If we show up to our workspace and if we show up consistently, and if we make an earnest effort while there, something happens. A hook appears.

The hook is a special motivating power that people who don’t consistently show up fail to experience. They never dream that it is there.

One hook, but it has several different ways it can dig into us. Whichever way it digs into us, the effects linger. Not forever, but for long enough for us to change our work and be changed as creatives.

If it digs in as curiosity, then we get to our workspace early, wondering what the heck comes next.  We have been working steadily along, but the plot thickens as we do more work. We get into twists and turns that we were not expecting. What to do next? How to do next? How will I solve this problem?  Who knows? Better be there tomorrow to find out.

Pleasure in practice is another way the hook can take hold of us. Something about the regularity of practice, waiting there to be picked up through thick and thin, ups and downs. One of the more steady, more predictable aspects of life. The world, during practice, fades away. Simple actions, simple thoughts marching one after another with an alluring pace.

The guitar can be lifted, and the piece can be played. A piece that has been played again and again but always providing something elusive to be mastered. We take pleasure in what we have mastered, where we have come from, but some detail is still out of reach. “I know I can get it,” we state. So we keep coming back to get that detail under our control. Of course, there will be other elusive detail after that one and another one after that. l Something that stretches us. This is stability. Stability calms. Practice stability focuses us into our work.  Practice makes us better, and practice centers us.

The progress hook gives us pleasure in power. By returning to a consistent creative life, we actually see progress appearing before our eyes. Before, we had only an idea; now, even in its nascent form, we have something alive.  We know when it was born, how long it has been living, and we are certain it has a future. Needing hours and hours of refinement through additions and subtractions, yes, we do have something now. We have gone from creative thinker to creator. We have stepped into artist, writer, musician, actor, and inventor territory.

The hook comes up out of consistently showing up and earnest effort and digs into us to pulls us forward along the path of further work. It doesn’t take weeks to appear; sometimes, it digs in within four or five days of showing up. It should be known that the hook doesn’t discriminate: it is there for beginners, professionals, and life-long creatives. Given the right conditions, it can appear without limit.

But the right conditions must be there.

3 thoughts on “Look for the Hook

  1. Look for the Hook – verifies what I have been thinking for a long time. I needed someone to put it out there for me. I feel comfortable with creating those daily routines that are so satisfying to life rhythms. Thank you so much. I am hooked on this site for sure.

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