There is a meme going around about the 6 stages of creativity. Even though it implies artistic creativity, remember, this applies to ANY CREATIVE EFFORT. Are you working on a new project at work? Are you renovating a bathroom in your house? Are you trying to solve a family problem with your kids? All of those situations require creativity, and there’s a good chance they will all take you (or rather–drag you) through these 6 stages:
PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO NUMBER 4!
Seriously, did you notice that all of those other stages have to do with the project, but #4 suddenly brings YOU into it. You abilities and your value. It’s a crappy stage to be in and people who don’t see it coming or know how to persist through it sometimes give up right there. They never make it to the “awesome” stage.
Knowing that this is prone to happen is half the battle of overcoming it. If you can see it coming, or identify it for what it is, you can plow through and get to “might be ok” and THIS IS AWESOME!
I just experienced this with a book project. When I cut a book, the progress is clear and linear. But when I FOLD a book, it never looks good until the very end. In fact, I don’t have good progress photos on this one because it looked so bad I wouldn’t pick up the camera. Finally, 3/4 of the way through it, I had the courage to document the progress. During the first 1/4, it took serious self-pep-talks to keep me going. I had to force myself to trust that it would work. Eventually it did, whew!
What creative project are you working on? Did you experience the “I SUCK” phase? How did you work through it? Do tell!
