Talking Yourself Out of Your Head
You're working on a project, and everything seems to go wrong. The deadline is looming, and you're starting to panic.
I think every artist has that moment when they feel like, "I'm going to fail, and everyone will know I'm a fraud."
Some call that Imposter Syndrome. In all honesty, it's part of an artist's process, or it could be part of anyone's process.
Once you recognize what's happening, you know that tomorrow, after a good night's sleep, the solution will probably come.
But when you're in that moment, the dark night of the soul, how do you break yourself out of a death spiral?
This feeling I know all too well, and if you're nodding, you know it, too.
Today, I was listening to Bill Thompson, a retired U.S. Army chief warrant officer, speaking about hunting.
What does hunting have to do with panic during a project? A lot, actually.
I've learned to recognize when I'm in a death spiral. But a lot of times, especially when I've got people glaring at me, rushing me to get a file to them, or when a procedure I'm working on just fails over and over, or even when the computer crashes in the middle of my manic moment, I can get so caught up that I can't even get to the point of talking myself off the ledge.
Bill was speaking about a military process called STAB.
Stable position, slow Trigger pull, Aim, and Breath.
Others talk about talking to yourself, listing things that interrupt the spiral and help pivot your mind in another direction.
So, the next time you're in a death spiral and you're heading toward a total meltdown, stop, take a breath, and repeat a mantra. Any mantra.
Even Katniss Everdeen used this when she would spiral: "My name is Katniss Everdeen. I'm from District 12. My parents are..."
You get it.
Clear Skies.