The Two Simple Habits That Help You Stay Creative When Life Gets Messy
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Four simple techniques to build trust, spark stories, and connect—on your podcast and in everyday life.
Whether it’s a hobby, side hustle, or full-time job, creating content—whether that’s videos, podcasts, or blog posts—doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
Like Dr. Malcolm says in Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way.” And in this case, life finds a way… to get in the way.
Recently, my dog Nathan had a health scare, and it wrecked me.
Seeing him in pain, spiraling down Google rabbit holes, late-night emergency vet visits, and giving him meds daily—completely shut down my creative operating system.
I’ve written before about my obsession with “always being on” and constantly scouting for ideas. But that switch? Flipped off.
And it doesn’t have to be a Grey’s Anatomy-level drama to throw us off. It can be work stress, relationship stuff, or just plain mental health. We’ve all been there.
Think nothing bad ever happens to Mel Robbins, Jay Shetty, or Joe Rogan? Of course it does.
Luckily, Nate’s feeling better. But even with good news, getting those creative muscles moving again is rough. It’s like skipping the gym for a few weeks—suddenly your body acts like it’s never seen a treadmill before.
Creativity is no different. BUT… there are two workarounds: the 2D Gameplan—Disciplined and Deliberate.
Even when you’re deep in your creative flow, riding that high, you can’t squeeze your mental battery until it’s empty. Just because you’re “feeling it” doesn’t mean you should keep going until you hit 0%.
Forgive another sports analogy: when you start training for a marathon, you don’t run 26 miles the first week. You start with 6–8 miles, slowly increasing week by week, hitting that 20-mile mark only weeks before race day.
Same mindset applies to creativity. Make notes, save links, bookmark social posts—prep for the times you’re not in the mood to create. That’s the discipline.
Life happens (see: everything above), which is why you need to be deliberate about how you create.
Plan ahead. Think like the folks on Big Brother and “expect the unexpected.”
Create a content calendar and give yourself deadlines that work around your life. Know the holidays are a mess from Thanksgiving to New Year’s? Prefer to stay off the grid in summer?
Cool—work ahead in the months before to buy yourself that breathing room.
When you practice being both disciplined and deliberate, you start to build a stockpile of evergreen content.
For the uninitiated, “evergreen” isn’t just a Barbra Streisand song—it’s content that stays relevant and valuable over time, without needing frequent updates.
An article titled “Top 5 Swimsuits to Wear” is not evergreen—unless you live in Hawaii and write for the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
But something like “How to Ask Your Boss for a Raise”? Total evergreen. You can publish that in January, April, August—you get the idea.
The 2D Game Plan:
✅ Set realistic deadlines around your real life
✅ Save ideas when inspiration hits
✅ Don’t drain your creative battery in one sitting
✅ Create evergreen content when you can
✅ Forgive yourself when life slows you down
Yeah, life gets in the way. But if you’re prepared for its inevitable twists and turns, your voice can still be seen, heard, and learned from.
Creativity doesn’t always show up on command—but if you stay disciplined and deliberate, you’ll be ready when it does.
TL;DR: Life will interrupt your creative flow. That’s normal. But by being disciplined (prep for later) and deliberate (plan around chaos), you’ll stay consistent without burning out. Oh—and bank evergreen content while you can.
