Accessing parts of ourselves that have been neglected for a long time can be a challenge. Initially results may be a little disappointing.
Consider for a moment somebody who does no physical exercise on their first trip to a gym. Their performance is low. They find it a struggle. After a few minutes, their muscles seem to be getting weaker. Soon they have to stop.
Mental faculties behave much the same way. Initially you may be only able to access a very small part of your potential. You struggle. And you give up easily. Which is all fine! But the key question is always – will you go back?
Some of the challenges will be easier for you than others. We hope that you will find enough that you enjoy and get benefits from that you gradually broaden and deepen your creative skill sets in this area.
Other challenges may not work for you the first time around. And you will naturally feel frustrated at this.
If your frustration is enough to make you think of stopping altogether, then perhaps I could encourage you to watch Carol Dweck’s excellent 10 minute TED talk on Growth Mindset before you quit. I promise you that it will be worth it, whatever you choose to do.
And if you decide to continue, then I would ask you to consider that the real product of your interaction with the adventures is not in what you produce outside yourself, it is how you change inside. You may not always notice it is happening – but it is. And if you give up, then it will stop happening.
However, we all need encouragement also. So, if you find an adventure discouraging, put it to one side and try another one instead. Then perhaps give it a few months and return to the one that discouraged you and try it again. For as long as you don’t want to give up altogether, and for as long as you feel you are being honest with yourself, you can trust your own choices.
Just as you can go back to exercises you struggled with, you can also return to those that you saw as a success. This is helpful, because you are improving all the time. And when you return to an exercise some time later, there is a good chance that you can get more out of it second time around. And you will find two benefits from this – a better result, obviously; but also a sense of encouragement that you are clearly growing.
But in all of this, don’t make it harder on yourself than it needs to be. Keep it fun. Keep it an adventure.