I’ve been thinking about navigating the dip. The Dip is a Seth Godin idea about when things get hard. Six months into a seemingly never ending pandemic and theatrical pause, it feels like many of us are in creative and artistic dips.

 

Recently, my coach Peter Shepherd asked me how I navigate the dip. I thought about it, and I realized that having a lot of different things going on at once helps me to keep going. I’ve been keeping track of them in quarantine on a flexible To Do List like this:

When one thing is done, it’s not like I’ve put all of my eggs into one basket. In working this way, I can avoid the temptation to linger in feeling depressed and lost now that it’s over. I simply check off that project, start a new Get To Do list, or scan my chart to see where else I can put my attention.

 

Every time I ship a project, an idea, a reach out, a self-tape, a social media post, a blog, whatever- I think to myself, “Nice! That ship has sailed. Where’s the next thing coming into the harbor?”

 

On your project board, there can be a balance of things, just like in a harbor. All of the things you’re working on don’t have to be huge boats. It’s just like Battleship. In order to win the game, you have to sink ALL of the boats, big, small, and in between. A good harbor maintains a balanced fleet.