How much do you enjoy your creativity? How aware are you of the different phases of creative pleasure? And how many of them are you truly appreciating?

Any creative project we undertake can be broken down into three distinct stages of pleasure or enjoyment.

First theres the anticipation and planning stage. For many of us this is the most exciting and rewarding. Its the period where we have the seed of a new idea and begin to let it form patterns and shapes in our mind, giving it the freedom to become whatever it has the potential to become.

This stage is the author having an initial idea for a story and the personalities of a couple of characters, then beginning to work out how theyll develop, relate and interact.

Its where the musician has a few fragments of melody in their head they just cant ignore and start to work out how to string them together, and add further elements of sound to transform these fractured pieces into a fuller whole composition.

This is the period where the research scientist suddenly sees a new possibility, a subtle breakthrough not found before, and thinks of all the possible next steps he and his team can take to move it forward.

The enjoyment here comes from the promise and the possibility of whats initially been discovered, and knowing that a great surge of creativity and development is imminent.

Stage two is the full flow of creativity, the periods of intense creating where the outside world becomes a blur, time appears to stretch and contract uncontrollably, and the creator feels invincible and unstoppable.

The musicians song is soaring and somersaulting, taking on its own life and evolving almost more quickly than it can be recorded.

The authors characters are deeply entwined in the racing plotlines and each other, the tensions building, the drama riveting, and no-one, including the author themselves, is quite sure where all this is going to end.

The research scientist has his first quantifiable results and each day a new series of more finely honed experiments begins, each time inching closer to the solution hes dreamed of for months.

In this second stage, the enjoyment comes from the unstoppable joy of creating, being on a runaway train and not knowing where youre going to be taken, but loving every thrilling second of the journey.

The third stage is after the electric storm of creativity has died down and the creator basks in the afterglow of their achievements.

The musician plays his finished composition to his peers and his audience for the first time and sees the same delight and emotion in their faces that he felt when producing the music.

The author receives word that his new novel is a bestseller and has been read in dozens of countries the world over. Each day he receives mail from readers thanking him for his latest work and praising his ability to connect with them as if he knows them personally.

The research scientist sees the results of his experiments released as a commercial product and hears of countless tales of peoples quality of life being drastically improved, and prolonged even in many cases, as a result of his work.

In all these examples the pleasure of the third stage comes from the creator knowing that their creative work has had a significant impact on the world, and that its connected with people and enriched their lives in some way. Once they achieve this, whether to an audience of one or an audience of millions, nothing can ever take it away.

The secret in all three stages of course is to ENJOY the process and the experience and be as fully absorbed in it as possible. In all three stages there is so much potential for pleasure in the life of someone creative.

How much do you enjoy each of the three stages in your creativity? Which part do you get most from? The anticipation and planning, the full flow of creating, or seeing the fruits of your creative labour afterwards?

Whichever stage youre at in a creative project right now, how can you appreciate it as much as possible, the experience of being in that stage as well as the creative project itself?

As creative people we are fortunate, not only that we have such abilities to create, but also that we are able to enjoy them three times over! Make sure youre as open as possible to each of these, and bring three times the pleasure into your creative life!

Copyright 2006 Dan Goodwin.