🎙️ 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.

📬 Substack - The Creative Life Newsletter

https://www.jimkroft.substack
Welcome back guys!
If you'd like to support the podcast, taking a moment to rate and review is so very appreciated!
Jim

TODAY'S EPISODE

We’ve been sold a lie: that creativity is a goal, something you reach if you hustle hard enough, suffer long enough, sacrifice deep enough.

But here’s the truth: that path doesn’t just fail you — it erodes life itself.

This episode is about breaking free from the outcome-obsessed culture that keeps us trapped on the treadmill of productivity, and rediscovering creativity as a way of living — something to embody, nurture, and expand every single day.

Whether you’re building a project, chasing a dream, or simply trying to reconnect with joy in the process, this episode is about choosing immersion over obsession — and reclaiming your creativity as part of life itself.

What's Inside:

• 🌀 Why obsession kills creativity — and immersion sustains it
• ⏳ How chasing goals too hard makes life itself vanish
• ❤️ Why joy, love, and connection are fuel for breakthroughs
• 🌈 How to stop running after the rainbow and actually live under it
• 🔥 Why creativity isn’t a goal — it’s a way of being alive

I'm your host, Jim. If you're ready, then let's dive in!

📺 YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/jimkroft

🎧 Spotify Music:

spoti.fi/4aHoI0Y

📷 Instagram:

https://bit.ly/3Scy6S3

Today's music is from Artlist.

Welcome back to The Creative Life Podcast!

Life is a drifting from — and a returning to — ourselves. At any moment, we can almost read it like a gauge: where am I now?

In this episode, I share what I learned after breaking from my own routine — travelling across Scotland, spending time with family, and stepping away from the tyranny of schedules and screens. What began as guilt over losing consistency turned into something else: a reminder that pauses can reset your course and bring you back to what feels creatively alive.

If you’ve been feeling out of kilter, burnt out, or trapped in hustle culture, my hope is that this episode helps you reconnect with that spark that’s still inside you.

Ideas Inside:

• ✨ Why “consistency” can suffocate your creative voice
• 🌊 How breaks and pauses reset your inner course
• ⚡ The hidden cost of chasing growth online
• 🌲 Why space, nature, and family matter more than metrics
• 🔄 Simple ways to return to yourself when you’ve drifted away

If you'd like to support the podcast, dropping a comment and leaving a rating is greatly appreciated!

I'm your host, Jim Kroft, so if you're ready, then let's dive in!
Jim

📬 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

🎙️ This episode of The Creative Life is for Solo Creators.

Whether you're building a podcast, growing a YouTube channel, or writing a newsletter—staying motivated on your own can be tough.

In this episode, I share some hard-won encouragement for those walking the path alone. If you're feeling tired, unseen, or unsure if it's worth it, I hope this brings a little courage, uplift—and a spark of renewed zeal.

With love from the road,
Jim Kroft

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/0725E/Jim-...

🎙️ You Will Lose Your Way
How to find the path back to the work — and to yourself

Every ambitious project comes with a hidden truth: at some point, you’ll lose your way. Not because you’re weak. But because you’re being asked to go deeper.

In this episode, I reflect on the drift that happens mid-journey—the moment when momentum fades, doubt creeps in, and the original spark feels out of reach. I share my own struggles with finishing and releasing my new album Chromatic Zero, and the realisation that creating the work is only half the task. The other half? Finding the courage to carry it all the way.

🔹 Why drifting isn’t failure—it’s initiation
🔹 The 10-step creative arc that repeats across every project
🔹 Questions that help me course-correct when I’ve gone off track
🔹 How to face the darker spaces that call you to evolve

If you’ve lost your way, this is your reminder: you’re not at your end—you’re just getting started, my friend.

—

✨ Subscribe to The Creative Life for weekly reflections, songs, and stories from the path.
🎵 New song out soon: At Your End — 7th release from Chromatic Zero
📝 Newsletter & music: jimkroft.substack.com

Welcome back to The Creative Life.

There’s a moment every artist faces — not just once, but again and again.

You’ve put in the hours. You’ve pushed through resistance.
And then one day, you ask the question:

Should I just… stop?

This episode is about that question — and what happens if, instead of giving up, you keep going.
It’s a reflection on the reckonings we face as creatives — and how those moments can either end a journey… or begin a new chapter.

Whether you're in the thick of doubt or on the cusp of your next phase, I hope this brings some fire to your step — and courage to go on.

What you’ll take away:

• 🪞 Why “give up” moments are often invitations to grow
• ⚔️ How to meet the threshold every artist encounters
• 🎛️ A creative process that sustains when momentum fades
• 🔁 How joy returns after the work nearly breaks you
• 💡 Why meaning often hides on the far side of resistance

Thank you for all the support, everyone - if you have a moment to rate and review it is greatly appreciated!
Jim

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