By Brandon Clarkson of Helen MacMillan Coaching
We’ve all got to that point before, that realization that things feel stagnant, unmoving, unchanging. Nothing feels inspiring – with your motivation and energy levels suffering as a result and it’s usually a creative’s biggest roadblock. I’ve personally felt like it for weeks, maybe even months. As soon as Covid hung up its coat and promised that it was here to stay, I could feel all the energy I had for life slowly but surely fade and it had quite an impact on my work too.
I had to get out of the city, in London I felt like a caged bird with nowhere to go but from my bed to my desk. Like so many of us, I found myself turning increasingly introspective during lockdown. One thing that’s for sure with Covid-19, we were certainly gifted the opportunity to examine our lives and start the process of making cuts over what we did and didn’t like from our ‘old lives’.
Frankly, I needed a sense of clarity about everything. I wanted to know exactly what path to venture on as the cogs of the world start turning again. Although I love my tiny London apartment, figuring everything out in the space I’ve felt almost trapped in for nearly 6 months with the same scenery, simply wasn’t where any of this was going to happen.
I craved open space, the beach, the sea, green fields, softer tap water and FRESH air.
So, where else was I to retreat to other than my laid back, seaside hometown on the south west coast of England. With no other train station for about six miles, I let out a huge sigh of relief as I stepped off the train to a barren platform.
I knew that for the next month I could take it easy, reconnect and reconfigure my desires and generally recalculate my next steps. I guess I timed it so that as the world begins to wake up, so could I.
I’ve been home for a week and a half now, and the clarity I’ve gained has been truly eye opening! In removing myself from my day to day routine, I’ve been able to look at my habits and patterns from a more objective place.
This has allowed me to choose what is and isn’t working in my life.
By taking a break, I’ve gifted myself with the time to unwind and disconnect from the external stresses of the outside world and basically figure out what’s good for me!
In my quest for clarity, I made choices out of self love. When my part time job at the pub alerted me that they’re back up and running, somewhere inside, I was not ready to go back.
Sure, my future, like many others is uncertain – with job losses left right and centre, this may not seem like a good decision. What I can be certain of, is that with each choice I make going forward, I can say I made them with my best interest at heart.
If I hadn’t sought a sense of clarity through the way I deemed best for me, i.e. changing up my scenery, I feel like I would have been stuck – making decisions in the ‘new world’ that weren’t for my greatest good and made out of fear and haste.
When an opportunity to acquire clarity presents itself, you’ll know because your heart will twinge and the voice inside your head will say, ‘yep, I want and need that now’. Think about changing your day to day.
Think about doing something that you love. And if it feels good to think about, it’ll sure feel good to do it and do more of it.
That’s the thing with clarity, sometimes you won’t know you need to search for it. It will come in the form of desperately needing a vacation or craving to do something you love to do. How many times have you come back from a break and felt re-energized, refreshed, ready? You might’ve even come back and made some big changes.
Listen to your heart and if you only hear a whisper, go somewhere you can hear it more clearly.