This post has been a few weeks in the works…at least bouncing around in my head.   I am feeling surprisingly optimistic and I am wondering if you might be feeling the same.

My optimism is, to me, a sign that I have come true to myself.   To explain what I mean– I have not always been in the world of design, I left university with a degree in physics and a job with Hughes Aircraft working on flight simulators….this was lovely for me as I have always been into flying.  But with promotions and job changes I slipped down the slippery slope of the corporate world until I was very well paid for a job I hated.  I cried daily when I awoke and had to go to my job, I had no idea how I would live without that big fat salary check, and I wasn’t sure I knew myself well enough to have to confidence to make a change.  I feared making a mistake, giving it all up and possibly finding that there was really something wrong with me because I might equally loathe whatever new thing I tried.    Happily, though it took a couple years of soul searching and stars aligning, I finally went back to school while living in England and have been working in design and creative endeavors ever since.  I don’t make even a fraction of what I once made, but while this can get me down, I am overall so much happier (and hopefully someday I will get back to the big fat income).

Keep with me, I am going somewhere here…  So it seems like the current economic stress that we all have should have me revisiting my past (i.e. less resources, uncertainty about the future, etc.). While I was feeling that stress, I suddenly am not.   Why, because it seems to be causing my creativity to flourish and that is having remarkable effects on my outlook.

Studying history, often periods of great invention and progress follow hard economic times or occur while nations are at war.  Is that what is happening here?   I think it might be.  I am feeling this cultural shift towards a new resourcefulness, and optimism.

Is it a new president? Maybe a bit.

Is it possible that writing this blog and getting know other bloggers and creative people has an effect? Maybe a bit more.

I don’t think this is all of it though and I am still trying to put my finger on precisely what it is.

Is it that:

1. I don’t have clients looking for cookie cutter solutions.  They are starting to be more inclined to think outside the box with me.
2. I don’t have clients who are trying to keep up with the Jones’ quite so much…have they given up?
3. I have less and so does everyone else, does that make us more honed on what matters most to each of us individually? more picky?
4. I seem to have more time….but maybe that is just seasonal — at least in my business.
5. I am more resourceful and therefore more creative…
6. I have this feeling that we will emerge better and stronger.  Design will move forward in leaps and bounds.  We will nurture our uniqueness and creativity more.
7. or maybe I have had too much egg nog lately and I am going a little bit silly….

This is all swirling in my head and I am wondering if I am alone here.  Are you feeling it too?  I hope so.  Why do you think it is?   Lets discuss.