Build the boat and learn how to sail at the same time

Web developers often ask a useful question during kickoff meetings:

What are the rules for what happens when this happens?

The goal here is for the product team to build out all the information the tech team needs to assist on the front end, which helps them prioritize their reply and action when development issues come up in the future.

The elegance and power of this question cannot be understated. After all, computers are systems that work entirely through precedent.

When you have this problem, you do this thing, and get this kind of outcome.

That’s all programming is. It’s the order of operations. The agreed upon sequential hierarchy of actions. The priority in importance. And the good news is, this concept of precedence has profound applications beyond just the software world.

In the the creative journey, for example, people should constantly be asking themselves, what are the rules for what happens when this happens?

Particularly during times of struggle. Because lots of resistance naturally accompanies the act of bringing your ideas to form.

In the micro, there’s the anxiety of staring at a blank canvas, the apathy of not feeling motivated to make things, the confusion of which projects to prioritize, or the paralysis of facing a task that’s complicated or overwhelming.

In the macro, there’s fear of not being original in your work, the longing to reinvent your creative career, the dread of being in limbo between projects, or the frustration of being a lonely artist.

Every one of those struggles needs its own precedent. That’s a lot of potential problems. Which means, every creator needs some kind of precedent. A protocol to help them prioritize action. One that brings a higher function to their automatic responses to the inevitable struggles of the creative process.

When you have this problem, you do this thing, and get this kind of outcome.

Prolific exists for this exact reason. I built this software so there’s way less energy wasted overcoming resistance and more energy is dedicated to the only act that really counts, which is making things.

It’s like my therapist once told me about managing anxiety:

Never decide how to respond to a crisis during the crisis itself. It’s smarter and healthier and faster to have your recovery plan in your back pocket, that way you can execute when the pressure is on.

This gives you a significantly better chance of reducing your experience of emotional distress.

What are the rules for what happens when this happens to your creative process? What protocol helps you anticipate resistance in advance?

If you haven’t set those precedents for yourself yet, your work is going to be an uphill battle for a long time. And you will frustrate and exhaust yourself trying to build the boat and learn how to sail at the same time.

If you want a sustainable career as a person who makes things for a living, then dedicate some real time building your own system. It may initially seem like a rigid, cold computer program.

But maybe that’s exactly what your right brain needs.

Are you still deciding how to respond to a creative crisis during the crisis itself?