Disclaimer: Melissa is getting really good at editing, however you should not be fooled into thinking that she has past the intermediate level of the editing experience just yet. Please make allowances. Shout out to Adrienne Brawley for shooting this interview, and to Lucy, my canine twin.
Liz Danzico. A month before we interviewed we sat drinking Clover coffee on a bench outside. The bench had been offered to us by a familiar looking famous guy who wasn’t quite famous enough for either or us to actually name – but we knew, and we were grateful that we had been afforded the moment to thank the mysteriously nameless celebrity.
That knowing, that moment, that epiphonous magical flash when an idea becomes obvious, even if you can’t articulate it quite yet… what is that? What does that feel like?
For Liz Danzico, it feels just a tiny smidge uncomfortable. What? No still small voice? No tingles of sensational electricity? No instantanious calm?
"When I put myself in a situation where I’m actually uncomfortable, it forces me to look at myself a certain way, it reveals things and teaches me where the next path is. That kind of shows me a puzzle piece, and shows me how the pieces fit together for the next thing."
"When I’m looking for or presented with a new opportunity, and that opportunity seems like it’s going to be uncomfortable… I know that it’s going to be the right thing for me because that sense of feeling uncomfortable in any kind of way, it always reveals something new about myself and teaches me something new about myself that I know will lead to a really rewarding experience."
It’s not a huge leap, it’s not a frightening all or nothing moment. It’s a tiny risk, a pin prick, a new item ordered from the menu. It’s teaching a language you know in a country you don’t, or picking up a camera and interviewing strangers, or asking an actor if the seat next to him is taken. It’s this tiny moment of preference for growth and newness that perhaps we have been socialized to ignore.
"What’s authentic is what’s inside of you, and what’s creative is what you can achieve based on your insticts… and if you can follow your instincts you can follow a creative path…You need to establish a pattern of how to strip away the excessive things, because so many things get in the way."
So then the question is: How do we strip away the excess, and how do we know what our authentic intuition is?
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This post is tagged "bobulate", "happy cog", "is the planned life worth living", "link between creativity and authenticity", "liz danzico", "MFA in Interaction Design program at the School of Vis, "uncomfortable growth", authenticity, creativity, entrepreneurialism, instinct, intuition, life in perpetual beta, melissa pierce
4 Comments
What I hear Melissa and Liz exploring here is that the “leap” or the extreme risks folks often feel they are supposed to take, ones that often turn our journey into a Sisyphus-style cycle, are contraindicated. It seems more a shift to raising self-awareness so when there’s a little pebble in your shoe, you are keen enough to use it as a turn-signal.
I love this because so many of the guideposts we’ve been trained to are fear-based: go BIG, take the RISK, change EVERYTHING, in 7 easy steps. Liz’s perspective of “uh-oh, this is a little scary; I’ll try it!” is a wonderful invitation to being sensitive enough to our own signals and celebrating them as opportunities to GrOw into our (new) ways of being.
So, to the question of knowing our true self and letting that guide us. Here are my top three directionals, developed over almost 10 years of building my practice.
I know a new direction/client/project are taking me into who I want to be if:
my very first reaction is–Yahooo!!! That is SO fabulous!;
my second reaction is–Oh, sh*t, I have no idea how to do this and surely I can find someone who is better prepared/skilled or already doing this. . .; and
my third reaction is a flood of potential solutions rush into my brain.
THEN, (btw these three happen within about 5 seconds), I have a small script posted above my desk that says: “I would love to be part of this project, how may I best be of service to it?” This allows positive space to explore, positions me aligned with my values (of client-is-leader) and ensures a framework of collaboration.
Dyana
I resonate with her sentiment that feeling uncomfortable pushes you to grow. Each challenge is a push for new growth, encouraging us to be more aware and compassionate people. Interesting interview!
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