Sorry, I’ve Been Stuck at the Plateau
Okay, okay — let’s address the obvious elephant on the screen. This column was supposed to be daily. Supposed to be. if you didn’t know that I suppose I just threw myself under the bus, for better or worse, I’ll survive.
So what happened?
Life. Life happened. Ugh. I know, how cliché. Queue the violins, right? But really — the last few weeks have just been one big ol’ emotional meh. Blah. Like pop left open overnight….flat. Everything hit a plateau.
I don’t know if this is a real cause of something or if plateu really can count as a diagnoses. A therapist probably could but, between you and me, I’m currently in between providers. So today’s exercise will involve unpacking this together CLAP yaaayyyy (I should be unpacking from the East Coast).
So yeah, this plateau thing. What do I mean?
Well, everything has gone flat and as they say with roller coasters…and life…they’re not fun without the ups and downs. So like, just flat is not considered that fun! I like fun. I thrive on motion and chaos and maybe a touch of existential panic — but this? This is just neutral. Beige. Emotionally gluten-free.
The stuff that used to fuel me? a wasteland.
Hiking? Meh.
Reading? Meh.
Running? Double meh.
Gaming? Feels like a chore.
Practicing harmonica? a chore.
Grocery shopping? Okay fine, that was always a chore. Nobody’s romanticizing Trader Joe’s.
So I tried the classic escapism route.
TV? Nothing’s hit the way Severance and White Lotus did. Like, how dare they release them back to back?
Movies? I vibed with Thunderbolts*, but nothing else is calling me.
Is this depression? Maybe. I’ve dabbled here and there. Took a dive in that pool once or four times. But this feels different. It’s not a crash — it’s a stall. A floating limbo. A mental buffering screen. And the thing about plateaus is: you don’t even get the drama of falling. You just…exist.
Which brings us to this column. And the pod.
We’ve been dropping some genuinely awesome episodes lately. Like, content I’m super proud of. But once the mics are off and the audio is edited… it gets a little dicey. I’ve got idea overload. Like full mental Costco samples of directions I could take this thing. So many options, I end up paralyzed by possibility. Anyone else ever scroll through Netflix for 45 minutes and end up watching nothing? Yeah, like that — but in business vision form.
And the whole point of this column? It was born from my never-ending brain monologue. My thoughts are constantly departing to new adventures. They go and go and go. Even at 3:30am. Especially at 3:30am.
But lately, with no fun or fuel to ground those thoughts — the energy dips. And when energy’s low, I reserve it for the one thing that has to keep moving: the core project. The main event. This whole weird, wonderful, chaotic venture starts with the pod.
So yeah. The column’s been quiet. But the thoughts? Never.
But now we’re back. Away from the plateau…maybe…I’m not sure but we’re gonna forcefully manifest it!