When you do something daily, it’s an intentional practice.
Each day, you decide to show up, put in your time, and do the thing you came to do. You write the words, you walk the steps, you play the chords.
But the results are often accidental.
A stray idea pops into your head or you notice something you hadn’t before. You make an errant brush stroke or write the wrong word and realize its better than what you first hoped for.
It doesn’t matter what your intention is; it only matters that you have one and follow through on it, even if it leads you down a path you hadn’t planned to take. Once you’re there, you can state a new intention: continue on the path, head back to the beginning, look for yet another offshoot to take.
The process is a hybrid of intentions and accidents. You can’t have one without the other. If you never set an intention and follow through on it, you’ll never have a happy accident, and if you can’t allow such an accident to occur, you’ll never have a new intention.
This is a dance. It’s one part choreographed, one part improvised, and three parts damned exhilarating.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This is so true. Misheard conversations, misremembered book titles or anecdotes have been the starting point for many a productive day for me. Or scenes that start one way and accidentally try something else, wresting the reins from my hands. Let’s dance!
I’m putting on my red shoes.
I see your dancing developed quite beautifully too
Keep coming up with creative moves Ken, love it~
.-= Sandy´s last blog ..Bubble up Now =-.
Lovely, the dance of creativity. And I love how you’ve summed up so beautifully your wonderful idea about spontaneous intention and the creative process in only the number of words required. Well done.
.-= katie´s last blog ..Taking Stock and Letting Go: Week 4 of the 7-Week Life Cleanse =-.
Hi Ken,
Found you blog via an oblique path this evening. Enjoying and resonating with your process. Keep writing.