I know the key to moving things forward is active involvement and I watch that happen as I work with clients.
This week I watched in awe how powerful active involvement is in the creative process. I trust this will translate on paper in this Treat.
The graphic designer for my new book and I were working on the final layout and decided to experiment together to design the cover. That would usually be her domain and then I would look at the results. Suddenly like being carried on a wave of creativity, the process unfolded and I witnessed it in something akin to 3-D, which is the best way I can say it. We were in synch and we just kept moving going back and forth with ideas that we tried out; the perfect font appeared effortlessly from an endless selection saying "choose me," the words in the title layout kept moving as we played with them until they found their place, and art we loved shifted to art we loved more. I saw the changes move as if they were following a design that was invisible to us but would reveal itself if we simply kept moving.
There was this moment where we did one final adjustment and we both stopped in awe as we knew we were looking at "the" cover. It was as if it just fell into its already prepared form. Awe is the only word to describe what I saw, felt, and observed.
What I learned is it's important to keep the joy, fun, play and constant moving alive in the process of doing and creating and, at the same time, relaxing, enjoying and observing what is taking place. That keeps the awe alive.
Martha Invitations
1. Relax as you do and invite yourself to find the actions needed and follow what appears.
2. Keep things fun.
3. Watch the awe that is behind it all.