Last year I ran a successful year-long program called Powered by Hope. The intent of the program is to help you follow your creative dreams by powering your spirit with hope! I am glad the program was so well received. This year, in addition to new posts, I will also be sharing a few of the best posts from the program. From now until the end of 2015, you will receive a minimum of two posts a month focused on hope. I hope you will enjoy them and that they will inspire you to follow your dreams!

USE A TIMEBOX

There are projects that die. No matter how talented the creator, how great the project, how awesome the reviews are, there are projects that do not make it. Books with great reviews sell only a few copies, paintings end up in Dumpsters, innovative products never make it to market. Why? I don’t know. Maybe the timing wasn’t right, maybe the stars did not align, maybe the artist wore the wrong shirt. What is my point? Shit happens.

I have had manuscripts shrivel up and die, and books that I thought would be awesome just barely create a flutter in the market. It is hard. As creative people, we put our heart and souls into our work, and when it doesn’t succeed, all we want to do is quit.

I have created a coping technique to deal with the sadness that accompanies such a situation. I call it Timeboxed Whining.

Timeboxing is a technique I learned about during my consulting days. Basically, it is a way to put a time limit around a situation. For instance, no matter what happens, the six o’clock news needs to go on at six. So the preparation work for that news needs a time box, which is to say it needs to be completed within a certain timeframe no matter what else happens because there is a hard deadline at the end.

Now, combine that with whining and you have a workable solution to mourning a failed project. This is a five-day exercise. Here is how it works.

Days 1, 2, and 3: Set aside a time when you are going to whine. (Stay with me here.) I pick a time in the afternoon when I am prone to feeling sorry for myself and wondering how I will ever pull out of this failure. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Pull out a sheet of paper—no, you cannot do this on the computer. Now start writing all the reasons why you are upset and why the project failed and why you will never succeed again and why the whole world sucks. (Artists swear by it. I do, too. It really works.) Instead of calling a friend and complaining about the economy/weather/ whatever is bothering you and having them annoy you more (!), write it down. As Julia Cameron says, “Put the drama on the paper” where it belongs, and leave it there. Once your 15 minutes are up, place the paper in a envelope. You are not allowed to worry, whine, complain, or think about the project for any other time. Your timebox is done.

Day 4: So now that we have finished the whining, let us move to the next step. Start the timer but this time focus on all the lessons you have learned from this project. What did it teach you about your craft? About the market? About the audience for your product? Finish up and place this paper on your desk.

Day 5: Start the timer. Now write out, what you would do again. What are the top three things about the project that totally rocked? What part did you love the most? At the end of the time, place this sheet on your table and read it again and again. Take the envelope filled with the whining of the past four days and in a ritual that suits your temperament—burn it, rip and flush it down the toilet, place it in the recycling bin—do what you need to do to get rid of it.

It is gone. The sadness is out of your system. You have moved on. The paper in front of you is what it is about: what you have learned (day 4) and how you will apply that to the next project (day 5)

! Now that you have uncluttered your mind of fears and worries, it is time to start working.

How do you deal with the sadness of a failed project?

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