One of my professor friends calls it "working off site." What she really means is that she's at a coffeeshop or bakery, sipping herbal tea, maybe enjoying a pumpkin waffle, writing or editing an article, or preparing a lecture in the steady hum of a public place. I know that hum. But sometimes I forget how useful it can be.
Just enough background noise can help me hone in and listen to the ideas rolling around my mind with the same acuity as if I were in conversation with a best pal. Something about being in public also shuts down the critical little cuss who often crawls up onto my shoulder and whispers nasty things about my worthless topics or lousy sentence formation. I call her Fear.
Elizabeth Gilbert advises in her book on living a creative life, Big Magic, that a person with an invisible friend like Fear is well-served by saying, in greeting to her, "Well hello, Fear. I see you there on my shoulder, but I am not going to talk or listen to you today. You are welcome to stay, just please take your place over in the corner."
It was suggested to me last week, by a reader board on a car repair establishment of all things, that "What you feed will grow." Daaammmnnn, I thought sitting there in my window seat on the bus that just passed Golden Rule Brake, that's what I do to Fear. I nourish that homegirl. And she's been growing for years, getting nice and strong, building up girth so that she's harder and harder to shove into the corner. It's time to put her on a diet.
And what better place than on the sun-drenched patio of the neighborhood coffeeshop? I'll feed my love for iced tea, and let Fear go thirsty for a while.
Plus, they offer free refills!
Just enough background noise can help me hone in and listen to the ideas rolling around my mind with the same acuity as if I were in conversation with a best pal. Something about being in public also shuts down the critical little cuss who often crawls up onto my shoulder and whispers nasty things about my worthless topics or lousy sentence formation. I call her Fear.
Elizabeth Gilbert advises in her book on living a creative life, Big Magic, that a person with an invisible friend like Fear is well-served by saying, in greeting to her, "Well hello, Fear. I see you there on my shoulder, but I am not going to talk or listen to you today. You are welcome to stay, just please take your place over in the corner."
It was suggested to me last week, by a reader board on a car repair establishment of all things, that "What you feed will grow." Daaammmnnn, I thought sitting there in my window seat on the bus that just passed Golden Rule Brake, that's what I do to Fear. I nourish that homegirl. And she's been growing for years, getting nice and strong, building up girth so that she's harder and harder to shove into the corner. It's time to put her on a diet.
And what better place than on the sun-drenched patio of the neighborhood coffeeshop? I'll feed my love for iced tea, and let Fear go thirsty for a while.
Plus, they offer free refills!
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