Alrighty, How do you raise and maintain an energy level that allows you to get in all of the things you want to do?
I maintain a high paced schedule. My to do list is usually about ten miles long, and I usually have about ten projects in various stages of completeness in the works at any given time. I tend to use the shop broom method, pushing the pile along and moving it forward equally as best I can.
In a way I think it's because I'm trying to be fair to my projects. To create growth in any area you have to feed it. You have to put something in to get something back.
I also have as many if not more of my projects living on the mundane side of the equation. There are so many balls to keep in the air in order to keep everything progressing that I often use my less mundane pursuits to fuel the day to day.
I'm drawing energy out of every place I can make a connection to pour into obligations. I've streamlined as best I can but when it comes down to it, it's a vicious cycle. The leaves grow and need support from the roots, which in turn need to be fed and watered, which causes the leaves to grow... You take in as much as you can on the leaf, but it's limited by what the rest of the plant can process and store.
Taking in new energy stimulates new growth and new ideas that in turn need more energy to be supported.
I also feel like there are things that I HAVE to do. Not like mundane have to, but in the arts I feel like if you CAN do it, then you shouldn't be letting it rot on the vine. You need to be out there with your baskets cultivating it since it's one of the most valuable things that you can contribute to the world. To let too long go without picking up the guitar, or sketching, or any of the other million crafty things that come to mind is to let those shreds of energy and thought float away on the breeze.
By doing they are made concrete.
To not clean the kitchen, and to not have an environment put together where I can sit down and draw energy just from the layout and stimulation of my surroundings - to let the mundane stuff go is just as crippling.
Unfortunately bringing things over from thought to product takes a lot of energy. Energy beyond what sleep, food and mental quiet can provide. Then adding that these things in and unto themselves aren't always reliably employed with the day to day stuff - they require investment to pull energy back out later. Sometimes you don't make that investment, or have the down payment to invest.
Sometimes the ideas themselves generate enough energy to transition from lightning strike to flame, but other times they bring an energy debt along with them. The scope of the idea can drain you.
Controlling the panic that shows up when you really realize you are up against the boundless, and that maybe there is just no way to generate enough energy to get through the things you feel you should be doing is another juxtapose. Sometimes panic can generate a boost. Other times it just shatters your hold on what little you have left.
What are some places that you draw energy from when you're spread thin? How do you conserve that energy, making your pursuits more directed so you're loosing less energy out the cracks and to ineffective method?
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