If all of the creative ideas anyone ever had were actually pursued to completion, the world would be a truly amazing place. Maybe a little weird here and there, but amazing.
What goes wrong, much of the time, is that the creator gets discouraged or distracted. Either life kicks in and you have to devote all of your time to mundane tasks, or you hit an obstacle and give up. So why do some people find a way to find the time, or find the strength to struggle until they overcome a barrier? What's the difference between them and us ordinary mortals? Super-human ego strength? A trust fund? No. Persistence, you see, is a skill.That's good news, because if it's a skill we can learn it. People who complete projects instead of losing steam have learned to persist. And here's how you can, too, in 1-2-3-4 format:
1. Consciously commit. Write your goal down, say it out loud, share it with those around you. Hold yourself accountable for sticking with your vision.
2. Commit to the goal, not the process. The process will be bumpy, uneven, and unpredictable; remember that your goal is what matters, not how you get there.
3. Use deadlines strategically. If you need deadlines (and most of us do), set them for short-term, intermediate steps, not your final achievement. Never use missing a deadline as a reason to quit.
4. Clear obstacles creatively. If you face an obstacle, use the actively creative process to overcome it:
- Declare the intention to overcome it
- Use your intuition to mull over possible solutions
- Identify an insight about what is underlying the obstacle; it could be an attitude as much as a real-world problem
- Evaluate your insight: can it be used to develop a useful idea for overcoming the obstacle? If not, go back and review.
- Realization: form a plan to overcome your obstacle
For more on the actively creative process, please check out my book! And persist, persist, persist.
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