Unstuck

While I’m quite used to a relatively solitary life, especially in my work, the corona crisis is surely the director’s cut; longer, more challenging, and with unexpected new angles that only the diehard fans would watch. In short, I’ve been struggling to make my online school, a project that lay dormant for years but that now has found the perfect time to be created, thanks to all of my other work...

In this podcast about getting unstuck as a creative person, I had set myself the target to make one episode a day. With no end in sight, I inevitably tripped up and failed. Here’s why that’s absolutely fine, and a reminder to look past the simplistic headline of “I failed” and understand why you can now move on, much the better for it. I’ve started many projects that then arguably failed, and I’m...

In conjunction with this podcast I’ve also started making a weekly blog, and weekly music videos, ignoring my own advice of making proper time for things and keeping them modest in their ambition. Turns out we keep having to learn our own lessons :)

I once heard that Barack Obama kept just two suits - grey or blue - meaning that he could just choose one or the other and get onto more important decisions. Steve Jobs just had one outfit. What they were doing was taking a few decisions out or simplifying them so that they could avoid losing any mental energy on them. I’ve been doing the same by organising my week in such a way that I don’t face...

Over coffee with a filmmaker I realised that I’ve taken one passion (photography) and ‘sacrificed’ certain aspects of it, in order to protect my other passion, making music. By verbalising this I’ve seen that this has made so much space in my life and ‘creative soul’ and is a compromise I’ve come to accept. Often when talking to people frustrated by their current career, they tell me they’d like t...

The last two weeks I’ve achieved more than in the last two years. By this I mean those projects I cared, thought and talked about the most. I actually can’t tell you exactly what came over me. But I can tell you this. It feels great. Now, I’m a firm believer in taking a brief look at the risks involved in doing anything, well, risky, but ultimately everything is a judgement call in that respect. T...

A few moments in my life changed everything. They were actually very humble, very calm, and full of reflection. The first time was in Italy, sitting in a café, and I decided to write down the moments or projects where I had felt closest to “me”, closest to doing what I want to do in life. That first time already gave me many clues of the directions I should explore further. The second and third ti...

While it might feel like we’re alone in our “stuckness”, it just ain’t true. I’ve had really nice feedback from people reaching out from various corners of my life sharing how this topic affects them, and it gives me energy to not only continue, but to know that it’s such a shared feeling. Of course being stuck can take many forms, but what often links almost all of them are time and energy - we o...

My phone has slowly but surely sabotaged my ability to concentrate and get things done. Finding a place to put it, out or reach and out of mind, has made be happier and more productive. When I do reach for it I know I’ve “earned” it, and I quickly yearn to get back to my projects.

For the last 3 years I’ve been tormenting myself with one topic (Brexit and my future in Belgium, where I live) and it’s drained me of energy for so much else. Here I talk about the way I found to stop letting it block everything else in my life.

This podcast is about how we often get bogged down or stuck by our own internal instincts, thought processes and habits. I left my carefully curated career in architecture six years ago and I’ve been gradually getting myself ever more unstuck since, becoming happier and getting closer to a work/life balance that I really value. I’m a musician and photographer but I also work in quite a few other f...

Over the years I’ve seen that creating a framework for how you say yes or no to work and to obligations in general is a fantastic way of avoiding getting stuck in the first place. Furthermore if you’re open and honest about these with yourself and others, you experience far fewer problems down the line. Another thing to keep in mind is mental bandwidth, and this relates to the actual amount of dat...

In this, episode 5 of unstuck, I share the habit that, after some years, has helped me get to decide what it is I want to do, concentrate and commit to it, and in turn get so much done. It involves a simple way of putting certain projects on certain days, and taking that as a contract with yourself to do exactly those things. After some years it’s become something I think I’d struggle to live with...

A quick update on my level of unstuckness - I manage to really get something done, and it feels fantastic. Listen in and check out the result on my YouTube channel (Andri Søren)

In this episode I talk about some recent discoveries I’ve made that help me get unstuck (or avoid getting stuck in the first place) this year, along with a walk through the centre of Brussels. Enjoy!

Ok so first an apology - this episode didn’t at all go to plan because I didn’t realise the built in recording on this app would ignore the stereo recording I was trying to do. There is a small break near the start where I explain that, which is also a bit louder than the rest (which is very quiet in general). BUT - that’s not what’s important here - what’s important is that I made a second record...

I usually think about something for a lo(oooo)ng time before doing anything, if doing anything at all. I want to do things super well, I want to analyse everything about them first, and then spend forever making something perfect. I’m also scared of failure, but probably equally scared of success. Today after eating my home-made rice bowl, I just “snapped”, downloaded a podcasting app (Anchor) and...