One of my favourite fictional characters is Poirot.
In the 2023 film A Haunting in Venice, when explaining his method, he says: “When a crime has been committed, I can, by application of order and method and the slow extinguishing of my own soul, find without fail or doubt, whodunit.”
The slow extinguishing of my own soul.
Now that I can relate to from time to time, the most recent being when I was writing Think Like an Innovator.
There were days I rewrote the same section four times, each version somehow worse than the last. Nights where I’d wake at 3:30 AM with “Did I explain that clearly enough?” playing on loop. Moments where I’d stare at a paragraph I’d written and genuinely wonder if I’d forgotten how sentences worked.
The glamorous life of a writer.
But here’s what I’ve learned: the soul-extinguishing bit is temporary.
In the moment, pouring yourself into something meaningful feels like you’re leaving nothing behind. Like the tank is empty. Like you’ve given everything and there’s simply no more to give.
And then you take a nap. Or eat something that isn’t just tea. Or go for a walk and remember why you started in the first place.
And suddenly, soul intact, you’re back at it. Ready to extinguish all over again.
If you’ve ever poured yourself into a project that mattered, you know what I mean.