Gut Check: 4 Simple Ways to Find Your Instinct
You hear it all the time: just follow your gut.
But how do you know where your gut is leading and when it’s speaking to you? As creatives, we constantly absorb new information and ideas to the point where sometimes it’s hard to listen to our own voice.
When we come to the point where we’re losing a sense of direction in our work, it’s important to reconnect with our own intuition, bringing clarity to that voice again. Here are a few simple ways to find it:
1. Pause your fears
Many times, our judgment gets clouded because of what we fear. We are afraid we might be laughed at, rejected or simply ignored. Operating from that sense of fear will always muddy our insight. It skews our perspective to the negative instead of letting us imagine the possibilities.
When we imagine what might happen if we had no limits, whatever comes from that place will come from our gut, not from our anxieties.
If we allow ourselves to pause our fears, it doesn’t mean we’ll obliterate them — that’s nearly impossible for most of us. Rather, we’ll give ourselves a “What if everything that I wanted to happen, could happen?” scenario. We can resume fearing the outcome tomorrow, but for today pausing our fears means we can discover our hidden instinct.
2. Compassionately consider another point of view
Sometimes our creative instincts are battling each other. It all feels like a competition and we’re not sure which direction should ultimately win. In those moments we must pause, allowing fresh clarity to come and fully consider each direction before hurdling ourselves down either road.
Instead of hurrying into judgment of either alternative, imagine what it would feel like to embrace each one.
As soon as we role play a little bit, it becomes obvious which direction lines up with our bigger picture leaving us feeling light and excited. New viewpoints spark new ideas. Choosing a direction won’t cut off inspiration, it will amplify it.
3. Expose yourself to nature
For the urban kind of creative, getting into nature can seem unnecessary. Why observe nature when there’s a whole city speaking to us? But the truth is, there’s a lot of inspiration to be gleaned from Mother Nature. Going for a walk, sitting at the edge of a body of water, or simply playing with an animal can provide a creative a tremendous amount of clarity because nature is always looking for the easiest possible path. As the line Jeff Goldblum made famous in Jurassic Park goes,
“Life will find a way.”
When we are over-complicating our creative journeys and losing our intuition, where can we find those same moments of clarity even in the bustle of our busy urban lives? Look for the easy paths in nature, draw inspiration from that which is not man-made, discover what moves you in a new and natural environment. Temporarily shifting our perspective by focusing on the world around us is a natural way to get back to our instincts.
4. Cut the fat
Just like a sculptor, sometimes you have to chip away at what the statue isn’t before you can know what it is. Some of the greatest creative ideas started as that uncut rock, and the artists had to cut away what wasn’t working in order to fully express their visions. They sensed the statue within and worked relentlessly to trim away what blocked it.
The same is true for the creative life. To grow in our work, we have to reassess what’s holding us back and get rid of it. Maybe we don’t always know what is working, but we might know what isn’t. Go through your day and look at what’s stopping you. It could be you feel the least productive in a crowd of people, or you haven’t quite carved out your work space yet. No matter what it is, cut what isn’t working for you.
As we get down to the bottom of it, our own instincts will be revealed and better work will come of it.
