Turning off Autopilot to get out of a writing plateau
Yesterday, I took out a bowl thinking I would make oatmeal. Instead, I grabbed a yogurt, started making coffee, and scrolled through something undoubtedly dumb. Once my coffee was ready, I poured it into the obvious vessel...my oatmeal bowl.
A few thoughts emerged from this coffee bowl moment:
We do so much on autopilot: Not just around the house, but once we get into a groove, we don't use our brain so heavily for those tasks anymore. That's fine! Sometimes though, the situation changes and when you're still on autopilot, you wind up with a confusing mess, aka bowl full of coffee.
Context is everything: Looking down at my bowl of coffee I thought "oh God, what the hell is this? This doesn't belong in my mouth!" In the context of a thing that should be in a cereal/oatmeal bowl, this dark brown liquid was unappealing/disturbing. But, put it in a mug and it's the delicious coffee I crave. Out of context, a nightmare. In context, a dream.
The autopilot and context mistakes happen with our writing, too.
We might pitch, write our newsletters, and try to grow our audience on autopilot. That's not a problem per se, but if pitches stop working or subscribers aren't coming around, you can wind up pouring your resources into the wrong cup.
Thankfully, autopilot is easy to snap out of. Sometimes it means going back to something we used to do a lot (pitching certain topics, reaching out to people individually to share your newsletter) or trying something new that feels interesting (trying a new editor or running newsletter ads). You never have to keep pouring coffee in the bowl.
The coffee context comes up a lot in marketing. Most writers treat marketing like the least appetizing thing on Earth, aka a cereal bowl filled with a burnt umber viscous liquid.
But marketing and promoting your work isn't about shoving a "sign up for my newsletter" ad down everyone's throats. Instead, it's an opportunity to show the many sides of the work you do and share your creativity (which naturally draws in people who want to see more). When promotion goes from "gross, it's a salesy bag of terrible" to "oh, it's just illuminating different parts of what I do in whatever way that feels fun" that burnt umber nightmare becomes delicious coffee.
In the right context, marketing and promotion are things you already do every day and enjoy: write and create.
Think about the bowl of coffee moments in your business. Is there a new context to create? Or a tiny way to break out of routine?
Or maybe my whole coffee bowl story is just a lesson to sleep more and/or drink more coffee.