🎙️ The Creative Life
Episode 49: Why We Stop Doing the Thing We Started

This week, I’m exploring one of the hardest parts of creative life — why we stop doing the thing we started. Every project begins with excitement and momentum. Then comes the middle, where time, distraction, and doubt creep in. The work that once flowed starts to feel heavy, and the question becomes how to keep going when the spark fades.

Recorded in one take from my studio in Berlin’s old power station, this episode looks at:

1. why projects lose energy
2. how to find your rhythm again
3. what it really means to finish the work

If you're struggling to finish something you've started, this episode is for you. I know this state very well—not just from the six documentaries and six albums I completed, but from the many projects that fell by the wayside. Today, I share everything I've learned from both sides of the struggle, drawing out the universal lessons for your own creative journey.

As ever thank you for being here,
Jim Kroft

LINKS

📬 Substack - The Creative Life Newsletter https://www.jimkroft.substack

📺 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/jimkroft

🎧 Spotify Music: spoti.fi/4aHoI0Y

📷 Instagram: https://bit.ly/3Scy6S3

🎙️Podcast: https://bit.ly/3OycQVO

📬 Substack - The Creative Life Newsletter

https://www.jimkroft.substack

Welcome back to The Creative Life Podcast

This week’s episode is about the routines we’ve grown too attached to — the ones we built to survive another time in our lives but never thought to question.

I realised mine were no longer serving me. They were built for who I was, not who I’m becoming. So I tore them up and gave up alcohol, not as a test of will, but to serve my creative energy better.

It made me notice something larger. We’ve become strangely comfortable living with fatigue, low moods, and dark thoughts, without ever challenging the lifestyle that goes with them. We accept the symptoms without questioning their cause.

What followed for me was a period of reawakening: better sleep, clearer thoughts, and a renewed excitement for life and work. In this episode, I share what I changed, why I did it, and how breaking old patterns can open space for who you’re meant to become.

This isn’t about productivity. It’s about reclaiming the energy and clarity that make you feel alive.

What you’ll learn:

• 🧭 How to recognise when your routine belongs to a past version of you
• ⚡ Why energy, not time, is the real creative foundation
• 🍷 What giving up alcohol revealed about mood, focus, and clarity
• 🔍 How to challenge habits that quietly dull your potential
• 🔥 Why breaking one pattern can transform your creative life

I'm your host, Jim Kroft, thank you so much for being here
Let's dive in!

📺 YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/jimkroft

🎧 Spotify Music:

spoti.fi/4aHoI0Y

📷 Instagram:

https://bit.ly/3Scy6S3

🎙️Podcast:

https://bit.ly/3OycQVO

✉️ The Creative Life Newsletter

The artist’s journey is long. I write a newsletter to help you stay on it
👉 https://jim-kroft.short.gy/0925A/Jim-Kroft-newsletter

Welcome back to The Creative Life Podcast!

Yesterday I walked into work with three thousand photos to edit, but an urge to create.
Logic said “stick to the plan.”
But something deeper said: create now.

This episode is about that moment — when you’re torn between the work you should do, and the feeling something wants to break out of you.

In it, I share what I learned about giving in to instinct, chasing the spark when it strikes, and protecting creativity in a culture that encourages over-planning.

What we'll dig into:

• 🌊 Why giving in to impulse can revive your spark when the plan feels dead
  🧠 The fight between head and heart — and how it shapes your work
  🔥 What happens when you follow the mood instead of repressing it
  🎯 How goals fit in without suffocating creativity or joy
  🕊️ Why creating from raw experience brings your work back to life

I'm your host Jim, thank you so much for being here!
If you'd like to support the podcast, please take a moment to rate and review - it helps so much.
Let' dive in!

📺 YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/jimkroft

🎧 Spotify Music:

spoti.fi/4aHoI0Y

📷 Instagram:

https://bit.ly/3Scy6S3

🎙️Podcast:

https://bit.ly/3OycQVO

Today's music is from Artlist.