How is it that no matter how much a project is kicking your ass, somehow, right before the meeting you manage to come up with something presentable?

William Espey (Marketing ir-Reverend of Chipotle) calls this the deadline effect.

Picture a large, clear tube with water rushing through it. That’s pure creativity.

Now picture all sorts of sticks and brush shoved into that tube. That’s what Ego does to creativity.

At a given moment, our ego is filling our head with all sorts of statements like “I have to do this… That won’t work… This isn’t right… That’s been done… I hate the way that looks…” These thoughts that are so everpresent that we hardly even realize they’re there, but they’re like bracken in a stream that keeps water from flowing freely.

When we’re working on a project our Ego is usually front and center, producing lots of thoughts and gumming up the works. The panic we experience right before the deadline forces our Ego to get out of the way. In those last few hours we aren’t really conscious because we’re so focused on cranking out work. That combination of incredible focus and the absence of Ego allows us to channel creativity and that’s the reason we miraculously get something we like in a very short period.

In William’s words, “When you have time, you’re thinking about what do to. ‘You’ are in the way. When the pressure’s on, there’s no space for ‘You’ anymore.”

Now that you’ve read this, try not to think about it too much. Thinking is just more Ego, more analyzing. Let these words be like water in your mind. Let them follow gravity and do their work. One day you’ll realize they carved a river through years of rock. Rivers are wonderful.

Fernando

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