionally in this intense window, but also personally.
Thankfully, there's one other practice that kicked in today that's pulling me back. And fast.
Enter the Personal Circuit Breaker.
A dedicated time to step out of my daily routine and own up to whether I've been doing what I need to be doing to create great work.
For me, it' a twice a month thing, where I pull back from my normal experience, rate how I'm doing, ask those closest to me, then correct course. When I'm not in creation high-gear, it's a more casual thing. But right now, in launch mode, it needs to be held sacred.
I'm at the two week window before publication date. There is a massive amount of work to do. There's no changing that. It's all good stuff. Amazing, really. How I experience that work, though, is on me.
Time to re-embrace the critical practices that will set me back on track. The ones that open the gates to a higher level of focus, creativity, problem-solving and just also keep me humming along in a better mood.
Personal Circuit-Breakers. Think about 'em. Create 'em.
Which would be my cue to close my computer, throw on my running shoes, breath, play, meditate and reclaim control in the midst of a creative storm of my own making.
Oh, and, one last thing…what about Mallomars, are THEY a vegetable?
Jonathan Fields is a serial-entrepreneur, business strategist, speaker and author. His latest book is Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel For Brilliance. Fields writes about performance-mindset, innovation, leading and entrepreneurship at JonathanFields.com
