Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
I’ve always been fascinated at how medicine that is prescribed is often enough to last beyond when the systems appear gone.
It’s an effective practice, not just medically, but with other projects, too.
After you think you’ve truly surprised and delighted someone, how can you continue a bit more?
After a purchase is complete, how do you continue adding value?
Stay Positive & What Happens After It’s Visibly Gone?
Some stickers come off easily.
Others require nail polish remover (with acetone, btw).
One thing is the same about the stickers though: the stickiness was intentional.
How sticky your product or service is shouldn’t be an afterthought. It’s not a result you hope for. Nor is it something that’s left in the air or to fate.
Stickiness is intentional.
Stay Positive & How Are You Intending It To Stick?
There are powerful questions you can start with.
But none are as powerful as the follow up.
There’s a reason after you ask why, you should ask why again.
The follow up question is also an indicator of you giving a damn; you’re not just taking something at face value; you’re scrutinizing with curiosity.
Stay Positive & Questions Ought To Always Come In Twos
There’s opportunity to pause, reflect, and rebuild. It’s no different than before the shocker. You framed the situation a certain way before (that was you, not the situation) and you can do it again.
Stay Positive & Chin Up
I took a lot of pictures of different bars, restaurants, and breweries before I opened Garth’s Brew Bar.
I can definitely say that I did not revisit every single photo during the design phase of it.
Which begs the question: was taking the pictures even worth it?
Hopefully your reaction is “obviously.” The act of taking the picture was also the act of processing information, retaining it, letting the imagination play with it.
Same goes for notes we take but never re-read; the simple act of saying “thank you”; and the email we draft but never send.
Stay Positive & Don’t Discount The Value Of The Input
If you know me, you know I love to throw things away. I don’t hang onto much for long, especially if it doesn’t get used within a year.
But scraps… scraps are different.
Scraps are important to hold onto for a few reasons.
The first is that they provide a creative outlet for your brain as you continue on creating something to spec. There’s no constraints to what you can create with the scraps. They are outside the project you’re working on now. It’s all up to your imagination.
The second is that you don’t always need to borrow something from the scrap pile to keep your main project on track, but it will happen at some point. Perhaps it’s just used as a supporting tool and then tossed. Perhaps it’s actually integrated in permanently because the spec was off to begin with. It pays to have scraps around to use when you need to (because you will need to).
The third is fluffy but it’s still real: at the end of the project you get to toss the scraps. It’s like putting a bow on a present. The present is complete but putting a bow on it makes it feel finished.
Stay Positive & Find A Spot To Put The Scraps (You’ll Thank Yourself Later)
