When I was younger, say 13 years old, my mom used to say to me “You’re just like my friend Sherry, you just fly by the seat of your pants!” The tone may have been a bit exasperated, but given that Sherry was a top-of-the-pyramid business lady with a fancy pink car, at that age I was sure it couldn’t be so bad. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Looking back, I think my mom was commenting on a fundamental tendency that often became visible. I think she said this when I was unprepared for something, when I would wait until the last minute but then plunge myself into a thing with total drive, or when I would do something on a whim with confidence that it would be just fine. Whether this is all problematic truly depends. On one hand, it may sound like a chaotic way to live, with a lack of responsibility and questionably high levels of blind optimism, but on the other hand, what if it’s something profoundly clear, intuitive, and equanimous instead?
I’m actually grateful for my mom reflecting this back to me. She was right. However, having whirlwind-like experiences of unregulated self-propulsion is only an undesirable state to be in circumstantially. Alternatively, allowing intuition and instinct to work its way through in a nonlinear, nonlogical, nonsensical way with trust that it is going to work out can often be good. Especially for creativity.
So for the first time ever, I googled ‘fly by the seat of your pants what does it mean’ and one definition that comes up is this:
Going along with things; making decisions as you go.
When people fly by the seat of their pants, they do not plan ahead. They think about what they are going to do and make decisions as each choice comes up.
When you fly by the seat of your pants, you are not thinking about choices or obstacles that might come up and interrupt your path. You will make your decisions as necessary.
This kind of thinking and acting is often looked down upon. It can often be an insult to tell somebody that they fly by the seat of their pants because you are implying that they do not plan ahead enough.
When you’re “flying by the seat of your pants,” you’re entering into the unknown and taking action without planning. It’s a similar phrase to “winging it,” and both expressions come from aviation.
Even if this phrase was originally paralleling ordinary experience to the horrifying idea of someone flying a plane on instinct alone (horrifying!), am I the only one who thinks this sounds inspiring and not like an insult? To me… It sounds like radical present clarity, ongoing momentary responsiveness, total creative liberation.
When I feel into this phrase, I think about an invisible sub-perceptual force working through us - something less like pants and airplanes and more like a kind of wind or breath that can inspire us in our actions we take in each moment. And if we are tuned in to that, there is actually a lot of clarity behind the actions we take.
Observe instinct.
Take creative risks.
Cultivate trust.
Repeat.
I thought of this all in my studio this week and it helped dissolve my own self-judgement about the bad connotations of “being all over the place” as I moved from one area of my studio to the other, shifting my focus from one project to another. Or the guilt of letting a project wait around for a long time before I poured myself into it again when I was so called.
Let the chaos flow. Let the doing do (or the not-doing not-do). Accept and be with it.
In creative practice, I think this is a channel worth exploring. It feels like tapping into primitive nature. Note that I am not saying that spacey untamed whimsy at all times is the key to creative realization. There is certainly value in planning, optimizing and thinking about obstacles. This way of gliding with experience also does not forgo morals and ethics. But sometimes, releasing your grip and trusting the invisible can result in a relieving kind of freedom.
If you’re not sure which direction to go in, or which part of your creative practice to engage with, try just relinquishing the choice-making, and feel in your body where you are ACTUALLY being pulled toward. Try this ASAP using these prompts: Where is the curiosity right now? What really interesting inquiry keeps popping in that are you putting off engaging with because it sounds like a waste of time? What simply must be tended to in this moment? What’s calling? Allow it.
♡ Fly by the seat of your pants and be well.
-Kristen