The Art of the Slow Burn

When it comes to working on their biggest dreams, most of my clients consistently have one of two problems ….

The first is that they have a really hard time finishing things and the second is that they have a really hard time starting things.

I’ve written a lot over the past year in particular about how to get better about finishing things, so today I thought I’d focus on starting things.

I tend to work with a lot of multipassionate people. Whether they are entrepreneurs or artists, they have a lot on their plate.

Frankly, a lot more than the average person. 

They tend to be really hard workers, sometimes to a fault. (Which means a high incidence of burnout too.)

So when they’re reluctant to start something that they would really love to do, you know something’s up.

For most of them, they tend to live in a space of all or nothing. 

Either I give everything I have to this project, or I can’t start it at all. 

And having a full schedule of commitment to work, family, and career or business, it just doesn’t seem like there is room for anything else, even if they really want to do it.

The truth is, we can all find the space and time to do more of what we love. It just takes a little ingenuity and willingness to see things and do things a little differently.

Enter the Slow Burn.

The Slow Burn is a concept I learned from Tiago Forte, the writer and creator of Building a Second Brain. (Which is a really awesome book, by the way.)

In Tiago’s words, a Slow Burn is an approach where  “you can slowly gather ideas, in the background and over time Once the project gets underway, you’ll already have a rich collection of interesting ideas, insights, examples, facts, and illustrations that you can easily combine together without burning yourself out.”

Now, my approach to the Slow Burn is slightly different, but has the same sentiment. 

Basically, the idea is you begin a project from the perspective of spaciousness. You don’t give yourself any discernible deadlines. You allow yourself to play in this space and really enjoy being in a space of endless possibilities and creativity.

If you are writing a play or a screenplay, maybe you start to write without deciding the structure or the “point” before you start writing. You let your creativity go in any way that it wishes to go.

If you are building a business or a new course, you don’t give it any specific timeline to be complete.

You may sense that the common thread here is no timeline.

And that’s true, but the difference is that you are currently doing nothing.

With your slow burn project, you are going to be committing some time. Even if that is merely an hour a week.

This isn’t about getting there quickly. This is about getting started and about healing the way you work. Letting it be okay to take small steps. Choosing to face your fear each day or each week.

There will come a time when you will need to do more than that small increment, but by the time you get there, you will have all this ease, pleasure and creativity built into how you are showing up that even with more time spent, it won’t burn you out.

Want to learn more about how to pick (and start) your Slow Burn Project? Join me for a FREE workshop, next Tuesday October 3rd at 3pm EST. Click here to sign up now.