Mojo, Sans-Mojo

When you sit down to do something creative, one of two things is likely to happen:

a) You have the Mojo
b) You don't

You know what the Mojo is, and you know when you have it. This is when you're writing the penultimate chapter of your book, the one you've been building towards for the last week or so, and it just pours out of you effortlessly. You're getting the same high as your readers are going to, it's just awesome.

There's a similar feeling in every other creative endeavor I've tried. Drawing something and the time just disappears around you. Cutting up little strips of chipboard to make a model building and all the cuts are just right. Running the router on the sides of the new tabletop you're making and it's suddenly transformed from a gangly block of lumber to a beautiful work of art. Writing some new software and the code is just materializing in front of you as if by magic.

You know what the Mojo is because you know when you have it, and you know how awesome it is. It gets you high on your work. It's probably the reason you do this stuff in the first place.

But what about you when you don't have it?

Work Sans-Mojo

Working without mojo is hard. It's frustrating. It slows you down. You can't get anything done. Netflix looks so tempting. And that's made all the more aggravating because you know that when you have the Mojo the last thing you want to do is watch TV or go for a jog or whatever.

Handling work Sans-Mojo is, in my experience, the difference between being a Pro and being an Amateur. Pros have trained themselves to be productive even when they don't have the Mojo.

Perhaps by now you're guessing, I sat down to write today and found myself entirely lacking in Mojo. So now I'm doing one of two things that work to get me by when the Mojo is missing.

1) Keep a backlog of NoMo work, and switch to that whenever the Mojo is low

For me, NoMo work (NoMo being short for No Mojo Required) is stuff that's really clear and mechanical.

I found this list of characteristics of Flow (aka Mojo), written by a British psychologist. In it, he posits that there are nine characteristics of flow. The first three are:

1. There are clear goals every step of the way.
2. There is immediate feedback to your actions.
3. There's a balance between challenges and skills.

The rest of his list are the fun parts of Flow, how time disappears and the work seems to magically happen. But look again at those first three.

Whatever you do, there are plenty of hum-drum tasks that have to be accomplished, things that aren't so exciting but just need to be done. Usually that kind of task has clear, well-defined goals. Often there's immediate feedback because the task is either done or not done, and there's not much more to it. And usually the task is something you really know how to do (balance between challenges and skills), you just don't feel like it for whatever reason.

So if you think about it, those sorts of tasks are suitable for manufactured Mojo. You can just sit down and make yourself do one of the tasks, and then check if off your [Wunderlist]¹ when you're done. That feeling of checking off the task? Oh yeah, a little squirt of Mojo right there.

And that's the whole goal, because Mojo Begets Mojo.

Get a few of those TODOs done, and maybe your mental block about whatever you wanted to write (or draw, or code) will have faded. Maybe the gremlins in your subconscious just needed some time to digest.

Or maybe not.

2) Power Through

Sometimes (though, this should be rare), you really don't have any NoMo TODOs on hand. You're all caught up on your chores. And you still don't have flow.

You're probably running into what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance. This is a sort natural Anti-Mojo that unfortunately lives deep inside us somewhere near the Mojo.

If I was to get mystical for a minute, I might posit that the reason our stories almost always consist of Protagonist and Antagonist is that this is the nature of being human. Deep inside ourselves we have a Protagonist -- our best self -- and that Protagonist is always opposed by an Antagonist -- our worst self. You know what that worst self is like. It's the guy who wants to do nothing but eat chips and watch football. It's the girl who wants to read Facebook all day. It's Mojo's neighbor, Anti-Mojo.

Man, screw that guy. I hate Anti-Mojo, don't you?

And sometimes that's enough. In the Story Grid podcast, Tim Grahl tells a great story about how one day he felt he'd hit the wall writing, but he made himself type just 200 more words. Then just 200 more. And so on, until by the end of the day he'd written more than 6,000 words.

Woah!

This is always the second thing I try after I'm out of NoMos. I pick a trivially small goal and just force myself to finish it, then another, and then another. And sometimes, this works beautifully. The first few hurdles unblock some part of what was stuck in my head, and the Mojo comes surging back.

It's the classic Hero at the Mercy of the Villain scene. AntiMojo has punched Mojo around, keeps beating him down, then gets in a nasty left hook and our hero Mojo is down for the count.

"You'll never be productive again," Anti Mojo snarls.

Mojo swallows, grits his teeth. It's the same battle again and again, and it's never going to be over. But he's had enough of this today. Today he's not going to let Anti Mojo win. Today belongs to the Mighty Mojo!

While Anti-Mojo cackles, arms up to the sky in victory, Mojo rolls to his feet and lowers his shoulder, tackling Anti-Mojo in the gut with a surprised "oof" and slamming him to the ground.

Mojo slams Anti-Mojo in the face, breaking his nose, then grabs him by the hair. "Not today!" he shouts, then slams Anti-Mojo's head on the pavement.

There's a sickly crack and a pool of red forms under Anti-Mojo's head. Anti-Mojo gasps, his eyes losing focus. He goes limp, but a wicked smile forms at the corner of his mouth, and with a deep, breathy cackle he mumbles the words Mojo fears more than any.

"I'll be back my old friend. This will never be over."

Then Anti-Mojo dissolves into mist and floats away on the breeze, leaving Mojo breathless and gasping, hands clenched at his side.

Mojo rises to his feet and takes a deep breath, watching the last wisps of Anti-Mojo dissolve.

"Come back if you can," Mojo says. "Right now, I've got work to do."

*3) Surrender, Productively *

Now, I really should end the post there, because how can I really top a brilliant flash-fiction interjection like that?

But the truth is, there's one more scenario. Sometimes Mojo doesn't get back up off the pavement. Sometimes Anti-Mojo towers over him, spits on his back, and finishes him off.

But you know what? Mojo can't be killed either.

When Anti-Mojo has won the day, I think the best thing to do is quit fighting it and surrender, productively.

What the hell does that mean?

It means it's time to get that bastard Anti-Mojo all fat and happy so he won't even see it coming when Mojo comes surging back. Give him what he wants. Don't just go watch TV aimlessly or troll around on Facebook. Go watch your all-time favorite movie with a few good friends, hopefully with a few beers to make it extra hilarious. Go to Six Flags or Disney World or something. Go for the bike ride of your life. Buy that video game you've been wanting and binge play it from start to finish. Take a whole day off, intentionally

Whatever you do, go all-in. Don't half-ass your time off. Make it really count. Picture The Sims - get that Fun meter all the way to the top.

Because sometimes that's what you really need. While your conscious mind is actively engaged in having fun, your subconscious gets to take a little power nap and then start scheming in the background. Mojo plans his or her vengeance, and you know it's going to be sweet.

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I hope this little digression has been fun for you. If you enjoyed it, please share it with your friends!

Meanwhile, I've violated my rule on ~500 word posts, while I was getting this NoMo done... but I think I feel the Mojo coming, so I'm going to get back to my real work :)

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