Before I started writing I would get stuck on problems all the time.

"What am I doing with my life?"

"Am I making the right career decisions?"

"What if I'm wasting my time?"

These questions would cause a never ending loop of anxiety and dread of the future.

But for the past few years I've been asking these questions in my notebook instead of in my head and it's helped me move past the confusion into clarity.

The problem with thinking in your head

There's a reason you get stuck in a rumination loop when you don't journal about a problem.

Thinking without writing is like trying to assemble a puzzle in your head without touching any of the pieces.

Your ideas, experiences, and knowledge are like the thousands of pieces that make up a puzzle.

There is no way of telling which piece connects to another until you start mixing and matching them. Each connection made reveals more of the image until an outline appears. Once the outline of the image is constructed, it gets easier to visualize the final image. The pieces start to fall in place, almost without effort, until the puzzle is finally finished.

This is how thinking on paper works.

Working memory is limited. There are only so many steps ahead you can see in your mind's eye before you get stuck or lose your train of thought. We have vague ideas about what we want, the problems we have, and how we might solve them. But, like the thousands of puzzle pieces strewn across the table, there are no connections binding these ideas together. We can't see the final image until we start laying down words onto a page. Each word constructs a sentence. A sentence paired with another forms a paragraph and so on, until something resembling a coherent idea is formulated.

That's what writing allows you to do. Go further and deeper, following the thread of an idea to it's eventual conclusion.

The problem with my analogy

Except there's one problem with my analogy: unlike a puzzle, in life there is no correct answer. There are infinite possibilities from which to choose from but, this abundance of choice can often lead to analysis paralysis.

Which plan do you choose and what idea is worth pursuing?

Writing turns out to be more like playing with Legos. There is a creative element to piecing together the puzzle where multiple plans can be imagined to solve the same problem.

All of that is to say, there is no right answer, only your answer.

This uncertainty is what drives people to seek help from authority figures who promise to provide guidance.

The truth is only you can decide what's best for you, and the only way to get to that decision is to think things through. Write in your journal, draw mindmaps, and have a dialogue with yourself to begin to put the puzzle pieces together.

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3 Practical Tips for getting unstuck:

1) Start with a question

A question is a prompt for the brain, and once asked, you cannot help but formulate an answer. It may not be the best answer, but something will come. Write it down so you can begin to look at it.

2) Avoid asking "why" questions

Asking "why" is asking for a motive, but explaining a past motive doesnt help you take new action. A better way to approach thinking is to look for narratives because narratives explain how one thing led to another allowing you to imagine new futures. In other words, what "cause" is leading to what "effect" and how can you cause certain desirable effects? "

1. What specifically has been blocking you?
2. Who is causing you stress?
3. Where did this narrative come from?
4. How did you deal with similar situations in the past?
5. What if you tried doing (x) instead?

Ask a better question, get a better answer.

3) Don't ask for advice until you've done the work.

I'm sure this point won't be popular but, I believe what I'm about to say.

The biggest problem I see in today's world is nobody trusts themselves to come up with a reasonable answer to their own problems.

People are increasingly deferring their thinking to others. We now live in a world where people are taking relationship advice from AI. And if it's not chatGPT then it's a friend, a parent, or a therapist that we seek out to provide a resolution to our uncertainty.

There is nothing wrong with asking for help but, asking for advice before you've taken the time to write things out and think it through sends a signal to yourself that you can't be trusted.

• You don't know yourself.
• You're not capable of solving problems.
• You should probably seek out external validation or you will screw things up even more.

This is the narrative that I used to live by and it caused a lot of pain in the long run. It's a form of perfectionism, a belief that their is a right answer and somebody else has it.

To trust yourself is a critical part of becoming a capable human in the modern world.

Now, if you've written things out, and you've thought it through, and that puzzle is still stumping you then, by all means, ask for help. That is the moment where a helping hand can be the difference between a breakthrough and a breakdown. But try to give yourself the opportunity to rise up to the challenge first.

You will always learn something by going through the process of writing first.

This approach has helped me break through barriers and gain confidence in my own capabilities. It's sharpened my ablility to think and be an active agent in my life. I share this in the hope that it helps you too.

Write it out, think things through, and attempt to put the pieces together before looking up the answers.

You have everything you need to succeed inside of you already.

Big Update:

Recently, I've been obsessively working on my leathercrafting skills, experimenting with different dyes, and prototyping many different notebook cover designs.

Here's one I finished a few days ago:

These are hand-made at every stage of the production.

The notebooks are printed with a linocut design I made onto hand-cut card stock. Each notebook has 48 pages of premium Mohawk Superfine 105gsm paper to ink up with minimal bleedthrough. It makes my old Field Notes feel like a composition notebook. I love it.

Each leather cover I make starts as natural veg-tanned, full grain leather that I dye, cut, assemble, and hand-stitch. It's a long process but, an incredibly satisfying one.

A coworker of mine liked the one in the image above so much he's commisioned me to make him one which I have to admit, was unexpected.

I started making these for myself because I'm truly passionate about notebooks, writing, and power of making things with my hands. I didn't intend to start a business out of it but, if people are interested, I'm open to exploring the idea.

I would love to be able to create more videos, write more newsletters, and bring more value to you in any capacity that I can. If that means creating the physical tool that allows you to think more clearly then I'm all for it!

So here, for the first time, exclusively to you, I am gauging interest. Call it market research.

I appreciate any and all responses. If I can find a way to support creating content without selling myself out to advertisers I would be thrilled.

Anyways, take care!

-Zacc