Funneling Down

I feel like I'm plunging deeper into the funnel, from a broad topic to an increasingly narrower focus (I think this metaphor came from Sari Biklen's book on writing a qual research dissertation). What a blessing in disguise not doing my original topic is! I realize I'm a pretty intuitive person. I sensed from writing that 10-11 pages of my first proposal (a lot of hard work it was) that something was not going right. Abandoning it was hard. Not having support after thinking I had it was even harder. I mourned those "wasted" time of reading copious amounts of literature on creativity. But on reflection, nothing is ever lost. Whatever I have read stays with me, a precious knowledge treasure that informs my future steps. Forsaking my earlier writing freed me in new ways. I am immersed in the process of creativity. I am no longer bound to doing an instructional design study in a classroom setting or to think in parochial ways. There are other real life issues to study. And I'm fortunate to get to study one.

(Image source: http://bit.ly/i3YXvt)