You Will Lose Your Way
When you set out on a creative project, you will lose your way.
Now this is especially true of ambitious projects, because the greater your vision the more time it is going to take.
And the more time it takes, the more perils will spring out of the darkness to threaten what you first felt so clearly.
That’s what this message is about — not just why that happens, but what you can do when you’ve drifted so far that you fear you’ll never find your way back.
The reason that I want to explore this is that I’m going through this very process myself but I am making so many discoveries as I course correct, that I think will help you to.
So the first thing you have to understand is that when you set out on a creative project, you have all the energy of the world contained within you, and the thrust of desire, dream, and that sense of certainty in your chest. This power gives you a primal energy and its precisely why the hurdles in the early stage of a project don’t really feel like hindrances. On the contrary they they animate you because they are no match for the gusto with which we thrust ourselves into new adventures.
So an example in my case is with my current album — the as of yet unreleased Chromatic Zero. After I got into the groove last year, I had the bit between my teeth —and the knowledge that I had something deeper expressing itself through me —cascaded my energy forward, eventually helping me to get the album recorded.
But getting a project into the world is a separate journey to that of creating it. And the question of whether you’ll finish has nothing to do with whether you can get it started or not. That part’s easy. Your talent and your excitement will always get you going — but the question of whether you’re going to damn well see it through arrives only at the point the obstacle zeroes its beady eyes onto you.
That’s the moment we all-too-often drift. And the real problem isn’t the drifting — it’s whether you’re willing to course correct. Whether you’ve got the courage to sling your pickaxe into the ice when you’re disoriented, tumbling, and in free fall. This is not the time to shrink from the dark. This is the time you show the dark who you are.
As for me — I’ve drifted. On the surface, it looks like I’m doing everything right. The songs are coming out. I’m sharing the project. There’s even that nice fuzzy glow of things taking shape. But underneath, something is needling me. And the only real question is: do I have the courage to listen to it?
Yes, I set out to see if the music was still in me. But now that I’ve found it — what am I going to do with it? Creation is enough, but only to a point. There comes a time when you have to ask: are you going to be the one to carry what you’ve made to its audience?
The artist’s work doesn’t end with the act of creation. It continues with the decision to carry it all the way. Not just to pick up the cross, but to go through the full ritual — all the way to resurrection.
When you drift from your project, you are entering the cave, and there is no guarantee that what you’ve made will ever reach its audience.
And the thing is, everything that’s created has its own inner life — and the job of the artist is not just to create but to have the strength to see the full journey through.
So if you’re in the dark at the moment, its not because you’re not enough, its not because you’re weak or unworthy. It’s because you’re in the heart of the way that life chooses to test you. And in this, this moment — right here, right now — is the opportunity you were subconsciously looking for when you set out.
Because its only by emerging out of that drift, out of that dark, out of that cave — that the initial vision that lit you up at the start, will ever see its way into the world.
As for me — I’ve had to admit that you can be doing exactly what you set out to do and still be hiding. But that’s the trial by fire. Facing that is the very thing that transforms you — from who you were before you set out into the new being that is made through the act of getting there.
My next step is to break out of the comfort zone of this room and find a way to bring these songs — and this album — into the world. I’ve found myself adrift, but only by confronting those hard questions will I ever find a real answer.
So if you’re in a similar place, this is your moment. Not just to double down, but to recommit. To return to the vision that first set your soul on fire — and to carry it forward.
Go get it.
