When you're working on a looooooooong project, it can be hard to keep the creative wind in your sails. Here's a trick to help you keep moving forward: Stop now and then. And enjoy the show so far.
It's a lesson I learned years ago from Todd Hanna, video guru and all-around good guy at the UMKC School of Medicine. Todd taught me to slow down and enjoy the creative process -- not just the final result.
Today, give it a try. Rewind the video, and admire the brilliance inherent in that intro. Pull out the knitting, and marvel over the first two feet of scarf. Eat the cookie dough.
Don't wait to celebrate. Enjoy the show as you go.
P.S. Todd says he thinks "the show so far" is an old Monty Python line. Which brings us right back to that "creative wind."
4 comments:
Speaking of knitting, knitters are often categorized as process knitters or product knitters. Process knitters enjoy the act of knitting, while product knitters are focused on churning out a finished object. Most probably fall somewhere in between these extremes, but process knitters probably enjoy the "show so far" as you've described it.
Hmm...this represents a transition from a manufacturing mindset to an artists' mindset. I'm always guilty of "target lock", where the rest of the world vanishes so that I can concentrate (read obsess) on a distant goal.
Good link, too. Killer Rabbit T-Shirts are the bomb.
I love the whole discussion re: process vs. product ... I've been thinking about it ever since Leslie posted. And it is that switch from manufacturing to artistry ...
I think I'm more process than product. Perhaps that's why the Great American Novel isn't complete?
Some call it being a pack rat, but on certain projects, I like to save drafts (esp. printed out versions that are heavily marked up) because I enjoy going back and "looking at" how the thinking has changed from an earlier point until a project's end.
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