The Phase Where Nothing Looks Like It's Working

There’s a phase of growth that doesn’t look like growth.

It doesn’t feel expansive, or clear. And it definitely doesn’t feel like momentum.

If anything, it feels like things have gone… quiet.

I’ve been moving through that phase recently. Not in a dramatic way. Nothing has “fallen apart.” But the way I used to work, decide, and move through my days has shifted.

Things that once felt automatic now feel unnecessary. Things that once drove momentum don’t seem to apply in the same way. And for a moment, it’s easy to misread that. To think something is off. But I’ve started to see it differently. Not as a loss of direction, but as a reorganization of it.

I noticed this most clearly while painting. There was a point not long ago where I would have kept going, with adding more, refining further, making sure the piece felt complete in a very visible way. But lately, there’s been a different kind of clarity. A moment where I can feel, quite precisely, that the painting is already resolved. And the only thing left to remove…is the impulse to keep proving it.

That shift has changed more than just the work. It’s changed how I approach everything.

There’s a quieter phase that comes after that kind of shift. Where nothing feels urgent. Where the work is clear, but the external response hasn’t fully caught up yet. Where it would be very easy to add something new, just to feel movement again.

But I’ve found that this is the phase that matters most. Because what actually moves things forward now isn’t more effort, it’s precision. Doing what’s already working. Leaving out what isn’t necessary. And staying with that long enough for it to hold.

That’s showing up in my paintings, as more restrained palettes, simpler compositions, fewer, more intentional elements. Not because I’m trying to do less, but because I can feel what doesn’t need to be there. And interestingly, that’s where things start to move again. Not in spikes. Not dramatically, but steadily. In a way that feels sustainable.

I recently recorded a short series of podcast episodes around this idea, about what happens before things open, why the quiet phase is often misunderstood, and what actually creates movement once you stop forcing it. But really, it all comes back to the same thing:

The next level of anything isn’t built by adding more, It’s built by recognizing what’s already working, and having the restraint to leave it alone.

That’s the phase I’m in right now. And it’s changing everything, not loudly, but in a way that actually holds.

Listen to the Coherence Channel Podcast here: https://pod.link/1833682316