You already know how to do it

Forgetting and remembering on Monday mornings. / Issue 1,510

Oh, hi friends!

Do you have a bad memory, like I do?

I was listening to this podcast and screenwriter Dana Fox (who cowrote the Wicked movie) said bouncing between projects in different stages of development is her ideal place, because it prevents her from stopping and thinking about how hard they are.

“If I stop screenwriting for one and a half days, I forget how to do it. Like basically every weekend I forget how to write. Monday morning. I'm like, what do we do first? What happens? How do we type it?”

Isn’t this so true?

I feel this way about everything I do: finding ideas for this newsletter, working on creative projects, writing lyrics. (When “rhyme brain” is inactive, I’ve got nooothing.)

My recall for my own work is shoddy.

And yet, we never actually forget how to do anything.

We simply haven’t done it in a little while.

Forgetting and pausing are different beasts.

Whether it’s been a day and a half, or three weeks, or six months, you haven’t lost those skills.

You just haven’t used them lately.

Find the tiniest door.

Nudge it open.

You’ve forgotten nothing.

Know someone who could use a bit of encouragement today? Send this note their way!

Thanks, as always, for being here.

Love, Kara