Etikettarkiv: mood

Podcast 47/52 – Peak creative windows

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Jonathan Fields points the finger on a sore spot for me, in this Good Life Project riff. How do I structure my days to ensure I work with my natural thinking and creation cycles, rather than fight ‘em? And what times of the day am I most organically creative? Listening to Jonathan, I realize I don’t really know my daily thinking/creation cycle all that well.createLike Jonathan, I have a peak creative window late at night, say from 9 or 10 pm and a few hours onwards. If I am still up by then, and there’s something to get done, boy, can I ever get it done, and with good quality at that.

But what – or rather, when – is my daytime creative window? Hm. I don’t really know. Have gotten into a somewhat lethargic routine on mornings when I don’t have to be somewhere at a set time, with a social media-session (that usually lasts much longer than the 15 minutes I aim at…), my daily Headspace meditation, doing my Seven exercise and then making a green smoothie, drinking it while reading the news paper and completing my daily Sudoku. And you know what? Nice as these slow mornings are, there is something within me wanting to come out, that isn’t. I’m not helping myself by structuring my days in a way that helps me get it out. Running more on mood than anything else?

I read someone who said they preferred to give people a hand up rather than a hand out. And that’s what popped into my mind now. How can I give myself a hand up to actually work with my natural creative windows? Making the most of them, if nothing else because it’s enjoyable?

A full year of Seven

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On Tuesday I did my 366th consecutive seven-workout, as logged on my #SevenApp, which you can see from the check mark after the ”There is no 7 month goal”-challenge.

full year sevenI’m at day 368 today, so I will just keep on going. One day at a time. And it’s interesting to do this, every day, because of my observations from day to day. Sometimes I am so tired, weak, my body heavy and almost immovable, making it feel very hard. Other days I am bouncing around, feeling light and strong, pushing myself and loving it. But I don’t do my seven-routine based on my daily mood. If I did, I would not be at a full year of daily seven’s, not even close! My daily seven-routine is done from another angle, from my desire to treat my body good, to give it a bit of a workout every day, stretching my muscles, getting my heart pumping, pushing my limits.

In short: my success is due to my long-term desire, rather than my in-the-moment-mood. Is it even possible to achieve something like this if the underlying driver is mood-based?

John Cleese and Groundhog Day

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Just finished reading John Cleese autobiography So, Anyway… which is a book I recommend even for those who, like me, haven’t really got the British comedy scene from the 60s onwards down pat. One of the foremost insights I had when reading was how apparent it is that life unfolds, in mysterious ways, and how going with the flow of life can lead to fantastic careers, such as John Cleese’s.

But besides that, he talks a lot about writing (he sees himself first and foremost, as a writer rather than an actor), and stipulates a few rules for writing funny stuff, the second of which I really enjoyed reading:

BoldomaticPost_Your-thoughts-follow-your-moo

This I’ve found to be true: My emotions are a guide to my current state of mind, or mood, to use John’s words. I react to the world, from my current internal mindset, rather than have the outside world create my mood. I find this important!

It’s a bit like Groundhog day, you know, the movie with Bill Murray, where he keeps on reliving February 2nd, over and over again. The same things occur, and depending on his current internal mood, he’s happy, sad, angry, annoyed, depressed, frustrated about it. The same things. But his mood determines whether or not he perceives it to be good or bad, happy or sad, cheery or boring. This is true also in my life, as well as your’s, and is not a movie-feature.

If I’m in a miserable state of mind, I will see all things through that lens. It’s not the miserable things of the world that causes me to feel miserable. My mood tints the world into appearing miserable.

If I’m in a happy-go-lucky state of mind, I will see all things through that lens. It’s not the happy things of the world that causes me to feel happy-go-lucky. My mood tints the world into appearing happy-go-lucky.

One day I knock over a glass of water on the kitchen table and you would not want to be around me, for all the shouting, swearing and cursing going on, ruining my entire day and giving me ample evidence the whole world is out to get me. Another day, I laugh at my own clumsiness and after wiping it up just goes about my business, without a single cuss-word crossing my lips.

Have you experienced that as well, where the same things happened twice in a row, but your reaction is totally different?

Lifted spirit!

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It’s been a peculiar day, where for the first time ever, I seriously contemplated ditching my Twitter account. I’ve had breaks from Twitter now and then, but never really thought about just leaving it, completely. But this morning the thought crossed my mind. I’ve had lovely conversations on twitter about this today, and have decided not to leave Twitter, just now anyway, but I will clean up my following and also take more care as to what I do there, and with whom I interact. But I still felt a bit off.

So when my daughter came down to me a few minutes ago, with this song playing on her phone, I just knew this was the answer to my peculiar mood. It’s rocking and there is no way in hell I can sit still when listening to this!

You’ll never feel happy, until you try – so that’s what I’m doing now, and dancing wildly to this song sure helps lift my spirit! Over, and over again. It’s irresistible!

Can you sit still while listening to this song?