I truly believe that ignorance is bliss. I believe there are times starting things without a clue as to the work involved is a good thing.
Being full of uneducated optimism, we start down a path. We don’t ask people who know, who have followed this path before, because they might say, “Wow, you have no idea what you taking on.” And they might tell us, and burst our bubble. Or if they do tell us, we don’t listen, being so full of our wonderful idea.
Bringing an idea into the world, whether it be a novel or a business or a painting, is hard enough work without knowing the full extent of the effort. Having the courage to take things on and start, one little bit at a time, can sometimes seem momentous on its own. Once you are caught up in the wave of creative expression, you find you believe in your idea and want to make it work, at any cost. You are willing to surmount any obstacle to get it done and out in the world.
I’ve learned a small piece of this truth lately, with my Find Your Eye class. I’m celebrating a little bit this week because I finished the final edits on the course two days ago. Yes, the class has already started, we are in week three. No, my schedule did not go as planned. “Finishing” ended up being much more work than I expected. Than my family expected. Most of my free time in the last month was spent in editing, rewriting and finalizing the material. Considering I work full time, have a family and we travel quite a bit, that was limited time.
Would I do it again? Absolutely, in a heartbeat. I am so proud of how the material has come together into a cohesive whole. I am loving the class, seeing these ideas and tools in the hands of new people who are finding value in them. I know that this was the right thing for me to do.
Would I have started, had I known the real work involved? It’s hard to know, but I suspect not. If I had known I would give up so much of my precious free time in Italy for this at the outset, I might have thought, “Oh, I’ll just start that when I move back to Oregon.” The problem is, I needed to do it now, while the ideas where real and fresh to me. So, like any starry-eyed person with an idea, I started without knowing the effort involved.
I believe that this is one of life’s little tricks, to allow us begin on a path without knowing the full extent of work we will have to do. It may be the only way to get us invested at the outset, so that we bring new, good, amazing ideas into the world to share. If we truly knew the cost, we might stay on the couch and read a book. Instead, we create.
Ignorance is bliss. I’m a firm believer. How about you?
Is this Too Many Ideas Anonymous? Hello, My name is Tammy. I am starry-eyed too. 😉
Love ya! Tam of http://www.blissandfolly.com
well I am so glad you didn't think about whether to start the course or not as you are doing a fantastic job and it's a fantastic course! I am loving it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it??
I tend to choose the optimistic, ignorant blisser side myself–hehe! Go for it! How else does one discover boundaries or learn how to break past them?
I am grateful for your starry-eyedness. (Possible word creation or misuse alert!) This is the BEST, most informative, thought-provoking class in photography that I've had the good luck to find. It's obvious that you've spent enormous amounts of time and energy in creating this wonderful course. I want to recommend it to everyone I know! Thanks for your decision and the time you've put in to making this such a meaningful experience for us. Your work is phenomenal!
Ditto to the above comments! I am very impressed with all the work you've done in creating this wonderful course…I've already learned so much in just a few weeks. Brava!
I hope you're taking a breather now and resting a bit. 🙂
I'm a firm believer in not over-analyzing things before plunging in. And the result of this for me is that I plunge into a whole lot of things, some of which I never finish. Or at least, that I haven't finished yet!
I think it's a good thing you went ahead and I'm sure all those on your course would agree. And now we know another thing about you – you're not a quitter!
I like the phrase "uneducated optimism".
I'm a HUGE believer of ignorance (to the disquiet of my mom who is absolutely not.) I love jumping in with just a few of the facts and then figuring things out along the way. I love the adrenaline that comes with that path, the lessons I learn by making mistakes and the sheer satisfaction of overcoming everything that comes along. Most of all, I know I would never take somethings on if I stopped to think about it – and some of the best things that have ever happened to me are because I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
I think Jamie summed it up best for me, that's exactly how I seem to live my life and it's proved to be mostly a good way to do things and when things don't work out you tend to turn over the new leaf reasonably quickly and just move onto the next brilliant idea that comes along 🙂
Glad your course went well, you deserve it, I know you must have put in so much hard effort and love into it it couldn't have been any other way 🙂
Sometimes I truly believe it is Kat.
I am glad that everything came together for you, and hoping that you will continue to offer this course in the future, since I could not do it this time around.
ahh, somedays you just have to embrace the ideas, the creativity and opportunity when it comes your way. I'm certain you've done a wonderful job.
Yep. ignorance is bliss. I'm with you on that one.