I have a fitness routine that works because it doesn't ask me to think. I just flow.
Morning Pilates and evening trail walks.
I show up to class because someone's expecting me.
I don't miss because it’s expensive.
Same for my walks. (Except it costs me my mood if I miss.)
And the results I see and feel in my body? That reinforces the routine.
When I’m in movement, ideas arrive.
Fitness is one of my creative inputs.
Lately, I’ve been asking harder questions about my outputs.
I thought I'd been slacking. I was wrong.
For months, I'd built a solid newsletter habit.
12 weeks writing about The Artist's Way. Once a week, every week for a quarter.
Then I challenged myself to publish twice a week…and ended up doing neither.
I spent most of February feeling guilty about it.
Which only made writing again harder because every passing week felt like pressure to say something “more profound.”
Last week, I gave up guilt for Lent.
Not accountability. Not standards.
Just the guilt-shame spiral that convinces you that doing something differently means doing something wrong.
The spiral that keeps you from trying again when you fall off.
Asking for God’s help reframing guilt helped me see creative output in a new light.
No, I wasn’t writing weekly… but I was livestreaming and posting videos on Amazon almost daily.
I hadn't stopped creating. I’d changed channels.
This week, instead of focusing on where I fell short, I focused on where I gained traction.
By allowing myself to explore, I discovered a content flywheel I’m excited to build.
And I can come back to writing without the emotional weight.
The 10% you're not giving yourself.
There's a common innovation framework called The 70-20-10 Rule.
That means focusing 70% of resources on improving core products, 20% on expanding into new markets, and 10% on high-risk experimental projects.
When you think about where you put your effort…
how often do you allow yourself to explore new frontiers?
If you're always in a routine, you don't give yourself the space to discover.
And while your core product is the main focus…innovation is your advantage.
Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, and expecting different results.
Your Turn
What have you been avoiding because it doesn't look like your "real work"?
What guilt are you still carrying from a creative detour that was actually an exploration?
Give yourself the 10% to play and innovate.
See what comes from it.
You can’t create varied outputs if you’re not allowing varied inputs.
Have a great weekend,
Annabel
P.S. If you’re curious about the Amazon videos, watch them here. They’ve been so fun to create and are monetized already 🙀
