Welcome back to Worm School! This summer, I’m making a plan for finally finishing my overdue book project—and the advice I’m giving myself / the habits I’m adopting in my writing cave should, I hope, prove useful for anyone trying to make progress on an ambitious creative project.
If you’re just catching up on the series, the previous lessons are: Think smaller, Forgive yourself, Find some accountability, and Follow your energy.
OK, on to today’s lesson:
Week Five: Lean Into Ritual
Last week’s lesson was all about finding energy in your creative life—a worthy goal for sure. But I also want to acknowledge that some projects are just inescapably energy-demanding: They require sustained attention and sustained labor, and may only feel energizing in brief moments.
When that’s the case, I always wonder: How can you make the experience feel a little less effortful and/or how can you learn to tolerate the discomfort a little longer?
One answer to both questions is to lean into ritual. In a creative practice, ritual can be a way of: