1. The 15-Second Principle

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my side of the road and had almost arrived on the other side of the road, when he did something weird.
Just as my car was about to pass him safely, he apparently got startled and sprinted back across the 95
percent of the road that he had just crossed. As I jammed on the brakes, he was able to take one last
desperate leap and land back into the thick and safe vegetation.
After celebrating the fact that I didn't destroy his day or mine, I began to think about how stupid the
squirrel was for needlessly endangering his life. After all, before he panicked, he was just a few feet away
from his destination. Why in the world would he change course so late in his journey and head back to the
other side of the road, where the noise and danger was coming from?
My guess was that he was attempting to cross the road in order to visit a new or less familiar section of Bel
Air. When he heard my car coming, he sensed danger, abandoned his exploration, and sought refuge in the
environment he felt safest and most familiar with.
Then I realized that we, as humans, probably practice this behavior more often than we'd like to admit.
First, we commit to a passionate and challenging project that we are curious about (writing a novel,
inventing a product, looking for a new job, developing a one-person show, going for an educational degree,
writing songs for our own CD). Second, we begin developing momentum and making progress with our
dream project or overwhelming task. Third, before we complete, sell, or declare our creative journey a
success, something interferes with and interrupts our flow, confidence, and advancement. Perhaps a
knowledgeable friend or "expert" gives us a negative critique (and we believe it); an agent, publisher,
manufacturer, or producer does not buy or resonate with our idea or product; we get overwhelmed by the
enormity of our commitment; or we prematurely run out of steam, passion, and/or money.
We then take the interruption or negative critique personally, believe it, make it extremely significant, turn
the experience into an huge obstacle, and allow it to dishearten and paralyze us.
The tragedy here is two fold. First, we have stopped doing something that we were passionate about and
that fulfilled many of our self-expressive and creative needs. Second, there was a chance that we were