The Tootsie Pop Parable: What a Candy Ad Can Teach You About the Creative Process

Remember this ad? It’s the one about the boy who wants to know how many licks it takes to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?

I think it contains a parable, one that gets to the center of the creative process.

Watch. It only takes a minute.

We’re All Searching for Our Center

When we’re creating something, we’re a lot like the boy in the ad. We want to know how long it will take, how many days, how many steps, how many twists and turns and changes in direction.

We want to get to the center. We want to skip the licks and bite our way through.

And, like the boy, we want someone to give us an answer. “How long did it take you,” we ask people who’ve found their center, “How many years? How many tries? How many failures and new beginnings?”

We Have to Take Our Own Licks

Their answers can be revealing and illuminating, but they’re never quite what we seek. You and I have to take our own unique journeys to the center of whatever it is we hope to do.

In their case, they may have taken three licks, or three hundred, or three thousand before they reached their center. Or they may have simply bit in.

In our case, the answers will lie in the doing, the licking if you will.

Somedays, it will make sense to take our time and savor each lick, each small step of what we’re up to.

Other days, it will make sense to skip the savoring, bite down, get to the middle, and get things done.

Every day, it will makes sense to pay attention to what we’re doing, where we’re headed, and why.

The Chewy Center of a Blog

That’s how it’s been with this blog. I’ve written over 200 posts, each one a lick toward reaching the center of what it’s all about, what you’re all about, and what I’m all about.

From the start, I wanted to clamp my teeth down and crack it open. I wanted to skip the outer shell and get to the middle. And I wanted someone else to tell me how.

But I couldn’t, and they couldn’t, and I’m glad because I’ve learned so much along the way.

Crunching a Problem

Here’s an example, my most recent Big-Duh Moment.

I’d been wondering what to do with my poems, art journal pages, and other odd things that don’t quite fit the purpose of my blog posts. Lick.

I thought about (and wrote about) moving those things to another blog, but that never felt completely right. Lick.

I wanted answers, and people gave suggestions, but ultimately I had to find my own solutions. Lick, lick.

I puttered about and it finally hit me. There are things called pages. If something doesn’t meet the criteria to become a blog post, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t make a great page. Duh. Big DUH. Crrrrunch.

Look here for the addition of some new pages in the weeks ahead.

Take Your Licks, Find Your Center

So, how many licks will it take you to reach the center of your idea, your project, your dream? Hmm.

The Tootsie Pop ad ends with the line, “The world may never know.” Keep looking elsewhere and you too may never know, but keep licking, working, and trying, and you’ll eventually find your center.

And I can tell you this. It’s a pretty sweet thing to find.

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