Hold That Thought

This week I've been thinking about how to stay steady during turbulence. Here are three things on that theme to turn mental energy into meaningful action:

1. The purpose of a flywheel isn’t to make things go faster. It’s to make progress smoother, easier, and more sustainable — how I create consistently when my headspace feels like ever-changing weather.
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2. “part of the essential skill is cultivating greater intimacy with your own inner metabolism - and seeing your moods, energy, and cycles as a source of power, not as a hinderance to that power.” — a moody creative's guide to work overwhelm by kenning zhu
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   In other words, honoring your ability, capacity, and energy for putting your foot to the pedal (and letting the flywheel take care of the rest).
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3. Overwhelmed? Overthinking? Over it? Here's how to instantly feel better:​

This week's underthinking link is a calming 9-minute video on how to make a dorodango (Japanese clay ball).

Extra thoughts…

Overwhelm is the word I'm hearing from everyone, everywhere lately. It's understandable…the world — and the people in it — are a lot right now. Which can make it extra challenging to maintain a steady pace, much less stay on course.

As I was putting today's newsletter together, I started wondering if overwhelm is the feeling that happens when we're experiencing multiple states at once (see Sketchplanations graphic, above) + too much information to process.

What are your thoughts about that?

Thoughtfully,
Kim

PS. I've just refreshed my website landing page and would love some feedback…what's working, what's missing, what's still not quite right? Please hit reply and let me know.

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Hello! My name is Kim Witten and I’ve spent nearly five decades overthinking absolutely everything. This has led me to various places and I've had (what I used to think was) a fairly messy career path. Here's how I made sense of it all​