New Product Development Journey

You read it correctly, folks. Yes, I’m totally delving into uncharted territory. And guess what? I would love for you to come along on the journey with me. I’m all about the sharing here at Degrees of Maternity. So, bear with me, when it appears that I’m going off on a new whimsical adventure. Looks can be deceiving.

No, I’m actually not chasing a whim, a hunch, or the latest fad. I’m heading on this new journey with an optimistic and strategic focus in mind. And speaking of the mind . . . it’s not uncommon for those minds of the creative persuasion to work spontaneously, at all hours of the day, out of sequence, and in an unorganized fashion at times. Creative discovery doesn’t have a set order, time, or pattern for unleashing its wares. It just happens.

And so, I find innovative ideas are popping into my mind at a higher frequency than they’ve ever occurred before. Honestly, I enjoy this phenomenon, because its presence lets me know that my mind is still active and in working order. And it’s always a refreshing realization to know that your mind’s not stagnant and that you keep creating and thinking of fresh takes on ideas.

As I’ve shared before, my most innovative brainstorming tends to be when I’m in a relaxed state of clarity, where my mind’s not bogged down with the cares of life.

I truly count it a privilege to do creative work from home; and at this point in my life, I’ve had more flexibility to entertain these moments of creative discovery now than I’ve ever had in my life. And, I’m thankful.

So, while I have the opportunity to develop those ideas that have probably been there all along (but rested in latent limbo until I had the time to seriously address them), I’m going full steam ahead.

Furthermore, I’m also experiencing the reality of going through unique situations where my creative thoughts change and take me in a different direction than I originally planned for myself. This new direction seemingly takes me to a better idea than the one before it. Every time.

I guess that’s a good thing though . . . not to squelch the free-flowing thought processes that have the potential to lead to really great things. And, I suppose life journeys work this way too.

As we go through life, we get older, we get more mature, we gain more knowledge, and we experience more through simply living. We change. Our thoughts, our perspectives, our mindsets, our outlooks, our belief structures, our focuses and the things we put as priorities in life look different over time. Therefore, those things we didn’t know before or experiences we never had before are now a solid piece of our makeup that will drive how we currently look at life and influence the paths we take and the decisions we make going forward.

Again, we change. I mean I’m still who I am, but I’m growing and developing (even at this middle-aged moment in my timeline). There’s still so much life to experience and so much knowledge to grasp a hold of and apply as needed. And because I recognize that change is inevitable and should be welcomed (if you appreciate growth opportunities), I’ve learned to stop being so ABSOLUTE about some things in my life.

To be honest, I don’t predominantly work in this fashion anyway. Many years ago, I dropped the mentality that my current plan is the only one out there for me and that better ones couldn’t possibly present themselves and usurp the authority of the one currently in-progress.

Let’s just say that my 20-year-old self looks a lot different than my 40+ self today. And, I’m not knocking what I knew at 20 years old, because everything that I’ve learned and experienced along life’s way has been interwoven into the fabric of the person I am today. And, I’m grateful for it all; because I don’t think I’ve turned out half bad.

The way I am 5 – 10 years from now may look totally different than how I appear today. That’s okay, though. Here’s my mindset on growth: unless I know everything about everything (and I don’t –that’s reserved for the Creator), then I have to be willing to be moldable and mendable if the willingness to change will lead to a better outcome for me and those around me.

The change has to make sense in the positive, though; because I’m not simply about change just for change’s sake. I, most certainly, need to foresee the benefit of making new moves before engaging in them.

So, I’m taking this mindset to the creative realm to see the awesome possibilities that open up through flexibility in creativity. And for this reason, I can feel comfortable in dropping my plans for my original book #2 and head down a different road, leading to a new product development journey.

And with all of that being said, I was just setting you up so I could tell you that the Monday posts are going to be devoted to my new product development journey that I’ll be going on. For the last several weeks, I’ve been talking to you about it anyway, so I’ve decided to go all the way and let Monday’s be devoted to what’s pressing on my mind and heart to pursue right now.

For those of you who have been following my Monday posts, you know that I indicated I wanted to bring in excerpts from my original book #2 (that I was working toward self-publishing but stopped abruptly toward the end). Well, you also read that I just wasn’t feeling that this written work was ready for the self-publishing world. And, it never even made it to a final draft version.

However, I still wanted to bring some of the unfinished book to Degrees of Maternity, and therefore, reconciled in my mind that I would share some parts of the unfinished book on Mondays. It made sense, because Mondays are my days to share progress on the goal-setting projects I’m working on.

The interesting thing about those goals is that some of them are still on the list to complete like community involvement, public speaking, the publishing of an audiobook for Playground Instruction for the Growing Adult, etc. But, they’re going to have to move over and make room for my newfound goal, which is taking precedence over all others. I’m hooked and there’s no turning back now.

Nevertheless, I’ll still be posting the book #2 excerpts to the blog. I’ll just be doing this on Wednesdays instead of Mondays. (I figured the Wednesday reblogs could go on a hiatus for a few weeks.)

So, get ready for a new adventure to embark upon with me. I hope you’ll come along, because I plan on opening up my process for creating this new physical product: a product that will have some handcrafted elements along with some store-bought offerings. There will be some book components, geared for child and adult. And, my own children will be very instrumental in providing the themed design work that will go into this product.

The overall product will be a bundle of sorts — a smorgasbord of craftsy and creative items to encourage children to find enjoyment in reading and writing. However, there will be some items from the bundle that are provided as stand-alones, because they can be utilized by their little lonesomes.

So, have I gotten your attention yet?

I hope so, because I’ll start rolling out the progress I’m making and the steps I’m taking on this new journey of mine. I think it’ll be quite interesting to those of you who are looking to create your own product(s) or possibly partake of the one I’ll be creating. Either way, you’re sure to learn a thing or two along this journey.