In a recent conversation with a creative friend building a community website, we talked about the pros and cons of a planned timeline as opposed to a ‘learning as we go’ approach to the creative. We recognized there are pros and cons…

Perhaps somewhat like a marathon that is done alone instead of as a team. The difference is significant. For those of us who have the time and perhaps not the money to invest in the project planning and gannt chart version, there is a different standard of qualifying value. 

In articulating the question above, my colleague was asking for a critical consideration. How much time do we want to invest in the learning – which is a rich outcome of the process? What is at stake if we do or do not map a detailed plan? Certainly it is clear that it will depend on what outcomes we desire. Planned outcomes can result from process, they just originate in different values and preferences, other things being equal. 

Our choice in any given opportunity to create is to decide if we have time to listen and learn from life, a strategy which involves reflection. It occurs to me it is about intentionality. How much space in our pace can we dedicate to our values and the things that nurture our spirits?

Who calls us to pay attention to making this choice? The ‘tyranny of urgency’ has been a familiar phrase in our society for a long time. As life and the world speed ever faster, the attention to intention is sacrificed again and again for the pragmatism of daily rhythms and negotiated time and space. Even our purpose sometimes becomes dispensable.

How we live is determined moment by moment by the choices we make, how they play out and impact the present. Where we want to spend our time becomes the gold of our lives … precious and scarce and in need of protection from anything that threatens to rob us of this core piece of our opportunity to live our lives by our own agency. 

M.D