Break it to make it!

There is one thing we creatives are guilty of one time or another. And it is Procrastination.

We all have a way of putting things off. Sometimes it’s Important things and other times not so important things. And as I found myself this afternoon wanting to get on with a project I needed to begin all I could think was, “I am really not ready to do this right now.”

The Why?

As human’s we question everything and sometimes we want the unknown to stay that way. But if we never do, we will never know. So, as I found myself asking myself why I didn’t want to move forward with the project right now I came up with several reasonable answers in my head.

What was the point to the task I was creating for myself?
What if I broke it the prop?
What if I failed?

In order to go forth with the project I managed to navigate my way around these negative thoughts and I thought you all might like to follow the journey in this little blog.

The Task’s why

The prop I needed to alter I should say is a collapsable Top hat. Which looks a bit like this below.

I found myself with a desire to improve a routine of mine and in order to do this – to see if it would work – I would have to cut a hole in the hat.

I should say these hats are quite pricey so cutting a hole in one there is a potential you will destroy it. But my why became well, I’ll never know if my idea for the hat will work or not unless I do what I think is necessary and cut the hole in it. Which I did. Did it work, not on my first attempt. But I now know that my first idea didn’t work so I now have to come up with a new method.

I would never have known I needed a new method if I never tried this first one. So I guess what I am saying is sometimes you need to break something to find the right method.

I am no engineer and I am discovering the more I work and build my own magic I am having to become one. Which is hard. But I have to keep trying, as one time, the method I come up with will work. And that is worth all the tries!

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When we try things several times we get better at judging what will work and what won’t work before you do something saving you lots of time in future projects. So with practice you get better are problem solving.

Prep to avoid props breaking

When I knew that I didn’t want to rip apart my hat originally, I came up with a plan so that I didn’t feel as bad if the prop broke and I couldn’t use it again. And that was – I saved and bought several. I cut the one that was the oldest and probably was about to fall apart anyway. So the what if I broke the prop thoughts became less because I knew I was ripping apart an old prop which I now had several of.

If you want to create something new and original, sometimes you will have to break a prop to try out an idea to see if it works. I’ve done a lot of this the last year. Some ideas worked, others didn’t. But at least I was brave enough to try. Which leads me to the final point on this blog.