Pressure is the force that strangles many creative efforts before they ever get off the ground. The anxiety-inducing deadline and the tightness you feel in your chest. Sometimes it tingles, and sometimes it just flat-out hurts.
The most creative ideas and insights come when the pressure is gone and when you can trust your ability to come up with ideas and just fall into that beautiful comfort of creative confidence.
So how can we remove pressure? One of my favorite ways is by setting unrealistic expectations.
Imagine having a client that expects three logo concepts in the next week. That might sound scary. But then you decide to deliver 20 logo concepts. That is pretty much impossible, but the ridiculous nature of the goal means that you free yourself of the expectations and give yourself a bubble of freedom in which you have the capability of being much more brilliantly creative.
Insane expectations that you can’t possibly achieve make it easier to get the work done. Halfway to impossible is a really good place to be.