Keep on Keepin' on

Very sorry for the massive delay in posting. I have been swamped at work with a major project, and now that it is back from print and mailed out to a few thousand households in the High Desert, I can reflect a bit on the chaos. The project was a magazine that we were trying to get done for Thanksgiving (along with a few other things all due at the same time). Typically we try to get our magazines in homes on the first of the month, but with Thanksgiving being a family gathering oriented event, we thought it would be great to have the magazine in the hands of the congregation to show to their holiday guests. Getting it in homes a week and a half early meant my deadline was a week and a half sooner than I was used to.

It wasn't just the deadline that made the project chaotic. The magazine was focused around compassion and I was having a really hard time figuring out how to communicate it visually without using the standard ideas. And not just once. There were three articles about it. I hit a creative wall, and couldn't seem to get through it. I began to realize that often the walls we face aren't because we are pursuing the wrong idea, rather, it is because we haven't pursued the right idea long enough. I am very happy with the final design, and am shocked to see where it is today, considering where it was just a few weeks ago. All the building blocks are the same...I just spent a lot of time moving them around.

From what I have seen, communications is no different. If you say something only once, the message will probably not make an impact. Instead, you have to live your life in a way that shows that you care about what you are constantly talking about, or your message will lose its teeth. Keep pursuing the thing that are right. If things don't seem to be coming together, then maybe you just haven't pursued it long enough.