I asked our trusty haiku fortune cookie bot Haikookies for some advice on what to write about today, and I love the answer I received:
We will heed the worms
I dance and then I define
Create today now
With my acute sense of apophenia tingling, I decided that this meant I needed to listen to my squirming inner not-good-enough, play around with some ideas, and draw them together into some concrete steps: all in service of the choices we make to “create today now”.
Sometimes it seems like the world is stacked against us creating new and interesting things. From the people who want “more of the same” of what we’ve created before, to the ease of simply not doing anything at all in the modern world, to the sheer impossibility of choosing what to make and how to make it.
On the other hand, the human creature loves to make things, and we get a great sense of accomplishment from learning, failing, trying again, failing again, trying again... and finally succeeding! A great method we can use to push past choice fatigue with the big things we want to make is just making some tiny things.
Making a tiny thing shows us that we can indeed do things: not just start them, but finish them too. Having a few tiny things in the back pocket can remind us on schlumpy days that “I can do it”. Making tiny things with new tools can remind us of the joy of learning and improving - the ecstasy of being a kid again!
Sometimes I don’t do things because I’m afraid. What am I afraid of? People might laugh at me! They almost certainly will. And talk about me behind my back too! And think judgy little thoughts in their judgy little heads! Well, OK! Can I live with that? Absolutely I can. The fear of shame, of being mocked by others in the community stops people from so much good in life. But once you realise that wagging fingers and a bit of tsk-tsk can't really hurt you? Great things await.
So, my prompt for this week is to take a tiny - tiny! - amount of time where you remove the concept of fear from your brain. Stand in your power and choose. I choose to spend 10 minutes writing a haiku. I choose to spend 30 minutes making a doodle. I choose to spend half a day writing a small interactive fiction.
And if we make a tiny choice to use a tiny bit of our time to make something tiny... then what? First, we can recognise that uncertainty is a gift. Feel that trembling nervousness. Get right down into the body and feel the tremor of potential. Anything could happen next! Wow!
You could write out a few options and roll a dice to pick one to try out. You could write every permutation of options that appeals to you in Martin’s Ephemerald and call on the robots (or the synchronicity of the universe, take your pick) to ask for guidance:
One of the wonderful things about the internet is that we all have tools to make anything we want. And we have the combined expertise of millions of humans to help teach us how. Nobody can stop us but ourselves! What have you chosen to make? In all likelihood there’s a free tool to help you do so on Tiny Tools right now, or a tutorial video on YouTube.
And as you settle into it and really get grooving, remember that perfect is the enemy of good. Revel in imperfections. Really get down there and roll around in the muck of them - these are the marks of the human in your work!
At every single step on this path of life, you always have a choice. And maybe this weekend you’ll choose to make something tiny - tiny! - that shows you anything is possible!