Doing the Impossible – A Creator’s Guide to Getting it Done

One night I found my 20-something self on an airplane from Baltimore to Tampa after two solid months of filming from coast to coast. I had just visited the president of the company that was paying for all of my travel and expenses… that had accepted my proposal for an ambitious video project spanning the continent. I had tens of thousands of dollars in expenses racked up and 60 hours of footage recorded.

I also had a secret: I had no idea what I was doing.

As I sat in that seat, gazing into the night from 30,000 ft, my deadline appeared over the dark horizon like a mushroom cloud and I was gripped by the icy tendrils of panic. What would happen if I failed? Why had I put myself in a situation like this??  How was I going to pull this off?!?

Flash ahead a few months, and my video premiered before an audience of several hundred people… and blew them all away. I had done what from that airplane seemed impossible. But how?

I cannot count the number of times I’ve found myself paralyzed during a big project – crushed beneath the weight of expectations, deadlines and worst of all: pride. These forces can conspire to turn opportunity into misery and utterly complicate the process of creating.

However, from years as an artist and professional creator I have learned a few patterns and possibilities I wanted to share:

1. “Just keep swimming”

I often think of that little blue fish in “Finding Nemo” who flows past danger in blissful ignorance while humming to herself the simple, endless reminder to “just keep swimming.” I still don’t know how I made it from that panicked airplane ride to a successful finished product, but I know I never stopped swimming… so I always ended up where I needed to be. The end product was what it was because of every moment that led up to it, including the moments of doubt, confusion and misery. A big project can be overwhelming, but every action has outcome. Continued action, continued outcome, and things take shape.

Clearly we like to be moving, but sometimes we find ourselves… stuck… without knowing what to do next. For these moments I’ve discovered a secret: we are always moving whether we realize it or not. The night can be full of doubt and darkness, but the sun always rises and things look different throughout the day. Life is always flowing, so we’re never standing still. Have faith in the flow of things and the answer will present itself.

Another common experience is coming to a point in a project where it just doesn’t feel right… maybe we took a wrong turn? …and the impulse is to stop. Start over. To this I’ve found two concepts to be helpful: the first is recognizing that solving a maze can require a lot of dead ends. Dead ends aren’t failure, they are part of the process, (and great when you charge by the hour)!  For every finished product I have dozens… sometimes hundreds of failed experiments all leading to a finished product that is better for every lesson learned. The second realization is that things look unfinished before they are finished (believe it or not). Many times I come to a point where a project seems doomed to fail, but all the layers of work and detail are what lead to a great finished product. Just. Keep. Swimming.

2. There is no frustration without expectation

The other day I met a guy out on the rock while climbing. In passing he told me that he would be going home to a roasted pig that evening. “Wow!” I said, “that’s a hell of a thing to go home to!” His smile faded as he said, “yeah, I’m not a good cook… so it probably won’t be very good.”

I paused for a moment and thought about how anyone could feel anything but childish glee to be going home to such a feast. “I’m sure it will be amazing” I said, “as long as you don’t compare it to anything but what it is.”

Expectations suck the fun out of life. There’s always something better. And what you’ve got is always better than something else… so who cares? When I compare what I’m doing to things I’ve done in the past… or dreams of the future… or things that other people are doing… it can feel pointless to try in the first place.

When things are what they are, they are incomparable. When we don’t worry about the outcome but enjoy the process… a better outcome is reached in spite of ourselves. “You can’t be attached to results.”

3. The pride ride

When I’m wallowing in self-pity during a project, more often than not the root of the misery is pride. The thoughts go something like this:

“Obviously, I’m the most amazing person in the world (my mom told me so)! – so why am I stuck? Am I not as great as I think? I’ve always done awesome things before… Is this the time I won’t succeed? I don’t have enough time! I’m out of ideas! Look at all these amazingly talented people online! I’m falling behind! What if I never catch up? Must… maintain… shiny… self…. image!”

Pride is a fair-weather friend that makes us feel awesome sometimes and miserable at others. The feeling of “I did this” is AWESOME. The feeling of “I must do something awesome” is a drag.

Some people will tell you to get rid of your pride, but that amounts to an even bigger pride ride (pride in pridelessness counts double!) I’ve found that accepting our prideful aspects, the good side and the bad side, at least makes the pride ride predictable and easier to see how it all comes back around. When you’re in doubt your pride is like the abusive spouse from a COPS marathon. When you inevitably do something great, pride is right back to holding you tender.

4. It all gets done. Have faith in the process

My wife can tell you how bent out of shape I get at some point in every big project. The feeling of stuckitude, compounded by the tormentors of expectations and pride can lead to cold sweats and sleepless nights. It’s not always fun, but somehow… it all gets done. I know that these moments are part of the process, and that if I keep putting bricks on top of bricks, eventually I’ll have a wall. Having built many, I know that if I just keep swimming, it all gets done.

Now… back to this big project!

“One thing at a time, and that done well.
Is a very good rule, as many can tell.”

—M.A. Stodart

~r