When everything is up in the air 

"Artistically, 'the liminal phase' my favourite place because it’s the most creative.

But its also the most scary because it’s a time of mystery and about touching the edges of the unknown.

We have left the tried and true and we are in the wasteland, crossing the desert, stumbling blind through the dark forest, free-falling in the void, the empty space, entering the dragon’s cave.

It is part of the creative process that is the necessary mess. When everything is up in the air.

It is also the second you say yes to a client, you make a promise, without knowing the result.

It is the instant you open your mouth to tell a story to an audience that has only lived in your head, and that you have only known on paper

It is the moment you finish a run of performances and ask yourself ‘what next?’

Personally,

It is mid-week Wednesday: ‘Anything Can Happen Day’.

Waiting is a creative act
In the bit between ‘here’ and ‘there’, everything is different.

I am out of my comfort zone.

And this is where the magic happens.

What can I trust?

What do I Hold on to?

I hold onto my sense of curiosity – What if I let go and start again?

I hold onto the big picture, return to the twinkling glimmer of the dream that started everything.

I use my imagination to play out scenarios and scenes, to rehearse dialogue between different perspectives, to allow the idea to take different shapes, directions and imagery.

I keep a Sense of open awareness. It may look like nothing is happening. But you are wrong.

There is always something happening.

So, I take more notice of ‘secondary’ signals, the ones on the edges trying to enter the field of consciousness. Carl Jung called it synchronicity. The meaningful coincidences that serve as arrows, pointing the way to the next step.

Sometimes, I sit still and I wait.

Waiting is a creative act.

I fill my cauldron with inspiration from unrelated sources, because creativity is about casting your fishing line outside the box.

And I trust the right thing will emerge.

The liminal can last a long time; weeks, months. I have spent years working on a sequence of words. I have spent days in a workshop rehearsing the same scene until...

I know again.

I am certain this is it...I feel it. With everything in my body, bones, blood.

And

The doubt has gone, there is flow.

There is no question.

For managers or employees in organizations during this time I wish: 

(All of the above....)

Sometimes we get stuck in not knowing.

Keep the dream.

Experiment – play it out.

Allow inspiration from different sources,

Get curious about the small, secondary signals, the outliers.

Don’t be afraid to let go of what is not working

Give yourself a deadline – external ones work best. Mark it well, as an Ending.

Use the in-between to rest – you don’t have to fill every empty space.

Work on when you ‘know’ and ‘don’t know’ within your intuition.

Sharpen that sense."