PDA adulting: staying in flow

Episode 9: Moving a mountain ... with a river

I’m struggling again to get motivated to do financial planning.

It feels like moving a mountain. It feels impossible.

I had a realization today about these tasks that feel like threats to me, and instinctively avoid. When I think of the task in isolation, it’s very challenging to engage with it at all.

But I’ve noticed that when I am in a flow state — for example writing poetry — I will often take a break from the creative work to do a bit of housekeeping work, or paperwork. If I had thought to myself that my objective in that moment was to do my laundry, or my taxes, it would have registered as a threat and a demand. I would avoid it. But when I’m already in flow, I have more capacity for the hard thing.

The image that came to me was of moving a mountain. If I tried to do it with a shovel, it would feel like a fool’s errand. But a river caries each little pebble in its flow, one by one. The river carves up the mountain over time, with its unceasing flow.

So maybe there’s a sense of movement, of momentum, that comes from creative flow for me. And I need to keep that sense of movement for anything else to be doable.

So right now I’m supposed to be looking at my financials, and I’m writing this post instead. But maybe the little bit of creative flow I feel right now will help me engage with the financials later today.

When I have an ominous task, I can pair it with something that will help me flow. Need to do my taxes? Write about it first, then maybe do it. Need to take my car to the dealership? Do it while taking a break from preparing a poem of mine for publication. Need to make dinner? Do it while listening to an audiobook I’m enjoying. Do it while watching TikTok. Whatever.

Each of those tasks is a little pebble that will eventually be moved by my flow.

And eventually, I’ll move the mountain.