jb suggested to me earlier this week that I jot down a tip for my post today. It made me think about what tips I know and, truthfully, there are not many that I would pay forward and present to an entire group of people such as the readership of a blog. Giving a tip seems, to me, a private exchange which happens as two people are working on a task and one of them realizes that they know something the other may not.

So, no tip today but here is an idea that I have been mulling over:

When you don’t know what to do, do something.

I have been telling myself this for years. It is a way to counter the catatonic spiral that can occur when I have reached an impasse. Nothing is worse, for me, than the feeling of being paralyzed by uncertainty. Even if I end up doing something entirely unrelated, still, I am moving and this keeps the river from damning up.

“Walking away” is a time honored method of readjustment for visual artists. I know this but, still, I am inclined to chip away at a problem until my brain feels hollow. To head the emptiness off, somewhere along the way, I began saying and acting upon the above.

How do you handle life’s “Deer in the headlights” moments?