On Feb 22, 2005, at 2:56 PM, Thomas McGrath III wrote:
Any helpful ideas on how to jump start a project?
<*)) >=<
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - a Cigar in one hand - a large steak in the other - your body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming - WOO HOO! What a Ride!"
Hi, Tom.....
I do a lot of motivational speaking, coaching and counseling with creative folks. A lot of the advice others have offered you here is first-rate. I would only add a few sort of specific ideas for getting unstuck or unblocked that various of my clients and I have found helpful over the years.
1. Nothing is more important than that you feel good. Nothing.
2. Get a clear picture of what we call the "end of the movie." What is your life like when this project is over? What has changed? What are you enjoying? How do you feel? There's an old saying that was turned into a book title: If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably wind up somewhere. Know where you are going. Any time your motivation lags, re-visit this visualization, embellish it if you like.
3. Play the Alphabet Animals Game. Go through the alphabet and for each letter think of an animal which starts with that letter. Then visualize the animal. Give it sound. Put it into a situation in which it would probably never find itself. Watch what it does. (This one's a really good tool for when you are facing writer's block, an affliction shared by programmers in my experience. I almost never do more than six or seven animals before my creative juices are flowing and three new ideas have appeared.)
4. The 20-I technique developed years ago by Brian Tracy is a good stand-by. Take a sheet of paper. At the top, write down the problem or question you're grappling with. Number the left side of the sheet from 1-20. Now, as fast as you can and without spending a single second evaluating their logic, practicality or even potential helpfulness, write down 20 ideas for ways to solve the problem or answer the question. Set the paper aside for a while (how long depends on you). When you go back to it, I guarantee one of two outcomes: either one or more of the ideas you listed will literally jump off the page and suggest itself as the solution or an entirely new approach will occur to you that will answer the problem.
I have a whole course of things like this but these are the ones I think are generally most helpful in situations such as yours.
HTH
dan
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