Deadlines… Make Nice With Them, And Make Them Yours.

Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock… The time for you to deliver your work is looming, and there you sit … staring at a blank computer screen. Or, if you are brutally honest, avoiding even sitting down at the computer altogether. Procrastinating. Being busy with business, all to avoid the inevitable.

Why? The ideas you’re grabbing at seem elusive, fuzzy. You may be unsure how to make them come alive. Maybe you are afraid you can’t do it. It is too big, too obscure, too hard. Or worse yet, you have nothing. Zero. Zip. And yet, the deadline looms. (Now, I know people have said to reframe a deadline as a lifeline, but let’s call it what it really is, OK?)

You are creative. Own it – it is part of why you are a coach, an entrepreneur, writer, artist, cook, whatever. Accept it. Trust it. The ideas will come.

Sometimes there can be power in deadlines. They give us something to shoot for, to push against. There comes a time in the life of every creative project when giving up is no longer an option. Now, we may revise our deliverable, but we know we will deliver, no matter what. The adrenaline rushes in, we become unstoppable. Ideas start to come, sometimes born of brilliance, others of necessity, and maybe even a few of desperation. Nonetheless, the ideas come.

This is what I like to call “creativity on demand.” You get to that point and – boom! There it is. The ideas you were chasing, become clear. You don’t have time to play head games with yourself. It begins to come together. You have focus, you become unstoppable.

Who knows exactly how this happens? I can only tell you that it does. Take me for example. Years ago, when I was a costume designer for various musicals, ballets, and plays, I knew opening night would happen at a certain time, no matter what. In my mind I framed it as “Friday night at 8 PM the curtain goes up, no matter what.” I also knew they were not going to hold that curtain for me, just because I was stuck, waiting for that perfect idea. And, unless I wanted that actors to be running around in their underwear, I knew I’d better get going.

So what if you don’t have a “curtain going up” deadline? No matter – you can create one. It has been said that some creatives (and maybe you and me) make up self imposed deadlines, in order to have something to aim for. If you’re swirling around, stuck, why not try it?

As Nolan Bushnell says, “The ultimate inspiration is a deadline.”