A title with a double meaning today, my friends. Building blocks are the little chunks of matter we use to create bigger constructions, the pieces we need to make up the whole picture. We can’t do without them. Building blocks of our creative work might be chapters in a book, lines in a drawing, individual words in a poem or stitches in an embroidery – whatever your work entails. How often we get caught up in celebrating, venerating the complete picture or the finished work, yet how seldom we notice the critical value of the incremental, sometimes tiny steps we took to get there.
The big projects we place so much importance upon are all made up of lots and lots of little projects, one on top of or after or joining with another. Precious individual building blocks build the whole.
But we are dealing with double meanings today (not just double entendres, which I do love, as any of my limerick readers will know…you might want to check out the depths of my Instagram feed for some more of this 😉), so what about the other meaning of the phrase?
How many blocks have you built between you and your projects? Writer’s block. Artist’s block. Collapse of confidence. Permanent procrastination. Nerves that are so overwhelming, they become a kind of paralysis. Imposter syndrome. Toxic comparisons. Rejections. Self-doubt expanding like cumulonimbus on your horizon. Avoidance. Fear of failure. Fear of success. Cultural preconceptions and internal false beliefs. Thinking you’re too old. Thinking you’re not old enough. Loneliness. Thinking no one will be interested. Health concerns. Financial concerns. Family concerns. Time pressures. Believing you’ve run out of ideas. Believing you’re too out there. Believing you’re too mainstream. Refusing to take your own wishes and dreams seriously. And…probably quite a few more building blocks of one great big block.
If any of this sounds familiar – and it applies in many spheres of life, beyond what we call creative pursuits – then you are most definitely not alone. The concept of (creative) block is such a powerful metaphor because it feels so solid, so impenetrable and so isolating. You’re not alone in feeling alone.
I know a lot about this subject because I have lived through it. The experiences I have had have pushed me towards reaching out to help other people with their own creative blocks, something I’ll expand on below.
Saying I have lived through this and, even more, come out the other side of it, is actually an exhilarating sensation. It doesn’t mean I never hear those old voices of doubt in my head, of course. Even today, I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by a whole lot of obligations and conflicting demands, all knocking at my door at the same time. It happens. The difference for me now is that I have strategies to help me negotiate these tricky moments and point me back on track in a gentler, less pressured way. It is often the pressure that sets my building block reflex in motion, if I’m not careful.
Noticing is the key to all of this. Picking up on the signs before sitting down to work at my desk – am I feeling edgy, is there something else going on for me right now that might affect my writing? Usually/always, it’s nothing to do with the creative project itself at all. It just so happens that creative projects – because they are often so personal, because they come from inside of us – they are especially vulnerable to attack from the arrows of low self-esteem.
This is where honesty is your best friend. Blunt, maybe, but always on your side.
If you’re feeling blocked, it’s good to admit it to yourself. It’s even better to think about why you’re blocked.
It’s definitely not because you’re too old or too young or you’re making the “wrong” kind of art. You’re the perfect person – the only person – to make your art. Literally no one else can do what you do in the way that you, uniquely, do it. Those block-building building blocks I mentioned earlier are all, without exception, either completely untrue or somehow surmountable. Argue with me all you like, but we both know that’s true. 😊
How about this as a not-so-crazy idea: you don’t have to take those building blocks and make a wall; you can make a set of steps out of them instead. Use your blocks to help you. Look at them, even if it’s frightening, and turn them into those little pieces of matter we spoke about at the start of this post, those fragments we put together to construct magic, to write stories with, to paint pictures with. They can be a different kind of building block altogether.
And yes, it takes courage to look at our blocks, especially to look at them in a kind, gentle, encouraging way. Looking at our blocks without giving ourselves and our creative dreams a hard time is probably a pretty novel idea for many of us, so used to being hard on ourselves.
It’s a subject I keep coming back to because it has been such a defining issue for me in the past. But it is in the past. I use these old beliefs as stepping stones now and what’s more, I use these experiences to help other people who are going through similar stories with block. Lemons into lemonade!
So, if you are reading this and feeling some of those stuck, blocked feelings right now, I am 100% with you. I want to let you know that this does not have to be a permanent state of affairs for you, any more than it was for me.
Cordy – an outrageously talented artist who has gone through her own heavy blocks, too – and I have put together our first online course, designed precisely for creative people who are struggling with block. Both of us know just how debilitating this can be; equally we know how incredibly liberating it feels to move beyond those blocks and experience genuine creative freedom.
The world can feel so overwhelming sometimes, particularly now, with events queuing up to persuade us that everything is all doom and gloom. Being creative and expressing our souls is a kind of vaccine against hopelessness. I feel so passionate about this project because the idea of people finding their voice is incredibly exciting – what is the world going to hear from you? What do you want to say?
We want to know! If this speaks to you right now, please do get in touch and take that first step today. The course is up and ready here:
or you can get in touch to talk about it with me or with Cordy by commenting here, or messaging me on Instagram or Facebook.
Wishing you a wonderful week, friends. Here’s to your building blocks building something miraculous for you. 😊 Till next time.