Where creative overwhelm comes from

Overwhelm hits ambitious creatives.

It strikes when we have many messes, but no order.

And how we deal with it matters, whether it’s at work or at home:

If control isn’t present, bring order. Building our understanding of what we control (our minds) and what we cannot (everything else) allows us to focus our affections on things that truly matter, protecting them from the rest.

If control isn’t present, bring order. Order allows us to focus on one thing at a time, creating our best work with calm.

If order isn’t an option, have fewer yesses. This brings us again to doing one thing at a time, creating our best work with calm.

If having fewer yesses isn’t an option, we get overwhelm. This is where we end up if the above two options return false.

Now we see the decision tree, we can deliberately avoid creative overwhelm, or deliberately allow it into our lives.

The choice is ours, from now on.