Artefact Cards and liminal states: creative thinking breakthrough tools
6 responses to “Artefact Cards and liminal states: creative thinking breakthrough tools”
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I’m familiar with this “uncomfortable” state in another context: judo. I’ve been doing judo for nearly 20 years, and a long time ago I understood that the phases I went through where I felt I was making no progress, where I was even regressing, well, those phases were always followed by a burst of progress. At some point, something would click. I’ve come to view them as “something cooking”, an unpleasant phase where things are getting ready in the background. It helps me stick through them and even embrace them.
In my work life, I have that too: when I’m preparing a talk or a lecture, I go through a phase of not really knowing how to tackle it, not having a clear view of what I want to say, etc. Then it clicks into place and I can move forward in my prep. As you say, it’s easy to get discouraged in those phases, and reading you has made me realise it’s really at those times that I procrastinate the most. Labelling them and being aware of this feels like it will help me tackle them more “aggressively”. Thanks!
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Yes – I can see how that would apply to longer processes too. I’ve seen it with running – but that’s for another blog post I have cooking…
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Actually, I somehow love this state. I get used to it since childhood, I think, I was a kind of a day dreamer, and then, suddenly the text I had to write or the decision I had to make became quite clear. The most difficult part, sometimes, was recursive justification !
Nevertheless, you don’t always have enough time to “wait for”. These kind of tools are really useful to accelerate the process, or to share it with others.
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Lovely – couldn’t agree more!
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[…] The liminal state is what you find yourself in just before you have a breakthrough, or just before you fully understand something, make it yours | Anthony Mayfield […]
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Great post. I have been starting to do more drawing again and each time find it almost unbearable as I sit in front of something trying to draw that first line. It is feels like “trying” to meditate – forcing my monkey brain to sit still never works. The more I try the more pressure I feel, the more unbearable it gets. I almost feel like running away. Bonkers how much courage it takes to sustain the liminal state!
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