Lately, I’ve been struggling. Maybe you have too.
- Working hard to remain optimistic.
- Trying to stay engaged at work.
- Struggling to stay focused.
If you’re feeling this way, it makes sense. Stress and fear drain our creative energy. There’s only so much injustice, suffering, or existential dread a person can endure before even replying to emails feels impossible.
Today, I want to show you three elements to focus on to reclaim your creative energy from destruction.
The story starts in 2011.
Where Had I Gone Wrong?
I sat in my cubicle, dejected.
I knew I was in the crosshairs. But I was doing everything I could, running an entire department myself, without support.
I replayed the moment in my head.
I had just pitched an idea to position our PR firm as a thought leader in the emerging field of social media. I explained the powerful idea we would deliver at a high-visibility event filled with our target audience.
Was he even listening? I’ll never forget the tone of his voice when he said:
“I’d like you to focus on current revenue-generating activities.”
Not long after, I was “let go.” I can’t remember if I was fired or laid off. Either way, the result was the same—a box of my things on my lap as I rode home in the back of a cab.
It wasn’t even lunchtime.
By the following Monday, I had redirected my fear and sadness into action. I started a social media agency that I ran for the next seven years.
Creativity Fuel
For more than a decade, I ran on a cocktail of hope, excitement, and fear.
Even setbacks felt valuable:
- Lost or unhappy clients became lessons.
- Financial challenges became fuel to push forward.
- Failures, as long as I could still pay rent, became opportunities.
I learned to redirect negative experiences into creativity and progress. I was driven because I cared about what I was doing and had a goal in mind. As long as I kept my eyes on the horizon, helping people move toward a better future, I felt unstoppable.
But while there’s some truth to the idea that struggle fuels creativity, all systems have limits.
The Destruction of Creative Energy
When we’re overwhelmed, creativity isn’t redirected—it’s destroyed.
Instead of creating something new and useful…
- We spend hours calling congresspeople, trying to convince them not to vote for policies that harm the most vulnerable.
- We stand in protest against violence and cruelty, only to be vilified by the media, arrested, or brutalized by increasingly militarized police.
- We waste time navigating endless bureaucracy just to get the medication we need, the refund we’re owed, or the resolution we deserve.
We exhaust ourselves fighting battles that should never have to be fought. The scale of it all can make progress feel impossible. And while these efforts matter, the change can take so long that hope begins to slip away.
What We Can Do
Instead of doom-scrolling through the latest horrors — caused by the decisions and actions of a group of people, so small they wouldn’t fill most D2 college basketball stadiums — we can shift our focus and change everything.
From Isolated → Connected
The point of instilling fear is to make you feel alone.
It’s designed to break trust, divide communities, and make resistance seem futile.
That’s why the solution is connection.
- Reach out to people you trust.
- Meet others.
- Expand your community.
From Overwhelmed → Fighting Back
Flooding the zone with cruelty is meant to paralyze you.
It’s designed to fragment your attention, freeze your executive function, and make the problems seem too big to fight.
That’s why the solution is helping.
Helping is one of the most revolutionary acts in the world.
It is always within reach. When the world feels too big, zoom in.
- Find something specific you can do to help.
- Use your unique combination of skills, resources, and advantages.
- Identify someone—a person or a group—you can support.
How to Reclaim Your Creative Energy
When the world feels overwhelming, and your creative energy is draining, ask yourself these three questions:
- Who can I connect with right now?
- What can I do to help right now?
- Who can I help right now?
These three questions encourage you to take action immediately with a focus on building community and helping.
Radical Spite and The Catalyzing Spark
These three questions may be enough to pull you out of a funk. But if they’re not, let me offer one final push: spite.
- Build more friendships and connections than ever before because they want you isolated.
- Help as many people as you can because they want you overwhelmed and helpless.
Engage in every act of resistance, not out of fear, but out of radical spite.
Don’t let evil win by default. Don’t let them cheat their way to victory. Don’t let them get you to forfeit.
See your spite as a radical act of defiance. Decide to make helping your North Star, and when you feel lost, look up to find it. Every little bit helps, and we can only do it together.
This is how we reclaim our creative energies and find ourselves inspired, invigorated, and driven — through action, connection, and an unbreakable will to fight for something better…and maybe, a little spite.
Again, I quote Nemik’s Manifesto from Andor (emphasis mine):
“Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that.”
