How Part X Harnesses Your Creativity
Bear with me, if you’ve been here a bit you may be sick my constantly writing about Part X.(Or at least linking back to it. If you haven’t read these two articles yet please do before returning to this one though.) But if addressing your inner saboteur in this manner has been or seems helpful, I have one more thing to say. As Part X is born from our own brains, it is every bit as smart and dynamic as we are. That’s why it has access to all the same mental strengths and skills we have, including creativity. If Part X is allowed to run rampant, it becomes particularly adept at harnessing our creativity in order to exhaust us and bring us closer to burnout. Ok I’ll stop with the links.
Since it’s an inert skill we’ve inadvertently developed, something that holds us back and chugs along without our consent or approval, think of Part X like an engine. If left unchecked, it’ll guzzle all the creative fuel you have in order to find new problems, new fears, new ways to keep you down. As soon as you address one thought it feeds you, Part X will pivot to another. This can kind of be demonstrated by part 2 of the Fluidity Tool. (Sometimes I like modifying this tool to imagine absorbing all your creative fuel back, which then becomes the river you’re flowing forward in in step 3.) In order to prevent Part X from harnessing your creativity against you, you must take charge of your creative output yourself.
This can be something you do just for yourself. A hobby you do not have to monetize. It can be inspired by various techniques like Morning Pages from The Artist’s Way (though you cannot allow Part X, negative self talk, to worm its way into your morning pages. Stop and pivot to a new thought.) Practice banishing Part X’s messages as you make art regardless. This is part of the process. The journey is the goal, and banishing Part X is part of the journey here. This is just a consistent practice you’re doing to improve your overall mastery over Part X, nothing more, so it doesn’t matter how many times Part X intrudes unless Part X literally grinds the process to a halt.
If this is happening, if Part X is butting in so often you cannot make real progress, one thing you can do (whether you’re a skilled artist or not) is to try an art form you have no ego investment in, something you know you will be bad at, something you have no intention of doing professionally or even as a hobby. This will render Part X powerless because you will suck at it and you know that. The whole point is to suck. To be a waste of time and energy. Keep sucking. Be so at one with sucking at this thing it becomes the goal. Try writing the worst sentence ever. Not a parody of bad sentences, the actual worst sentence. It’s harder than you think, and in some of these posts I’ve tried. Once you’ve done all these things, and are very, very cool with being bad at creative expression, go back to the creative hobby. Or start a new one.
One thing to keep in mind about said hobby is to try to keep it consistent while recognizing that’s not always possible: you will fall off. Life happens. Do not allow shame and guilt to intrude once you fall off a consistent creative schedule/practice. Just get back up. And again. And again. Progress is not linear and that’s ok. In fact, restarting while rejecting guilt and shame whenever possible will render Part X even more useless. Good luck!
