Beautiful process, beautiful product. This is the motto I’ve come to choose for my life – in work, in creativity, at home, in friendships. But I have a confession to make: it is a motto that I must struggle and strain to live out. I have come to this motto over years of playing a leading role in various industries all intended to create beauty – interior design, floral design and music most specifically. All of these industries are intended to bring joy to their audience and to improve the quality of our lives. For at least two of them, the goal is also to create a greater relational connectedness as a result of the work that is created. And yet far too often I have experienced a great deal of ugliness behind the scenes of these industries on the road to creating this intended beauty.
I am a recovering idealist, I will admit. But recovering, not currently living as one. I know far too well that getting to something beautiful can require a great deal of mess. Renovations are the perfect example. In order to get to that beautiful finished product, there is a whole lot of destruction and dust and chaos and mess that will come before it. But that doesn’t mean that this process must be ugly. The process can still be beautiful, even when it’s messy. Ugly and messy are two different things. It is how we engage throughout and what we perceive to be the goal that truly makes the difference. Careful planning and a goal of making each step meaningful…well, that changes everything.
I think there are few better analogies for this than real friendship. Real friendship is messy. It’s about crying together when life is hard, laughing together when there is a reason to laugh, sharing in each other’s joys and even having the courage to challenge each other when we need it. It’s about listening a whole lot. It’s about endless cups of tea and walks and talks and follow up texts and phone calls. It is about caring even when it’s inconvenient. It is about process.
Without this process, I will never get to the beautiful “product” of being known and loved {and I never would have experienced this}. Without a meaningful, kind and thoughtful process on a design job, the beautiful product at the end of it will feel dissatisfying as I recover from what it took to get there. Without a beautiful process of making music, it will just be noise. Sure, the audience might never know it. But I will. And that matters to me.
We don’t always get to choose what makes the process beautiful. In highly collaborative, creative industries, there are always, ALWAYS challenges thrown our way. Interior design will teach you to EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED. Things do go wrong. But I believe it’s how I respond that makes the process either ugly or beautiful.
I am a work in progress. I do not manage to respond well all of the time. I no doubt contribute to an ugly process more often than I’d like simply by being human. But I am striving for something better, and I thought I’d invite you along on that journey. I am striving for a messy, chaotic, inconvenient, dusty, challenging and beautiful process. And just like a renovation, I’d really prefer to work with a team to get there. I never have been one for swinging a hammer alone, and as my clients will attest, it would take us all a LONG time to get there if I had to do all the work myself.
I’d love to hear your thoughts! What are your tips for creating a beautiful process – in design, in music and in life?
xo
s.
One lesson that proved helpful this past year at school had to deal with quality over quantity, as I struggled through the painful process of trying to write something I had in my head. The motto went like this: "It's better to write one bar of good music than 50 bars of half-good music." You'd be surprised how hard it is to keep running with something you're only half-committed to, but on the other hand, you'd be even more surprised how easy it is to start with something good than go from there.
So good, Trevor! Quality over quantity is another great motto I try to live by – in work, in creativity, in friendship, in food and in life! Nothing wrong with quantity, but only if it's quality first!
Very well written and full of truth, thanks Sarah!
I so resonated with being an idealist. In my perfect world, all the food I eat would be organic, the animals would only have one bad day (the last day), and all of the materials I consume would come from places where people were compensated fairly for their labor and respect for the planet was a vital part of their creation.
This is not the case, but starting the journey and beginning to move is a big step.
I hear you! It would be easy to decide that the ideal is too difficult to achieve and thus give up altogether. But becoming is a process. Becoming healthier, becoming happier, becoming more conscientious and kinder to the environment and the people around us. It all takes time. I have to believe that if we choose to take steps toward better choices and healthier processes, we will become better people as well. I love Aristotle's words on this: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."
Thanks for such a lovely and inspiring post, Sarah.
We are often so focused on the finished product that we miss out on the beauty of the process and all of the opportunities for learning and growth that come with it. When I work on a painting, I find that I enjoy it so much more when I am engaged with the work from beginning to end. When I allow myself to work through the challenges thoughtfully, when I experience the materials in new ways, when I invest in the subject matter more thoroughly, and dialogue with my peers about our evolving practices, I really give myself a chance to enjoy the act of making something to share with others…and it makes all the difference.
Thank you for continuing to inspire us to live beautifully!
I so look forward to sharing your process and your beautiful work one day on the blog, Sonya! I find myself becoming increasingly awake and alive as I understand your view to the world. Shine on, sweet friend!
xo
s.
I really enjoyed this…….
It is all a process. All of it.
Thanks Sarah! 🙂