Get Unstuck With Tea
Do you feel stuck?
Are you looking for that next thing?
What would it take to move forward in your life?
If you feel stuck, chances are that you have let your imagination stall. Either you aren’t imagining anything or you are imagining what can go wrong or isn’t working for you. If you do the same thing all the time, you get in a rut. This is when imagination shuts down.
Your imagination helps you create your future. Afterall, you have to imagine something before you can do it. Therefore, it may be time to play a bit more. To do this, you need to feed your imagination.
But what does imagination eat? New thoughts, experiences, and abilities. In short, do new things.
My youngest son is at the stage in his life that school is done. He has his master’s degree. He’s tried a few things, including being a professional gamer. (Thank you covid.) And now he is looking for the next step. Ultimately, he would like to find a career that feeds his soul. And since he doesn’t quite know what that is yet, he is looking for the next step.
So, we devised a monthly program that we call TEA. The purpose is to expand his Thoughts, Experiences, and Abilities so that he can discover more about himself and what he is good at, as well as what he needs help with. At the beginning of every month, he chooses a book to listen to, something new to do, and something to learn and practice.
TEA
· Thoughts: To create something new, do things that will stretch your thinking. Read or listen to books, listen to podcasts, watch insightful videos, or expose yourself to things that you don’t know about. This includes viewpoints that are different than your own. The idea is to be open to new thoughts, so that these new thoughts can spark your next steps.
Do not just read what you have always read or watch what you have always watched. It’s time to step into something new. After all, this part of the TEA is about getting new ideas.
Look for things that grab your interest. The first book my son listened to was Stealing Fire (by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal). The next month was TB 12 Method (By Tom Brady). The common denominator was that the authors were way better than average and they gave insights of how to be better in a way my son could absorb.
· Experiences: This is your chance to explore something new. This can be a one-time thing. Every new experience can spark and make new connections in your imagination. Visit a museum, walk in a different neighborhood, order something new at a restaurant, try a new recipe, listen to a different type of music, visit a junk store, etc.
Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, calls this an artist’s date. It opens yourself to inspiration, insight, and guidance. Spending time with yourself is important to nurture your imagination.
· Abilities: Learn a new skill such as meditation, journaling, knitting, woodworking, accounting, etc. This is different from the experiences because you choose to learn something and do it over and over throughout the month. And hopefully, you will get better and better at doing it. (And if you don’t like what you are doing, it’s okay to choose something else after giving it a fair try.)
So many people don’t want to do something unless they are already good at it. With that type of thinking, you won’t find what else will delight you. Give yourself permission to be a beginner.
For example, I always thought I couldn’t do art. (That was my sister’s thing.) I could draw stick figures and two-dimensional trees or houses, but that was it. I even tried cartooning. While that was fun, it didn’t hold my interest.
Then last summer, I saw a video about pour painting and was intrigued. Now I’m doing and enjoying it. It’s so relaxing. And since doing things I enjoy boosts my high vibe, I’m constantly feeling better and better. (And I’m even getting more skilled at pour painting.)
By stretching your thinking, doing something different, and learning new skills, you will feed your imagination, create new matchups, and have new directions to explore. Once your imagination starts having fun, there is almost no way you can stay stuck. In this moment, what grabs your interest? It’s time to dive into that.
