I am in a foreign country right now. I cannot speak the language very well at all, not for want of trying or lack of preparation. I even hired a tutor for several months to help me along. But here I am – bewildered by the spoken word. Every time someone speaks to me, the information hits me like a wall. There are no soft edges or handholds within the words that allow me to gain access to comprehension. If the words are written down, I can gather information and deduce meaning. But the spoken word fails me in the spontaneity of conversation.

Besides, it is just plain rude to not at least be prepared with a shard of fluency, to expect that others will be accommodating and speak in a language that I am more familiar with, even though it is not their native tongue. I am stymied. I realized that I have little traction within the language.

In response to this linguistic paralysis, I performed a little exercise last night. I simply wrote down all the words that I knew in this foreign language. I made a simple list of the items of information that I knew for certain – those words that I could ascribe meaning to when I heard them. These words somehow rested within my comprehension. This exercise allowed for a narrow path to develop within my mental landscape. The list grew longer and longer too – as more words that had passed through my ears gained resonance. Sentences and phrases began to appear in my mind as well, but I restrained myself. I kept to the simplest of elements. I listed just the words that I knew I had heard, not the words that I could find written on the page.

I wonder how traction relates to the artistic process. The creative endeavor can feel like a foreign language sometimes, as you begin to reckon with what this piece of work really means to you. Just what do you want to communicate? Sometimes it feels too challenging, even overwhelming, as if you are walking around, lost, in a foreign country. You are working on the first iteration of your creative endeavor right now, and it can sometimes feel as if you are floating through the process, without much to anchor yourself to. The ideas are newly formed. They haven’t yet reached a place in which they feel just right, where they have settled into a comfortable place. How to carry your work forward when it all feels so unsteady?

Earlier in the year, we developed an exercise in which we executed short synopses of the work that we wanted to tackle this year. Use this summary as a reference point whenever you get stuck. You will be surprised how you have forgotten a little detail contained within it that can propel you forward. The synopsis provides the traction that you are looking for. Look for the simplest elements here too. The grand sweep of ideas, themes, and the more abstract notions that feel so captivating to the ego, will not serve you here. Look to the visceral.

Be prepared to take on the unknown. The creative endeavor demands entertaining the ever-emerging moment. The artistic process has carried you through producing an iteration of the work up until right now. Seize this unique opportunity for discovery. The mind will not be in this same spot again. Coax a new line of thought today. Be comfortable with the unknown. It is like having a conversation, whether in your native tongue or a foreign language. Relax into the emergent possibility of not having all the answers in this moment. They will come as you press forward.

In the end, you want your work to develop the patina of myth – as a fundamental expression of the human project. Myth only takes shape after countless retellings – and you are only beginning to speak the first one. So, it can feel a bit shaky. It hasn’t weathered the storm of contemplation and analysis. There will be time for that. Just get comfortable with the unknown today.