- Do you have a process for removing the functions of the day and what you were doing last week and what's going on in order to get more access to this? I'm gonna think of it now more as a receiver inside of you. Almost like tuning a radio and then it comes in, like the beginning of a strummer clash.

You love the radio, Joe love the radio, right? And then it comes in clear and there it is. How do you clear the static? What are some of the operational steps that you think might be more generalizable to regardless of where somebody in Africa is listening to this now?

- When I engage in a particular project, whatever it is, I dedicate all of myself for that period of time, whatever it is, whether it be 20 minutes or whether it be five hours, whatever it is. Total focus and no outside distraction whatsoever. And when I leave that process, I do my best not to think about it when I'm away from it.

I don't bring any materials with me. I don't leave the studio with works in progress and spend time listening to them during the day or looking for ideas. I stay as far away from it when I'm not directly engaging in it as possible. And in the best of situations, I have something else to totally engage myself in, in between.

So instead of working on project A for five hours and then leaving and doing nothing, I'm hoping to engage in a project B or B, C and D with all of myself before going back to project A again, which might be the next day, let's say. - So this relates to an amazing chapter and series of writings of your book that I'm not going to describe because I want people to find it for themselves about disengaging, about disengaging from the process.

One question I had as I read that chapter and as you're saying this now is, even though you're disengaged, do you believe that your subconscious is working it through? - I believe so, I believe so. And I think in general to stew over a problem is not the way to solve a problem.

Think to hold the problems lightly. And when I say a problem, you know, when we're starting a project, there's usually this feeling of, there's a question mark at the beginning of every project. I'm always anxious when I start a new project because I have no idea what's going to happen.

I never know. I never, I never, I may have in some cases a potential backup plan if, you know, if nothing works. But I really try not even to have that. I prefer not to have that. I prefer to go in, maybe to calm myself down enough to be able to show up.

There'll be an idea of like, nothing works. Maybe we could try something like this. But that would only be for my own anxiety. That would, it wouldn't be for actual practical use. But there's always a sense of anxiety because I know whatever's going to happen is completely out of my control.

Something's going to, something either interesting or not will appear. And then we're going to follow that wherever it goes. And until something appears for us to follow I have a lot of anxiety, even though it has never not come, you know, it has come every time, but there's something about it.

'Cause I also feel like there might be expectation on me that I'm going to make it happen. And I know that's not happening. That's not how it works. It's, it's, I show up ready for it to happen and I'm open to whatever we have to do to find that first thread.

And once we find the thread, then it's like, okay, we have a, and that thread may lead us to anything, you know, could lead us to in a million different directions, but something about having that glimmer that it's not a blank, we're not looking at a blank page. You know, we're looking at, okay, we have a, we have the beginnings of, I would say a map, but it's a map that we don't know where it takes us.

And it's just the beginning. It's just like, it's just to start, you know, you are here. If you have a map and it says you are here, even if you can't see the directions, knowing where we are feels okay. And once we get, and usually, again, usually in the first day, first couple of days, it happens.

But up until then, it's really an anxiety producing situation. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)