It starts from a deep source of frustration. That will to create, to build the next new thing. It begins with frustration.

We aren’t happy or satisfied with what we have. Maybe it isn’t pretty or maybe it is harmful to us. What frustrates us can instead inspire us.

About 10 months ago I changed my website’s design. I wanted to update it and make it more dynamic. I wanted something visual and parallax was hot. So I bought a new theme. I didn’t change it much.

This certainly wasn’t my first major overhaul. That came a year before when I started using the Genesis Framework and had my first premium theme in hand. It looked like this:

And before that, I used a few free themes, including Custom. And before that, I had switched from the free WordPress.com site to a self-hosted one, leaving behind a bevy of free themes and site changes that have been part of my decade of blogging.

Every time I’ve changed my site, it is because of something I couldn’t do, something I longed to do that my previous site couldn’t offer me.

I’ve played in the CSS, changed fonts and learned just enough HTML to forget how to do what I did yesterday.

This is precisely how I feel about my site again. Perhaps its time, this annual rethinking I do in late spring and early summer, this lethargy with what just comes out of the box and a refusal to spend $500-2,000 to have someone else build me what I want.

Here’s the thing, though.

I thought I would have a new look to display long before now.

The new look is on hold.

I do not have a site redesign set to go because it’s not ready. And it’s not ready because I can’t find what I want and I don’t yet have the skill to build what I want.

But I’m getting closer.

A couple months ago, I announced the redesign and how I was moving closer, and every time I feel myself getting close, I have a new challenge, a new frustration, or perhaps it is a new realization that it will be harder than I think.

Life is hard. Stagnating is harder.

I’ve been practicing on sample sites, trying to make them look the way I’d want. I’ve brought my testing site down several times, only to bring them back up after changing the code I didn’t fully understand.

I’m exploring as I’m creating. And I am having so much fun!

Soon enough I’ll have to decide and as Seth Godin likes to say, “just ship it”. But I’m not avoiding the creating process, I’m living in it. I’m energized by it. I’m finding great joy in figuring this out the hard way.

My frustration led me to look for a new theme. My frustration with my options led me to explore making the theme I want. My frustration with my skill and knowledge has me learning to actually build the site I want.

Frustration is the fuel for the engine of creativity, but the output, the effect of the engine is excitement and joy.

For me, this creative energy is coming from learning to code while also learning elements of design, branding, and copywriting. And while I had hoped to have this all done before summer, I’m becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea that this may be a summer-long project.

 

Questions to Consider:

1. What are your frustrations?
2. How might they be calling you to create and experience a new joy?