Coulds, Shoulds, and Master Plans

I recently wrote about making the leap and Master Plans. About that plan. Some of you have one, and if you do, that’s great. But if you don’t, it’s easy to get sucked into the notion that you should. It somehow signifies that you’ve got your proverbial crap together, whether it’s your creative work, a small business, a career path, or just life in general.

And if you don’t have a grand plan, the assumption can be that the opposite is true – you don’t have it together, you’re not focused, or you’re just plain – gasp – lazy.

I want to give you a different perspective. I want you to think of your <creative work, small business, career path, life> like a game.

When I was a little kid, my sister, grandmother, and I would play a game called I Spy. It went something like this. Whoever was christened the spy would choose a nearby object and describe it by one of its attributes:

I spy something blue.

The participants would then wander around and try to guess what it was. As they got closer in space to the object, the spy would tell them they got warmer. If they went in the wrong direction, the spy would tell them they got colder. For the spy, the game then became one of superlatives:

Colder…

Freezing cold…

Igloo at the North Pole in a snowstorm…

At some point the seekers would get pointed in the right direction and the thing they’d been searching for would become so obvious we’d all end up in a puddle of giggles.

Back to that Master Plan.

Let’s say you don’t have one. Let’s say you’re a reasonably creative, focused, hard working individual who just doesn’t know exactly what you want. Maybe you’re multi-passionate. Maybe you have lots of things that you like, and choosing one feels like burning bridges to all the others. It’s easy to interject with words like should:

I should have it all figured out.

I should be more focused.

I should know what I’m doing with my life by now.

But should only matters if you have a Master Plan.

If you have a plan and it’s important to you, then, yes, there are lots of things you should do.

But if you don’t? There are no shoulds. There’s only warmer or colder.

For example, in my creative business?

Wholesale? Colder.

Outdoor shows involving a tent? Freezing cold.

Making the same item a hundred times? Igloo at the North Pole in a snowstorm.

On the warm side of my creative work are things like commissions, designing and creating big pieces, writing and teaching and mentoring others. Toasty warm. Wool sweater warm. Flannel blanket in front of a wood stove warm.