Don't wait. This must be the message I'm supposed to hear. It’s about the fifth time I feel the kick in the shins to keep working on 9 Candles, my anthology of nine novelettes, a book I never seem to finish. I find this happens a lot in midsize companies too. They have many untold stories – from new product innovation to the origin story – but are not sure where to begin. The #1 reason: no time.
But, then, is time just in our mind? I mean, you can't drop-ship time to your door.
So, what's the gap between avoiding/neglecting/ignoring a creative endeavor and embracing/imagining/creating it? For midsize businesses, how do you get the storytelling started and execute – especially when you’ve never done it before? How do you race to that magical $100 million annual revenue mark - when you are busy doing SO many things?
Because "don't wait" isn't a plan. It's a command. Imperative statements that boss me around don’t bode well for this Italian mama.
If you're looking to create something - a blog, campaign, business, novel, dessert, dream, song, poem, painting, new napkin fold (love those!), habit or whatever lives in your vision goggles, here are three real reasons I think we press DELAY (you and me). Understanding these might make big tasks more achievable.
+ Creativity takes time. And it's stingy. For me, three hours might get me three paragraphs. If I’m lucky. We fill time up. Like the gas tank. Glunk, glunk, glunk. Spending time on something that doesn't give us dopamine rushes is against our human engineering. What if we accepted we need a lot to make a little?
+ Ideas pick the creator. We don't choose the idea, the idea picks us. And its timing almost always stinks! Sure, I'd love to spend all morning working on my characters with 10 cups of decaf by my side and a nice jaunt around the block at noon. Hardee har har, that's impossible. What if we wrote down why we were the PERFECT choice for that idea – and stuck that "why" statement . . . everywhere?
+ Pursuing a passion project defies logic. Who am I to write fiction when Colleen Hoover and Ruth Ware are in the literary house? There's no logic in doing something you've never done successfully. Who wants to fail? **HAND UP** This is one thing I'm good at. Failing. So, what if we just said: "What if . . .?"
So while the English proverb may be true: good things come to those who wait. The modern take might be: Leap over the obstacles first and THEN “don’t wait.” Just go, go, go.
Are you on the 50-yard line with your creative endeavor? Or ready to start sharing stories to seriously scale your midsize company? We’re your storytelling team.