So, I’m almost done with a huge project and I send over some demo files to the printer.

Ugh! I get the dreaded call. There is something wrong with the main stock image that appears everywhere. It’s really cool but won’t compress properly. Many complicated layers.

I’m trying everything. The printer is trying everything. We need it to mask but it will not. I’m under the gun here, feeling the pressure, feeling the heat.

What do I do if I can’t get this image to work?

I’m just about to throw in the designer towel when I decide to turn in early one night. I wake up in the wee morning hours like I do frequently — in that dreamy half-awake, half-asleep state. My mind galloping around the corners of my life. I start to think about the image.

I toss. I turn. I perspire. I fall back to sleep. I wake up an hour later. I feel ill. I fall back to sleep. I wake up again.

REVERSE MASK pops into my head.

Why didn’t I think of that? Wait, I did think of it or rather my subconscious thought of it.

I get up the next morning hoping it will solve my problem and make the mask. It works perfectly.

Saved by an out-of-control mind! More evidence that we need to unleash our minds, bodies and souls more and not listen to folks who demand we be in charge of our lives 24/7. Doesn’t go well with the creative mind.

I wish our society would stop teaching kids and adults to be anything but themselves. It’s such a waste of human potential. It makes people crazy. It made me crazy. Thank god I figured this out or I’d be in some loony bin somewhere.
Nothing worse than feeling embarrassed to be yourself! Or thinking you need to suppress your best features because they deviate from the watered down norm. Way easier to do what comes naturally in every life situation. That said …

It’s really difficult to be a business owner if you’re not yourself. I know folks will recommend that you be Professional (aka fake) and suggest you wear stiff clothes and cut off your hair if it looks too wild and not wear dangling earrings and talk without emotion and never reveal anything “personal.”

What a bunch of business hogwash! I supposed you might get some business doing that, but at what cost? Your sanity, your loss of self, your selling of your soul to the business devil?

Who comes up with this bogus advice? Why would we act differently just because we’re selling something? Especially if we believe we are helping others with the thing we are selling. Does being fake when you are selling something sound like a good idea?Are you wearing different masks — one for play and one for work and one for family and one for friends? Not sure? Notice if your center of personality gravity shifts when you go to work or meet with clients. You’ll be able to notice once you turn your attention to it.

If that happens, try to pick one tiny personality trait and refuse to change it for your next client meeting. How did you feel after acting more like yourself?

Thanks! Leave a comment if you  please … G.