There are two extremes, a person can procrastinate by forever sharpening the axe but never getting to cut the tree or they are always attempting to cut the tree with a blunt axe or just cutting away at leaves and branches and getting nowhere fast.

The invitation is to become aware of which you are and deciding whether to continue or take the time to sharpen the axe and aim it at the root for an effective and permanent outcome. The root is the most effective and permanent way to be rid of something you don't want any more.

Sometimes we are afraid to go to the root of an issue because we don't think we can handle what we will find there, we then deflect onto others and inflict cuts on them. When we summon the courage to face what is at the roots, we discover that we are stronger than we thought and what we judged as undesirable becomes a strength.

There is time to prepare, aim, cut, rest and enjoy the fruits. Conditioning around getting validation from constant doing can induce guilt when we rest. Failure to rest can compromise your ability to do the other parts of the process. Let go of the guilt and plan in the rest you gain from exerting less effort with a sharp axe to the root.

When was the last time you took time to rest from your efforts?

A choice to focus on one option is also a decision to ignore/eliminate the others. Focusing on what you don't want is not helpful as your subconscious mind will take that as a signal to manifest it in your life. Become aware of whether your focus is intentional or inadvertent. Is your current focus serving you? If not, change it to one that does.

When we start our journey of creativity we are open to infinite possibilities, but there comes a time when we start to narrow down the field to identify what we want to implement. We can only do one thing properly at a time, so "focus" becomes our friend to allow us direct our energy at that one thing and get it done.

Focus directs energy towards an outcome. Create SPACE to get inspiration for where to direct that energy for your intended outcome.

Is your focus aligned with your intention?

When faced with circumstances that take us out of our comfort zone or ones that carry apparent dire consequences, we can experience a sense of panic that results in an uncoordinated, inefficient and ineffective response. That state is not conducive to FLOW. The key is to recognise the state we are in and reset so that we can connect to FLOW and find the best route to an optimal outcome.

Being aware of our environment and understanding the interconnection between our efforts and the factors that produce our desired outcome will help establish whether it's worth continuing or better to stop and reassess our options. Our efforts could be like riding a bike for all it's worth only to realise it is stationary!

Not all efforts produce a commensurate outcome, it may be better to identify the 20% of actions that will move the needle 80% for an optimum outcome.

Are your efforts directed at the things that move you towards your desired outcome?

Collaboration trumps competition and the world is all the better for it as each person gets what they want and helps others get what they want. The outcome of the collaboration blesses all of civilisation like a ripple effect.

In the creative process, it is important to hold a space for ideas that may seem contradictory to co-habit as out of their mixing together a usable idea may emerge that we may implement. Give ideas space to breathe and they may evolve into reality.

We need to let ideas breathe before jumping into action.

What gets in the way of you creating time for ideas to flourish?