Why menus matter: the power of choice against the stubborn mind (Archived)

Post-COVID-19 a brand new cafe opens near you. You skip on down there one bright, fresh morning to check out their breakfast. You plop yourself in the chair, rubbing your hands together in excitement. The server hands you the menu.

The menu has one choice on it. You flip over to the coffee menu and… there’s a single choice on that as well. Are you going to stay seated? Probably not, right?

We all have preferences, but for most of us what we order each time we sit down changes. A lot depends on how we are feeling on the day. What do we feel like? Perhaps we’ve had a bad week and we want something naughty? Perhaps we feel like something familiar or comforting? Perhaps we want to eat clean and healthy today, or try something new? There are so many factors influencing the choice we would make.

Not having a choice makes out minds rebel. The choices themselves influence what we immediately feel like.

Choices in our creative space are just as important. When you carve out a chunk of time to tinker in your creative space, do you lock in an intention for what you wish to achieve in that time? Does your mind veer off and rebel? Do your find yourself lured off track by the siren call of the couch, the fridge or a good book?

Choices make our minds less stubborn. They prevent dichotomous thinking (all good vs all bad, all in vs all out — without considering the possibilities that lie between). Our minds like to try ideas on for size and find the one that best matches where we are at in that moment. Because of this, I always leave options attached to each chunk of creative time I roster for myself. It’s not just about slogging through a half-finished work trying to pull the threads into a climax. It’s not just about editing that completed piece. There’s a list of things I need to research, there’s hunting the jungles of google for new opportunities. There’s work on social media and resources to read or listen to and study. There’s play time, writing exercises or splashing about in theme ideas.

Focus and discipline are important. It gets our butts on the seat. It doesn’t always keep us engaged. We all know what happens when we try to push a pile of mud uphill. It slops and flops and sticks and covers us with mud. It slips off down the path of least resistance.

Self-isolation and the collapse of our usual routines and responsibilities can leave us with more time on our hands, but less energy to do anything. Providing ourselves with choices on what to do, within the scaffold of self-discipline, is a hack around the lazy. A menu of options is a powerful tool against our energy slipping down the path of least resistance… back to your couch.

Creativity is a vast, deep, mysterious landscape. We cannot fathom its depths poking it with a stick, or standing at a distance, or from the butt-print in our couches. We need to get right in there, elbow deep, tinkering and fiddling around. We need to pull at this and poke at that see what happens. Active, proactive movement in your creative space will get your gears in motion and can stir up a whole lot of new energy and ideas from the silt at the bottom of your barrel.

Is it time to review your menu? If you feel your mind or energy baulking, is the problem a lack of choices?

(Posted 26 Apr 2020. Follow me at: https://nicolewalshauthor.com/)