If you’ve been on social media at all lately, you’ve probably come across the “drag path” trend, where creators share the messy, lingering trails left behind by their past struggles or burnout that are keeping them stuck. But drag paths are not just a fleeting internet trend—they are very real. They impact us physically, mentally, and emotionally. The absolute best way to move forward in your creative work, your entrepreneurial pursuits, and your life is to identify your own drag path—to clearly see what is holding you back, causing you to dig your heels in and be dragged—and then powerfully release it.
I dug my heels into the gravel
As evidence for you to unravel
A drag path etched in the surface
Can you find me?Excerpt from “Drag Path” lyrics (Twenty One Pilots’ Breach album)
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc
Songwriters: Paul Meany / Tyler Joseph
The Studio Purge and the Blue Marlin
Last Sunday, I launched a comprehensive purging project in my studio, as preparation for a 90-day creative sprint. My central nervous system craves simplicity, order, and calm in the spaces I inhabit, and especially so when I am doing Deep Work that requires every morsel of my intellect and intuition.
The goal? Do a Marie Kondo-esque, does-this-spark-joy? analysis of every item in my art-making space.
I wanted my mind and spirit free and feeling light before embarking upon an ambitious goal of creating twenty-five paintings before the end of August.
There were art supplies, tools, journals, sketchbooks, and endless collage papers to hold up to scrutiny, decide whether each should be placed in the Stay Pile or the Leave Pile, and then handle and organize accordingly.
While in my Kondo vortex, I came across a magazine I had once mined for collage images. I did the thing you are not supposed to do while in the throes of such a project, which is to stop focusing, sit down, and start flipping through pages.
I am so glad I did.
I came across an image of a majestic Blue Marlin soaring about eight feet in the air, attempting to release the circle hooks and heavy line from the corner of its jaw.
When hooked, Marlin are known for their scorching runs and airborne leaps as they twist and fight against the barbs and line. Determined to free itself against all odds, the entrapped Marlin is all survival instinct and fierce determination.
In that image, I saw former versions of myself.
I saw the strange destruction of my Nuclear Winter years when my marriage, finances, and health turned to ash. The years when I was dragged behind the boat of circumstances, limiting beliefs, and shame.
Twisting, turning, leaping toward freedom.
Over time, I removed myself from the drag path and put myself back at the helm. I would come to understand several years later that it was what I call The 5Ms™ (Morning Pages, Meditation, Movement, Moments of Inspired Learning, and Making Something) that set me free.
What is Holding the Rod on Your Drag Path?
Do you feel a certain brotherhood or sisterhood with the struggling Marlin? If so, tuck away into some quiet and bring the image of your thrashing to mind.
Assume you are the Marlin in this scenario. Who or what is holding the rod?
- A specific person
- A limiting belief
- A corrosive habit
- An unresolved, painful moment from your past
- A destructive pattern
- A clashing or claustrophobic environment
- A situation or relationship you feel trapped in
- A physical or financial challenge
That is, study your drag path from all angles.
Now, in your journal, list all the who’s and what’s holding the rod. Leave lots of room between each.
Next, for each item, describe what is happening, what your thoughts are about the circumstance, and how those thoughts make you feel.
Take a look at your notes. Which circumstance (and your associated thoughts and feelings) is the prickliest and most painful?
This is your first area of focus.
We’re not going to try to solve it immediately. We first want to separate the facts from the story.
We can stay trapped because painful circumstances and interpretations become fused. The nervous system treats the interpretation as objective reality. Once that happens, creativity narrows, options disappear, and identity hardens around the problem.
So, the next section of this exercise should gently create distance.
Separate What Happened from What You Are Making It Mean
Take the circumstance you selected and write it again in one short sentence. Now divide the page into two columns.
Column 1: What I Know For Sure
Write only observable facts. These should be things a camera could record.
Examples:
- Revenue dropped 40% this quarter.
- Three clients declined my proposal.
- I haven’t posted my work in six weeks.
- My business partner left.
- I have $12,000 in savings.
Column 2: What I’m Making It Mean
Now write the emotional conclusions, fears, assumptions, limiting beliefs, and identity statements attached to the circumstance.
Examples:
- I’m becoming irrelevant.
- People don’t value my work.
- I missed my chance.
- I always ruin momentum.
- Everyone else knows what they’re doing.
- If this fails, I’ll lose respect.
- I’m trapped.
Our pain is not only coming from the circumstance itself. It’s coming from the meaning we’ve attached to it.
Get Curious Instead of Certain
Select the most charged and painful statement from Column 2. Now respond to that sentence with questions instead of conclusions.
Examples:
- When did I first begin to believe this?
- Who would I be without this belief?
- What evidence contradicts it?
- How does this belief protect me?
- What becomes possible if this isn’t completely true?
- What would someone who loved me say about this?
Again, the goal is to loosen our psychological certainty. When we are feeling trapped, it is rarely due to our circumstances. We’re trapped by conclusions that have started to feel permanent.
Reclaim Your Agency
Finally, ask: Given the reality of this circumstance, what is still within my power today? Keep the answer extremely small and concrete.
Not:
- Fix my business.
- Become confident.
- Reinvent everything.
Instead:
- Send one email.
- Take a 20-minute walk without my phone.
- Ask for help.
- Post the unfinished version.
- Review my finances calmly with an advisor.
- Rest before making a decision.
Tiny acts restore movement. Movement restores possibility. Possibility restores identity.
And identity is usually what has been suffocating beneath the circumstances all along.
We do not have to solve our entire lives in an hour. We only have to tell the truth about where we are, loosen our grip on the story that says we are trapped, and take one honest step forward.
Most breakthroughs are ignited through awareness. The moment we can separate what is happening from what we believe it means, we create space.
And in that space, something powerful returns: Choice. Creativity. Decisiveness. Movement. Hope.
Our circumstances may be difficult, but they are not our identity. When we finally see the drag path clearly, we realize the circumstance is not the whole prison. The unconscious story attached to it is.
And stories can be questioned. Patterns can be interrupted. Identities can be rewritten.
This is how we begin to free ourselves, shaking off circle hooks and line—through awareness, truth-telling, and one courageous decision at a time.
