How to delegate your creative work to the universe

And the surprising results you might get!

Happy Sunday, Soothers. I’ve detached my burning retinas from the political fire of horrors unfolding via my phone long enough to return myself to the Co-Create series. Wow, go me!

If you’re new here, Co-Create is a teaching series of essays on how to become more productive in your creative and purpose work with some assists from the magic of the universe. Catch up here:

• The two rivers of attention, and how to get from one to the other

• What feminine energy has to do with your productivity (aka how to "do nothing" but still get stuff done)

• How to reclaim your focus and do meaningful work in the burnout economy

Today we turn to one of my favorite tools in my creative work:

How to ask out loud for help, and better delegate, in your creative work.

The term delegation is, you know, very unsexy. Don’t forget, before running essentially a magical creative and helping business for 5 years, I was in corporate for nearly two decades. So when I think of “delegate” in the corporate sense, especially as a recovering control freak, my face puckers up like I’ve just bitten into a lemon.

Delegation in the corporate world? Boring. Spreadsheets. Powerpoints. Junior team member. Unsexy. Starched shirts and ties from TJ Maxx. Very concerning — what if I have to delegate to an idiot?

But what if we’re delegating to… magical energies out there?

Try it on.

Delegating to the universe to help you out, instead of intern Kevin from accounting?

Fun. Magical! Delightful. Powerful. Mystical. A little bit sexy and mysterious? I’m into it.

Delegating to the universe is about surrendering the need to control every detail and trusting that unseen forces are working in your favor. It's like handing off your to-do list to the cosmos, knowing it has its own way of making things happen that may not look like what you planned.

And it’s important to know: This isn’t about passivity or laziness—it’s a deeply intentional act of co-creation. You ask for help, put out your desires or goals, and then let go, trusting the universe will bring in the right opportunities, people, or solutions at the right time.

The universe, after all, has an unlimited supply of creative resources at its disposal.

You, on the other hand, have a brain that was designed to eat berries in a cave, a soul-destroying miniature computer blinkering its 24/7 seductive lights at you, and a body and timespan that is utterly finite.

Trust me when I say:

The universe can do a lot of work better than you can.

Why not let it perform its magic for you?

So where do we start, when it comes to delegating to the universe?

Well, it’s really deceptively easy. But I bet you haven’t tried it:

Learn to ask out loud for help.

Some call this prayer, but you don’t have to if that makes you feel weird. But try it out.

Every morning I say out loud what I might need help with that day, and how I hope my day will go, and then also add on that I’m open to this or something even better, for the highest good of all involved.

And the most magical things unfold.

When I sit down to write an essay or an Instagram post, when I remember, I ask out loud with what I need help with. Sometimes it’s really detailed and specific, but most of the time it sounds something like this:

“Universe, can you help me channel the right words that will help the people that need it most? Make this process of writing and creating easeful, fun and useful to as many people as possible.”

Of course, I’ve gotten really specific with my delegation requests, too.

Here’s an example.

Right now, I am working with an awesome book coach, Maureen, on a book proposal.

Part of what I’m delegating to the universe is its help in finding the right book agent for me.

An exercise that Maureen had me do made me get really specific about the qualities of this book agent. Here’s what I wrote down in response to her questions:

1. • What are you looking for in an agent? Somebody who understands and perhaps has even come across my work before and understands the sunday soother vibe. Coach vibes! Encouraging. A woman or strong feminine energy paired with good healthy masculine energy, ideally HSP/neurodivergent. Thoughtful. Spiritually curious and open. Soul led, purpose driven. Has been doing this work for quite a while so gets the field and can guide me/handhold me. Believes strongly in my talents. Wants me to write from the heart, not try to mold my work to whatever is popular at the time or the market demands. Confident in her own abilities. Great decision maker. No hesitations. Trusts her own intuition, and mine.

   • What if they came back with a suggestion for a big change? I would be open to listening, especially if i trusted them and they met the criteria above.

   • What genre does she see this book in? self-help/spirituality

   • What kind of relationship do you want with your agent? A champion? A hard hitter? Honestly, I want my real estate agent, Katie (lol). She was a 50-something woman who was an amazing real estate agent, very successful, but very grounded and kind and I would even say trauma-informed. I 100% trusted her advice during a really overwhelming time as I navigated the purchase of my home and the sale of my condo simultaneously. She always gave me her perspective and all the context but then backed up my decisions even if they were different to her own. She was easy to get in touch with, I felt like a priority with her even though she wasn’t gonna make massive revenues off my sale. Connections are great, but I'm looking for heart and wisdom over flashy numbers.

So here’s what I really want you to take away from this:

Getting incredibly specific about your desires, needs, what you need help with in terms of your work (or any area of your life), and stating it out loud, specifically saying you need help with it:

That is how you delegate to the universe.

And then being open the results, which may look entirely different from how you think they should be, or when they should come.

Because when you hand things off to the universe, you’re saying, “Hey, bub. You got this. I might prefer something go this way, but, uh, you’re the universe! You probably know better. So I’ve stated my desires and intentions — but the how, the when, the exact details: I leave that in your hands, and allow in something better than my puny brain could have ever thought of, for the highest good of all involved.”

Honestly, that’s all you really need to know.

You can do this for newsletter essays you are writing. You can do this for ideal clients and drawing them in (I do this for almost any retreat I’m holding, for example). You can do this for collaborators, agents, new jobs (BTW, have you done my magic get a new job spell?).

Here are a few other examples of universal delegation:

• About 10 years ago, when I was giving freelance writing a try, I wrote in my journal that I was ready to start pitching online news sites for personal essays. Two days after writing that, I had an out-of-the-blue email in my inbox from a well-connected friend, introducing me to an editor at a large internet news site, saying I’d be a perfect fit for their new personal essay section.

• When I realized in 2019 that I was ready to leave DC and move closer to nature, I started getting extremely clear about where I wanted to move and the kind of home I was looking for. I got clear on what I could afford, bedrooms, square footage, even the acreage of the land. I also talked about the how. I KNEW I didn’t want to get in some awful bidding war with multiple other purchases. Too stressful! Three years later (the universe took its right time!), my boyfriend (now husband) found the Nature Witch Cottage, which matched everything to a tee. I was the only bidder! It was an incredibly easeful process to put in the offer, sell my condo, and move.

• I like this example on this delegation from Kate Northrup, because sometimes what we need in terms of our creative work is the support in the other parts of our life so we can DO the work. She and her husband had moved to a new town, and they had two young kids at the time. No pre-schools were taking any openings. She searched and searched and searched and reached out; nada. Finally she actively turned it over to the universe, by asking out loud for help. A couple of weeks later, a friend reached out with a school that had two openings in both age groups for her daughters. Done!

Want a bit more guidance on this whole delegation thing?

Well, the most important thing to know, I think:

Specificity in particular is your friend when doing your delegating.

I got my masters in journalism at Northwestern, so you know, *brushes off shoulders* I’m going to teach you a little thing you might never have heard of (jk, it’s a thing that anybody who ever took a journalism class once in high school learned):

The 5Ws and H of a story.

The term 5 Ws and H refers to the six basic questions to ask when gathering information or solving a problem. The questions are:

1. Who?

2. What?

3. Where?

4. When?

5. Why?

6. How?

Use these questions as a guide to get very detailed when you’re handing off your delegation request to the universe.

Let me show you how I’d apply this to my book agent delegation:

1. Who - kind of covered in the above

2. What - same. An awesome book agent, as detailed above.

3. Where - the where doesn’t perfectly align with this particular delegation, but it might with what you’re calling in (like with the Nature Witch Cottage for me in that example), so just adjust as needed

4. When? In my ideal timeline, I’d get a book agent in the next 3-6 months, and a book deal by the end of 2025. Of course, when you’re delegating to the universe, you are releasing the timeline, so I know I will be okay with whenever it comes in, because it will be divine timing. The universe knows better than what my ego brain craves. But it’s okay to state your preferences anyways. Tune in to what feels doable and realistic and intuitive.

5. Why? The whys of why I want a book agent, a book deal, and to write a book are all over my Sunday Soother. I want to help people use the power of surrender to release control, relax into trust, step into purpose. I want more people to feel better and be brave to put their art into the world. I want HSPs to have their burden eased and their flames lit, so they can bring more light and purpose and creativity to this very dark timeline we are in. I think doing that with the right book agent and deal are how I can reach the most people.

6. How? This one is fun. I really think into how I want my desires to happen. For me, one of the most important hows is FUN and DELIGHT and SURPRISE. So if I got an email out of the blue from an agent wanting to connect, that would be a fun how. I’m also okay with the agent list that my book coaching is coming up with, when I pitch them, that one of them ends up my agent! But again, the HOW is really up to the universe, but I think it is absolutely worth spending some time thinking about your how preferences and stating them too, as long as you don’t get too attached to them.

So have you got it? This delegation? What are you going to try it out on? I’d love to hear in the comments.

For paid subscribers below, I’m going to detail out, step by step, my powerful Feng Shui delegation spell, that builds on everything I told you above.

And stay tuned for the next essay in this series. I’ll be talking about how using the principles of nature can help you tune into your purpose and your intuition (working title: Geese don’t use spreadsheets to migrate).

For now, I wish you many blessings for whatever is on your heart, and much help from the universe who also wants you to succeed in your art and your purpose.

xo
Catherine