The “Lace Method’ - Part One
With each new year, I pendulum between two frames of mind.
✅ It’s proven that setting goals and saying them out loud help you reach goals.
❎ It’s also true that the ‘new you’ idea is commercial and an industry within itself and that actually, you are probably great exactly the way you were in December.
So on the one hand, constant growth is unnatural.
On the other, stagnation doesn’t feel great.
Plus, if you’re a parent in Australia, the start of January is NOT a good time to start-over, re-fresh, or do anything because the kids are not back in school.
There is no routine, which is nice from the Sisyphean-lunchbox-chore point of view, but not so great from the structure, organisation, feeling of calm point of view.
What we want to feel is calm and collected and creative.
Which brings me onto the topic of smoking 🚬
Did you know one of the reasons cigarettes are so addictive is because they are both stimulating and relaxing?
That’s why smokers feel they need one in the morning to wake up but also need one when they are stressed to calm down.
It’s why you can picture a writer or artist with a cigarette hanging out the corner of their mouth in mid-masterpiece; nicotine both invigorates you and chills you out so you can find that middle balance.
How do we get that without the possibly fatal addiction?
I’m refining something I’m calling the Lace Method.
Lace is made up of a zillion tiny knots, all tied together with strategic spaces to create the whole effect.
It wouldn’t be lace without the knots and the repetition, but it also wouldn’t be lace without the … well, holes.
The beauty is in both the structure and the space.
The pattern and form is key, but it’s there to showcase the light and variation.
↳ Think of structure or pattern as your weekly routine, and the light and variation as novelty within your week.
↳ The routine can give you the productivity, and the novelty brings out the creativity.
I think we have to find how much of each works for us. For me, it looks a bit like this:
Too much routine without novelty = super productive, dead-inside robot
Not enough routine but lots of novelty = creative fun but unsustainable
Not enough routine or novelty = danger zone!
That’s a lot to take in, so here’s another version with examples.
(👀 Notice how no one zone is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ on it’s own, it’s just how satisfying it might be in the long run or how sustainable it truly is.)
Of course, everyone’s comfort level with routine and novelty will be different.
When have you felt untethered? In a good way? What about an unhealthy way?
When have you felt productive and alive?
What about productive but burnt out?
When have you felt most creative?
✨ Here’s your own sheet here if you want to fill in the times you’ve experienced the different zones ✨
I would love to hear how you go - email me here if you’ve got thoughts!
