Sometimes it’s hard to admit we can’t do it all ourselves and sometimes we don’t even realize we’re trying to. This week we’re picking up where we left off with our last blog post with a closer look at your responses to our creative process survey. This time, I was actually surprised by your answers.
The very last question on the survey asked you what you needed that you didn’t have in your creative endeavors. I’ll jump to my final conclusion, you guys are do-it-all-yourselfers when you don’t have to be and you’re way too hard on yourself. Almost 40% of you said that you needed to do more of something or less of something. Not that you necessarily needed more time or space, but that you were not taking action in a way that you needed to. You were blaming yourself.
Let’s be clear, yes, you are responsible for your own practice and process. But, you don’t have to be responsible for 100% of your needs. You don’t have to do it all and do it all on your own. What if you had a partner in all of this that split the work 50/50 with you?
Now back to the survey. All of your responses to the last question fell into one of two categories: Tangibles and My Faults. The tangibles category includes things you need like prompts, community, support, dancers, supplies, networks, money, space, etc. All of the My Faults included things like, “I need to get myself to the studio,” “I need to prioritize making,” I need more time and energy.” These are all things that you said you needed to do for yourself or things that simply can’t be done for you. Here’s a break down of what that looks like.
Now, of the 11 Tangibles that you said you needed…
- Prompts
- Community
- Conversation
- Support group
- Space
- Dancers
- Structure/Accountability
- Supplies
- Network
- Frequent posts/reminders
- Money
The Iteration Project can and does (although there is always room for improvement) provide 7 of those.
Between Tangibles and My Faults TIP covers 40% of your needs. That leaves 60% up to you. We haven’t quite met you halfway yet, we’re not at 50/50, but we’re getting so close. If you can handle being at 60/40, we’ll keep working our butts off to make it 50/50. But, the catch? You have to do your half. We can’t do it alone and neither can you (can we say co-dependent?).
So here are some actionable take aways for this week:
- If you want more community, then participate. The thing with community is that it’s not an entity that simply exists for you to join. You have to make it. We’ll continue to work on making the platform to engage with others better and reaching out to to find more community members. 50% is us making the thing possible and making it better, 50% is you participating.
- If you want more conversation, talk to us about hosting a local TIP JAM and comment on posts that you really enjoy or find inspiring. The more you talk, the more others will respond. Again, we will continue to work on building an online platform where you can really engage in conversation.
- If you want a support group, invite your friends and colleagues that you enjoy engaging with and we’ll keep trying to put you in touch with others around the country.
- If you want more structure and accountability, join this mailing list to get a mid-week prompt reminder. It’s just a start but we have more things coming your way.
Look at that! See how we’re splitting it 50/50 with you? You don’t have to do it all, but you do still have to do it. We know you can. We believe in you 100% and that’s why we’re willing to do the work on our end to make it possible for you to do even more and even better work on your end. Now quit being stubborn and take the help. Go get ’em, tiger.
The Iteration Project 