There are times when you feel like writing about a specific topic. It’s there, inside of you, wanting to come out. But then, oh – you need to do this other thing – you need to do this meeting, you need to finish this chore, you need to get on top of your to do list. And so you make a mental note of that thing you wanted to write, and get on with the more practical things in life. You tell yourself that you’ll get back to that thing you want to write later.

And so after a few days, when you have some spare time, you decide to write about that thing you’d wanted to write about. Only this time, it won’t come. You try hard. You know the concept you wanted to write about. The few days in between even gave you a chance to think about it some more. And yet, the words don’t come. You still write some stuff, but it feels like a shadow of what you wanted to convey. You try and do the best you can, but the output is not what you thought it would be.

Does this happen to you? It happens to me. It happens to me often. Not just with writing, but with all my creative projects. For eg: In the case of bookbinding, I’ll have the idea of a book build up inside me. And when it’s right, I have to work on it. And if I don’t work on it for a long time, it kind of goes away. It might come again later, but it might not also. I used to do photography in the past, and experienced something similar. The idea of a photograph would build up inside me, and I had to try and harness the idea at that time as much as possible. It would not stay with me forever.

I’ve written in the past about how every book has its time – the same book will have a big impact on you at one point in life, and might be completely meaningless at another. It all depends on your circumstances and mindset at that time. Perhaps, you can say the same for creative pursuits too. Your current mindset, situation, emotions play such a big role in your creative output. The same project might resonate a lot with you at one point in time, and not interest you at all at another.

And therefore, perhaps, the more you can lean into your feeling of flow, the better it is? Instead of trying to suppress what you want to do, recognize that your energy is best spent finishing that task at that time. Don’t put it off, and instead lean into it. Your output and your sense of satisfaction will be highest, the more you can lean into your feeling of flow.