This is probably the key to everything.
It's what blocks everyone.
It's also a chance to lay out my morning routine, because people ask about it often and I have to admit that – on the good days – it helps. It changes everything.
But before that, first step:
Do nothing.
There's nothing to do.
Breathe. Relax. That's it.
Yes, your brain isn't going to leave you alone: "There's that problem to deal with! That appointment not to miss! That..."
Let it chatter. It chatters all the time. It will never stop.
Yes, if you're late picking up a child, go!
But often your brain invents emergencies, invents tasks.
Notice it. Don't act on it.
Generally speaking, good action is never intellectual.
In other words: it's never my brain saying "hey, we should do this" and me executing.
Unless it's an appointment, in which case my brain acts as a calendar. I'm not obeying a thought, I'm obeying an outside commitment. One I accepted at some point – for good reasons, hopefully.
But the rest of the time: no, the brain is not the one choosing.
Constructed thought is not what decides the next action.
Besides. There's nothing to do. Except relax and breathe.
We're no longer turned toward the future. We let the brain chatter.
Then... something rises up.
Not a thought, no: an urge, a gesture, an impulse.
We follow it without judging it, without thinking, without considering consequences.
Then we let the nothing settle in again. Because there's nothing to do. The...
A new gesture. A new urge. An image surfaces, unconnected to obligations: a grandmother we haven't seen in a long time, a landscape.
We observe this image without chasing it away or holding on to it. We feel it shift something inside. We let ourselves be transformed.
Then nothing. We accept this nothing. We embrace the inaction.
We let this nothing stretch out in time.
Because there's nothing to do.
Then a new impulse. Something we've never done. But simple, immediate. Something that requires nothing, demands nothing.
We act.
For me, that's real action.
The kind you don't think through.
And yes: I've done big things this way.
This blog, this site, the videos, the drawing, my recent films, my narrative strategy work that lets me earn money doing something natural to me...
All of these ventures started with immediate gestures that went against logic.
My brain never told me "this is a good idea, you should do this!"
But when I acted in the moment and got started, my brain followed.
It helped me.
That's what needs to be understood: constructed thought isn't a cure-all, nor is it an enemy. It's a tool.
Thought doesn't tell the truth. It explores intellectually whatever you put in front of it.
Logic isn't a compass. It's a guardrail.
Intelligence never accounts for the whole situation. It only works on the ultra-narrow summary you make of the situation.
On paper, that seems reasonable.
But it doesn't account for the richness of the moment.
For that, you need to trust the whole of yourself: the body, the instinct, the intuition, the emotion.
You need to plunge into the present.
Careful: I'm not saying that if you act on instinct, everything will unlock right away.
Freedom isn't acquired overnight.
It's learned, like the piano.
And even once you've got a bit of it, you have to maintain it. Practice your scales.
That's what I do with my morning routine.
But since this note has become extremely long, we'll do that in the next one.
See you Monday.
PS: Episode 4 from Panic in Space! is out today!