What is it about release dates that make them so hard to meet? For Notion Ink a “short time” before they release can be anything between a few weeks to a year! For PotterMore the October 2011 release date has an advertised slip of a “few weeks” and we are approaching mid 2012 and there is still no firm opening date. Even the big guys like Amazon have still not delivered on a pre-order of the fourth season of “Fringe” that was ordered over a year ago. Yes, The Network Post was expected to be on-line by the middle to end of 2011, and is only just now getting itself “out the door”. “WTF”! Why can’t anyone meet their deadlines?
Well, for The Network Post the lame response is that “real Life”, “making a living”, and “physical problems” got in the way of producing a deliverable product. But the truth is probably more about “Priorities”. As I read what I’ve just written, it strikes me that the “lame excuse” and the “truth” are just different ways of saying the same thing. “Making a living” is just the high priority item in “real Life” and “physical problems” seem to get in the way of everything!
I’m pretty sure I don’t have the solution to this problem or I would be producing much more spectacular output with my life, and that probably is the answer. Doing outstanding or spectacular things with our time is just not something many of us can do. Those who seem to accomplish those sorts of things are most likely doing it at the expense of something else, or are lucky enough to have those other high priority items taken care of for them, by someone else, or by lucky circumstance (like being rich to start with). But even having those things taken care of doesn’t necessarily result in spectacular output. There are many rich people who do nothing more spectacular then dress nice and attend fancy gatherings that they arrive at in a chauffeured limousine. So, what makes the difference?
One thing that is absolutely necessary is focus. Staying on task until the job is done is the only way to accomplish anything. Most, of the things we do in our lives are done through habitual patterns. Waking, preparing for the day, getting to work, and all the rest are accomplished by habits. Doing something different, even if it isn’t spectacular, requires an extra degree of concentration. Sometimes saying focused on a unique task only requires that we find a quiet place, free of distractions. There, with the necessary tools, we can do what is necessary to the accomplish the task.
Simply being focused is certainly not enough. Any successful project must also have a workable plan, or design. However, sometimes a workable plan requires just the opposite of a well focused mind. To see all the aspects of an undefined project requires a broad view of the subject matter. A well focused perspective can miss the crucial issues that define success in a project. Daydreaming is often the most useful tool in discovering a plan, but that isn’t going to accomplish anything. Without some kind of goal, no amount of daydreaming will create a spectacular project.
Epiphany, as often as not, creates the inception of a spectacular idea. Yet another, less startling process, is experience. Having actually gone through a process that is unsatisfying or unproductive often provides the insight to a “better way” of doing it. Sometimes, without the actual experience, you can’t even tell that there is a problem, much less what the solution might be.
After a review of the requirements needed for the creation and implementation of a spectacular project, it is much clearer why they don’t just happen every day. The disparate and disjoint nature of these things: Epiphany, Day Dreams, Experience, Focus, and Luck; make this a difficult accomplishment. This is not even a good “formula” for such results, since the steps are not necessarily sequential or even constructible. Neither Luck nor Epiphany can be forced, and we have all had Day Dreams that were of no consequence. Focus, by itself, is simply not useful or sufficient. Does this mean that we should just give up, and go back to our habitual lives? Not necessarily, but it does mean that we should not be expecting our every day experiences to be spectacular. Moreover, if they were we would probably get just as bored with them as we are with our present lives.
What we can, and should be ready to do, is to pounce on that great idea when it comes along, and apply every bit of focus and creativity we can to make it have a spectacular outcome. Even then, we should be prepared for mundane results, as that is the norm and spectacular is the unusual.