The other day I was listening to this interview with author Jonah Lehrer and he said something that blew my mind.
“The act of feeling frustrated is an essential part of the creative process. Before we can find the answer – before we can even know the question – we must be immersed in disappointment, convinced that a solution is beyond our reach. We need to have wrestled with the problem and lost. Because it's only after we stop searching that an answer may arrive.”*
Whoa.
This means, that if you're feeling stuck, right this minute, if you're feeling like you can't find the solution…that's a great place to be. Your epiphany, your creative idea is just around the bend.
When I look back at my own business, I know this to be true.
I created the Starship in a moment of stuck-ness. I had a handful of students that took classes from me monthly, but they wanted to get to know each other. And so many of them (all of them!) were creating these great ideas for their own businesses, I wanted a way to share it with the other students.
And the students were frustrated that they would take the classes…but not put it into practice. We'd just move on to the next class and they'd think, “Oh, I'll come back to this.”
I wanted the information, the worksheets, the whole experience to be useful. And fun.
I thought about all these frustrations and got a little cranky over it. I even considered stopping teaching, because what's the point if it's not effective?
And then, as I was writing about how I might quit, I got the idea for the Starship.
- A place where my brilliant students, captains in your own businesses, could come together and learn from each other.
- A community where the weekly chats and check-ins kept your head in the game, kept you thinking about what you wanted to do, to implement, to create.
- A Library full of all my classes, so that you could take the class Rock the Show, right before your first craft show.
It's been one year since I opened up the Starship privately to the very first students (I didn't open it to the public until that June), and in the last year I've seen other smarties come up to that point of frustration and then, *pop*, they crack through it to the solution.
Have you worked through frustration to pop onto an epiphany?
PS. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that registration for the Starship is open again. This month there are only 10 8 spots and registration closes to new Cadets this Friday. If you want a friendly reminder, you can sign up for reminders here.
If you want to beam aboard in April (and join us as for the Business Systems class next week), come aboard.
*Edited, as I found an actual quote, thanks to BrainPickings.