A Language Alien to Yours

Performing tasks outside of your natural path, talent or skill range can prove to be quite uncomfortable. For example, working as a freelance graphic designer full time before my battle with cancer, I had a variety of fun and not so fun projects. There were great clients and there were the inverse bunch of folks with whom I parted company as fast and as cleanly as possible. You can tell when you are involved at your highest level of awareness. Your mind fires off creative sparks that completely solve the problem in an elegant, creative fashion that is virtually no effort at all. The window of the creative universe opens and in comes the rainbow of ideas, art and life connection that makes the project soar. At his high level of doing, all hurdles are removed to the goal, like in the first Matrix movie, you realize, 'there is no spoon' and you are communicating in a new language.

Conversely, when a project arose that involved above average conflict, misdirection, misinformation, ego, conflict and confusion, it was as if the project was speaking in an alien language. Creativity was blocked or shoved in a corner, fear of this or that outcome from the client's overlords threatened each advance and the entire project went into slow motion against a backdrop of a hard deadline. Not fun. We humans tend to believe that a rigid set of structures and rules are necessary for achieving these hard deadlines and that an aggressive approach will get the job done. It's like the project managers are on some bizarre personal jihad to get their impossible deadline while the fiery whips of their bosses lash them for more speed.

As any creative can tell you, this is not the recipe for success. What I have found in creating graphics and electronic music, writing poetry and creating anything in general is that the best language is your internal language. When you connect and release possibilities to the great creative spark that is life and our universe, many good and unexpectedly good things happen. Whenever an opportunity arises for creativity, I find that it is a natural process. I get excited and desire to create something from just brushing against the idea of creating something. The process of letting it form is the joy and the end result ain't too bad either!

The journey and path to your purpose in creating is one of joy and discovery. All you have to do is want to play, kind of like when you were a kid. Become a kid again and enjoy playing with no boundaries, no rules and no limits. You can hone the raw material of this process to fit the requirements of your creative project, but always keep it in your own voice, your own language of the creative.

Let me know what your experiences are in your creative journey!

One Love