In the creative process, there is always a moment of impossibility. This is the moment in which the project seems unachievable. It will never work. The sculpture will never be fabricated. The dance will never be choreographed. The product will never launch. The company will never achieve momentum.
This is a hard moment.
You question everything. Why am I doing this? Why did I try? Why did I ever stop watching Netflix?
During every one of my ten full-evening shows, I had a moment like this. For me, it has meant fantasizing about all the movies I wished I had watched rather than trying to make my own work. Laziness is elevated to a holy place where I lament if only I had the wisdom to see how perfect that laziness was!
It is not clear how long the moment will last. I have found that it is best to admit it when it arrives. Accept the defeat of the moment. Yes, this feels impossible. Yes, this feels unsurmountable. Yes, this totally sucks and I am completely lost as to how to fix it.
And then, almost magically, it passes. Something shifts and hope arrives again. There is a tiny spot of light that might lead out of the cave. You don’t get a ‘Yes, this will work’ usually, but you do get a ‘huh, this might just work!’ That ‘might’ feels profound.
Expect the moment of impossibility. Welcome it when it arrives. Go down and into it. Feel the hopelessness, the overwhelm, and seriously consider the possibility that all of this might be a waste.
And then move forward.