guide.notes 28 | scorpio work secrets
dear friends of the creative wild,
this sunday I'll turn thirty-two. this week, I've found myself in a trancelike, Scorpionic work flow -- living a rigorous daily rhythm of creative practices and project sprints, such that I feel like I'm deep sea diving everyday, collecting treasures of the creative psychic world.
I intersperse this with half days of rest: I'm calling it land days, where I do light tending work, or lay in a (metaphorical) hammock, napping, reading, walking, or watching mystery crime dramas. a lesson that I come back to, again and again, is: intense rest is what make intense work sustainable.
after years of struggling against myself -- feeling too overwhelmed, or moody, or rebellious, or neurotic -- I finally feel like I've gotten out of my own way. I'm riding my growth edge; pushing against the boundaries of what I believe is possible -- in a way that feels nourishingly addictive.
I wanted to share with you my Scorpio work secrets -- (though you could also say, they're just Kening work secrets).
here it is, distilled into 3 words, like a zen koan.
LESS, BUT MORE
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Do less things -- with more presence. let go of all the things you think you should do, and focus on which is the most essential, nourishing, or important for your long term dreams. discernment is a crucial first step. extreme clarity is your power.
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Put to-dos inside daily rituals. create rituals as soft structures; daily rhythms and systems that help you think a little less, so that you can focus being in the flow. the more you do the motions, the easier it becomes.
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Work iteratively. always start with a very bad, very rapid version 1.0, and draw it again, like retracing a circle. give yourself deadlines. each retracing will feel easier. you will create momentum.
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Momentum is magic. when you feel momentum, always ride it to the end. in the physics of creative energy, momentum is free energy. try your best not to waste it.
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Follow every passion to its end. (I wanted to write 'death' but this sounded dramatic). this is connected to momentum. live through the seasons of your project, and when winter comes, let it hibernate. in summer and spring, let your passion take you to magical places.
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Rest + nourishment comes first. make sure your body and soul are satiated before you ask it to help your mind do hard things. nourish yourself like spoiling a child. rest like it's your job.
I hope these distillations help you find a little more flow and power in your work 🩵
here's a selection of things I made this week (more in my artist digest, next week...)
how i share my work as an introverted artist
(it started with releasing all the "shoulds")
how i share my work as an introverted artist — kening zhu
a challenge which took me a very long time to solve
a website illustration I did for a ballet teacher
ballet with christine: website illustration — kening zhu
a website illustration for a friend’s ballet website
istanbul travel deck, cards no. 4 & 5
galata bridge | istanbul travel deck, card no. 4 — kening zhu
a bridge to watch the sunset, between ancient landmarks and Istanbul motifs
yildiz park | istanbul travel deck, card no. 5 — kening zhu
a hilly garden of an old ottoman palace, and one of my favorite parks in the world
things that inspired me this week
- listening to: anyone who knows what love is (will understand) by irma thomas
- listening to: what a difference a day makes by dinah washington
- watching: BODIES (2023) on Netflix, a time travel crime drama.
- after a long delay, I finally finished reading: the museum of innocence by orhan pamuk
it was a terribly painful book to read -- about a man's obsessive love affair, but I wanted to share my favorite quote from that book, because this is a core philosophy that inspires my own website-world building:
"In poetically well built museums, formed from the heart's compulsions, we are consoled not by finding in them old objects we love, but by losing all sense of Time."
"Real museums are places where Time is transformed into Space."
I'll leave you with this. thank you for reading, dear friends. I'm wishing you a weekend of many rebirths.
until next week, kening
this is guide.notes 28, a weekly letter on the process of manifesting creative work in the material world.