If you’re feeling out of sorts, make something

Call it general malaise. It’s not specific, but you don’t feel like you’re on top of your game. Out of sorts? Time to create.

Not quite right.

It’s hard to describe, this feeling of being out of sorts. Here’s a tiny bit of history of the phrase, “out of sorts:” 

The term out of sorts is attributed to typesetting … the phrase refers to the individual metal type called sorts that printers used … If the sorts were in low supply or stored in the wrong compartments, then the printer was out of sorts.

Low.

If you look at it that way, as described above in the background of the term, it makes some sense, right? You’re low on the materials you need to make something. In the example above, you’re in short supply of the metal letters you need to do your typesetting. More broadly applied, being out of sorts means is that you’re low on what you need to do your work well. What can you do when you find yourself in this uncomfortable position?

Make something anyway.

Because this will happen to you. Whether at work or in the personal realm, you will want to move ahead and will feel frustrated by something being in low supply. What is in low supply may be time or energy or love. The common theme is that something is in low supply. So, you feel stuck. And here is the challenge: make something anyway. 

It sounds naïve, right?

For me to say “make something anyway” sounds too simplistic. It’s like if I said, “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” But that is not what I am saying. What I am saying is that you as a creative man crave creativity. And when you feel hemmed in by a shortage of what you need to do your best work, you start to stagnate and feel out of sorts.

For example.

Let’s say you’re at work and what is in short supply is time: there isn’t enough time to do what someone is asking you to do. What can you make, to get back into sorts? Here’s what you can make: more time. How? Review what is being demanded and its timeline. Can you adjust anything that will change the equation? For example, perhaps you or your company has overpromised and is now faced with underdelivering. What can you make in this situation that will get you back into sorts? In this case, something as simple as making a phone call would serve both your need to solve the problem and to be creative. Call someone and negotiate some part of the equation to give you the time you need.

Key point:

When you feel out of sorts, make something.

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I can help you when you’re out of sorts.