The pressure to innovate, pivot, side-hustle and generally make art from aversion is something that - for many of us - is conjuring up mixed emotions.
On the one hand, the pressure to ‘unshelve’ all those ideas, plans and dreams might be providing the nudge we’ve long needed to translate thoughts into action.
On the other hand, the obligation to ‘rise and grind’ every day and ‘cash in on our skill set’ - even in this global pandemic - is leaving us exhausted and feeling unable to compete.
In all the pressure to do, make and create, what most of us probably end up doing is....FAFFING!
A bit of research here...some brainstorming there...doing everything and nothing all at once.
The problem is, all these ‘toe in the water’ tactics can (and often do) leave us feeling even more hesitant about taking a leap of faith (and LESS confident in our abilities and ideas) than we might have done before.
The crisis of confidence is no wonder, when you consider the phenomenon known as ‘cognitive dissonance’, which often leads us to self-sabotage our own ideas before they’ve even had a chance to germinate... let alone blossom.
We might see ourselves as entrepreneurial, but when we end up ‘wasting’ a day faffing, doodling and seemingly not achieving very much, it creates a conflicting view of ourselves. One of being unproductive, unmotivated and devoid of what it takes to succeed. These competing ideas can be so uncomfortable for our mind, that we end up changing our thinking to convince ourselves we’re actually not as enterprising as we though.
Realising that ‘faffing’ can actually be a good thing, especially for injecting a much-needed element of serendipity into the creative process, is therefore an important hurdle for anyone planning a side-hustle or career leap to overcome!
We don’t need to be monetising every minute from the offset to be productive, and contrary to popular belief, there’s a lot to be said for simply ‘throwing the mud and seeing what sticks.’
It might not lead to overnight entrepreneurship, but exposure to diverse stimuli (articles, images, stories) can be enough to get our many thoughts (60,000 – 80,000 per day) bouncing off each other, the ripple effects of which can reach far beyond what we might ever predict right now.
Essentially, there is much more to 'making the best of lockdown' than start-ups and side-hustles, and even if exploring ideas brings about nothing more than a discovery or reminder of something you do (or don't) enjoy, it has been time well spent .
According to a survey conducted by GoDaddy, one in five home workers are using this time to set up a new business, but before we feel any pressure from this statistic, let’s concede that the other 4 in 5 might be doing the same, just in a more roundabout way that even they don’t know about... yet!