This is your invitation to participate in an online experiment being conducted over the next month.
The success of your next product or service (that includes the product You) doesn’t hinge on simply working harder and longer hours.
Having your manuscript, screenplay, film, better mousetrap, consultancy or whatever hit a striking unmistakable chord in an attention-weary world requires a full journey through the creative process to ensure it's truly remarkable ("remarkable", practically a Seth trademark).
If you are merely following lock-step with your competitors and peers (and certainly don't seek to rise to your potential), you can simply ruminate on a few ideas and then follow best practices. Stop here, do not venture further.
To astound the world, you must sink into creativity as a heroic act.
Over the course of the next month, I invite you to parallel my journey into the creative process (described in more depth in post, "Accelerating Elusive Aha! Moments") to come up with your own breakthrough ideas: whether you desire to flesh out "what's next" in your life path, compose a screenplay, develop the next killer app, hammer out a marketing strategy, or hone a business plan.
I'll be sharing the how-to of the process to keep you humming along in your parallel journey. And I'll be sharing honest in the moment what I'm actually doing myself. No theorizing. And I'll throw in juicy bits (I won't bore you with details) about my personal advances, my slipups, my fears, my story, my outcomes. This is the stuff of (unscripted) reality TV. And I'm the guinea pig. And so are you, if you choose to accept. You'll be in the privacy of your own home, I'm outed in the blog.
The 50,000 foot view of the creative process and rough timeline:
1. Preparation. (I call this stage, Saturation, because I am immersing myself in as much information as I can.) Now until April 8th.
2. Incubation. (Letting the ideas "simmer".) April 9th-April 12th. (If you are able to come to the San Francisco Bay Area, come in person to the Dwelve Live "Advance". I'll also offer tips for a solo incubation wherever you are.
3. Illumination. (The aha! insight.) April 13th-17th.
4. Translation. (Translating your insight into action.) April 18th-24th.
Step One: Commit.
If you ask: Why the heck am I doing this?
I'm stuck. I have a zillion ideas. Some I've shelved since the perspective changing tsunami experience. Others are half-baked. I'm awash in too many ideas. Some are very good. But not necessarily remarkable. And the clarity of where they fit into my life purpose has gotten a bit hazy. This is the only process that works for me to get to remarkable outcomes from my vastly more intelligent and heartfelt essential self. I have no choice.
I thought it would be fun to share tips while in the thick of it. I miss a lot in retrospective reviews. And I once thought I'd write a book about it. But a blog is better format for this and much more fun.
And I want to learn if this creative process works as well for others. I know it works for me. (At least when I'm doing it in private.) Tell me how did you adapt it, where did you struggle, where did you triumph, what were your outcomes...and why. I'd love to hear your experiences (I undoubtedly suspect I won't be able to respond to each piece of email, but I do savor it all.)
Bon Voyage!
(Note: The article above was reposted - original here dated 3/21/05 - from my blog, Crossroads Dispatches. In reverse chronological order from March 21, 2005 through April 24, 2005 on my blog I will be sharing and unfolding all four stages of the creative process.
And trust me you can usually skip the Saturation phase. If you are stuck, it means you've already spent too much time mulling over your problem and are super-saturated. Ripe for an incubating "advance.")
http://www.hugechoiceof.com/
Posted by: DFDF | May 06, 2007 at 02:20 PM
http://www.arschfick-luder.net/
Posted by: arsch | September 08, 2008 at 10:32 AM