One Chip At A Time

“Everything can look like a failure in the middle,” says Harvard Law School professor and author, Rosabeth Moss Kanter. The statement caught my attention while reading a video transcript from a recent blog post about her creative process. I agree that, for this reason, it's so easy to abandon a plan before even starting out. And as pastor/author Rick Warren Tweeted this morning: "Brilliant ideas often sound absurd at first."

Kanter went on to explain that she requires discipline to complete tasks. Even though I am creative-- and tend to spend the majority of my time devising new ideas and making plans for this project or the other--I, too, am dependent on mantras like "Just Do It!" Saying things like this to myself help generate transformation and movement. 

I made a commitment almost two years ago to write at least three blogs a week. Once this journey commenced, I often suffered writer's block. Sometimes I started writing and found the subject didn't interest me to the finish. Whatever the case, I found it necessary to write what was on my mind and heart. Oftentimes in the process, I may have lost my audience (whoever you are) by choosing subjects that interest only me. I apologize if that happened too often in the past...I'll try harder to string you along in this post!

You see, my goal as a writer is a selfish one, really; I am doing this for me. Writing is something I love to do, even though the process can be difficult at times. When I get stuck in the middle of something, and it looks like it might turn out to be a failure, I trudge-on until I find the end. It's therapy for me. 

Later in the video transcript Professor Kanter referred to the creative process of a legendary sculptor/artist: "...if you chip away bit by bit, you do create the great sculpture.  I think it was Michelangelo who once said, 'How do you make this beautiful sculpture?  Well you start with a block of stone, and then you chip away everything that isn’t David.'"

Each time I sit down to a blank page, I am confronted with possible failure-- but I can't let that stop me. I believe great writers do more editing than writing. If only I could edit as well as Michelangelo...
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Thank you to Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Quotes are from a video recorded on June 13, 2007,  and were published by "Big Think."  Click here to view the Big Think post