When the mood strikes
You know that moment when you’re thinking about a project and you get a flash of energy, curiosity, and inspiration? It’s what happens right before you run to your computer or your workspace or your notebook and dive in, losing time into the flow of the thing that has captured your focus.
And it’s so delicious when that happens.
But oddly, I have noticed this other weird phenomenon that can happen right after that flash. It’s when I talk myself out of it. When I think, “Oh, that’s a great idea, I should work on that later when I have a proper amount of time to sit down and really get into it for as long as I need or want to.”
And nothing kills the mood like procrastinative pragmatism (my new made-up phrase).
I actually caught myself doing this recently. I had that flash and I started to reach for my tools and then I thought, “Shoot, I don’t really have time to lose myself in this right now, I should do this later.” And as I felt my energy start to wane, I shook myself and said (to myself), “No. Now, for even just a little bit of time, is better than some undetermined time ‘later’.”
Sometimes these urges can be distracting – like when I see my pantry has gotten messy and I want to pull everything out and reorganize it. But the flip of that is…it never gets done and just gets messier.
So I’ve been working on noticing when these moods strike and just diving in right in that moment instead of putting it off. (Sometimes I set an alarm if I really truly only have a certain amount of time before another commitment).
What would you dive into if you were to allow yourself to do it when mood strikes?
