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Cynthia Morris

January 26, 2022 by Cynthia Morris Leave a Comment

Write Your Book This Year

Have you been waiting to write your book? I assert that now is the time to get that idea off the shelf and into your heart. Now is the time to pick up the long-held dream of writing your book and let it go. Let it go onto the page. Let your ideas become ink. Let your ink roll into sentences. Let your sentences form into paragraphs that lead up to the holy container of a chapter. Let your chapters pile up in the best way into the shaggiest, most glorious draft of a book. A manuscript.

If you hesitate, I ask you:

  • What are you waiting for?
  • Who will give you permission?
  • How will you know you are good enough?
  • When will you know that you are ready, that you are able to finally write that book that has been haunting you?
  • What would your year feel like if you were writing your book?

I am not here to try to convince anyone that they should write a book. I am speaking to you – the person who wants to write a book, the person who has always wanted to be an author.

I will be working on a book that has been on my to-write shelf for way too long. It’s outlined, it’s sketched out. It still speaks to me. It still calls me. It got a fancy new title and concept and I’m excited to get going and put some flesh on those skeletons.

When I think of writing this book – and painting it, because it will be illustrated – I get so excited. I love thinking of having a year devoted to this book.

What book is waiting inside you to be let out to play? What concepts are eager for you to explore them?

Perhaps you need and want support to make this long-held dream a vibrant reality. Perhaps you don’t know how to start, and more importantly, how to keep going. I’ve got just what you need.

My book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book will guide you through writing your book.

 

Filed Under: The Writing Life

January 26, 2022 by Cynthia Morris 1 Comment

Don’t let these two challenges stop you from writing your book

Have you tried writing a book but have gotten stuck when it comes to organizing and structuring it?

Most of us come to write a non-fiction book with a lot of ideas. We have so much material. How to keep various drafts organized? What to do with scraps and bits of writing we have here and there? Then, how does it all go together? What belongs in the book? What’s tangential? What goes where? You can see how madness can quickly descend. When we are disorganized and uncertain, it’s a sure cocktail to foment writing insecurity. Helplessness takes over and we abandon our book writing. Don’t do it!

In this solo episode, I will share two of the main stumbles that stop people from writing their non-fiction books or memoirs.

A caveat, there is so much to say about this, so I am just sharing a few approaches that may help you. Also, each book is its own thing and has its own voice, shape, and agenda. There is no one-size-fits-all. I love helping my clients shape their ideas in world-changing books in my customized coaching.

Mentioned in this episode:

Diane von Furstenberg’s Own It

Bibliophile, An Illustrated Miscellany by Jane Mount

Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine stories, illustrated serial novels

Adam J Kurtz

Drawing is thinking / Milton Glaser ; introduction by Judith Thurman

We are each other’s harvest: celebrating African American farmers, land, and legacy

Why we cook: women on food, identity, and connection

Filed Under: Podcast

January 19, 2022 by Cynthia Morris Leave a Comment

Writing a book based on unexpected life experiences

Karen Wright is an executive coach and founder of Parachute Executive Coaching in Toronto, Canada. She’s a single mother, shares Cynthia’s passion for Paris, and can’t wait to dust off her passport, hopefully soon.

When life pushes you into leadership situations you don’t want to be in, you could be called an Accidental Alpha. Karen Wright is an executive coach who found herself in charge of her life in ways she hadn’t planned. She coined the term Accidental Alpha Woman and discovered that many of her friends were in the position of taking on things they didn’t sign up for. After struggling with being an accidental alpha, Karen brought her coaching skills to help her navigate life and work. An author of The Complete Executive, she knew the power of putting your ideas into book form. She also knows that even when life throws us stuff we don’t want to deal with, we are always playing a role in that scenario. So she wrote The Accidental Alpha, sharing her Receive framework.

In this episode, Karen shares her Receive framework. This is super helpful if you are a person who has trouble receiving help, support, accolades, or anything.

Mentioned in the show

The Accidental Alpha Woman

Karen Wright

The Complete Executive

Difference between complex and complicated TEDx talk 

Filed Under: Podcast

January 12, 2022 by Cynthia Morris Leave a Comment

Get past common obstacles when starting a project

Are you like me, always wanting to tweak and revise things? I love designing. In this episode of Stumbling Toward Genius, I try a new format. You’ll hear a few more personal stories from me from my studio and life. I share these so you know I’m not sitting on the sidelines with everything all figured out. I am in the creative zone with you, figuring it out as I go!

Here’s how it often goes. We have an idea for a book. It can grow inside us for years. We love this idea and we cherish it. Our idea expands and morphs and gives us a sense of having something precious. But I believe our ideas have a shelf life. Our talents are not Twinkies with no expiration date. I also believe that making our ideas real is way more satisfying than holding onto them, cherishing the sense of possibility.

In this episode, I’ll share some of the common pitfalls that keep us at the starting gate of a book or any other project. You’ll hear about the new book I am writing and how I am going through all these pitfalls even though this is my 9th book. And, I’ll give you strategies that help me and my clients get past the obstacles that we stumble over when we get started with a project.

Also in this episode, you’ll hear about a major creative win I had last month and my unexpected response when it came to fruition. (Plus how I coped with that weird reaction!)

I also share how I am getting more reading time into my life and how this is making me feel more me. Plus, how I get through self-guided classes where there is no accountability from the teacher.

Mentioned in this episode

Atelier

Why It’s So Hard to Finish Our Projects 

Write Your Book Coaching Group

The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book 

Poets & Writers magazine

iPad Artist with Sketchbook Skool

Filed Under: Podcast

January 5, 2022 by Cynthia Morris Leave a Comment

Community Building versus Empire Building with Pam Slim

Pam Slim seeks to connect people as communities. Through our work together, we can build the kind of world we want to inhabit. Her latest book, The Widest Net, shows business owners how to connect within communities instead of speaking from afar to audiences. In this episode, Pam shares what’s at the core of her work and how even though this book felt so right, it was a challenge to write.

Mentioned in this episode:

David Moldawer

Hiro Boga

Michael Bungay Stanier

Main Street Learning Lab K’eh

Darryl Slim

Dorie Clark

Filed Under: Podcast

December 29, 2021 by Cynthia Morris 2 Comments

Map Your Creative Success with Your Creative Edge

What are your plans for your creativity next year? Perhaps you have a project in mind and can’t wait to get started. That’s me!

Or maybe you don’t know what you want to work on. There are possible projects. Your friends have clear goals. But you don’t know what you want to do.

In this episode of Stumbling Toward Genius I will share a perspective on how to focus your creative time so you feel satisfied and on track no matter what happens. It’s both broad and specific, and I think you’ll love it.

If you’re like me, you tend to be ‘all over the place’ with your ideas and possibilities. The Creative Edge gives us a broad yet specific focus. It makes it easy to choose projects that give us a sense of momentum and progress.

Filed Under: Podcast

December 24, 2021 by Cynthia Morris Leave a Comment

The Gift of Less Struggle: My illustration in Poets & Writers Magazine

If I could give a life-changing gift to all writers and artists, this is it: your inner battle around creating is over. You have a new, positive relationship with yourself and your creativity. Your inner demons are ever-present, but you interact with them in a way that empowers you to create. You know your inner allies and they encourage you to keep going despite setbacks. 

Poets & Writers Cynthia Morris illustration This gift is in the two-page illustration in the new issue of Poets & Writers magazine.

I was thrilled when they invited me to do a two-page illustration for their Inspiration issue. I worked with editor Emma and editor-in-chief Kevin to develop the interactive spread of Writers’ Demons & Angels. It’s full of exercises for you to get to know and relate anew with the forces that prevent and support your writing and creativity. 

This is my life’s work: to help people create more and struggle less. This spread is my gift to you as you enter 2022. Have fun with it and let me know how its magic works on your creative life. 

 

Filed Under: The Writing Life

December 22, 2021 by Cynthia Morris Leave a Comment

Art at the Center of Life: Sean McMullin on Stumbling Toward Genius

Did someone – a teacher, or parent, or peer – shut down your art? This happens all too often, especially when we are young. As kids, we don’t have the perspective or resiliency to know when someone is telling us something that’s not helpful for us. This drives me crazy! I work with so many people who have had to reclaim their artist. And sometimes, it’s decades before they shed the story someone else told them. Did this happen to you?

In this episode of Stumbling Toward Genius, I talk with multi-media artist Sean McMullin. To be transparent, Sean and I are art buddies who meet regularly to talk about what we are making. We go on and on about what inspires us and what gets in the way or supports our art-making. But in this episode, the focus is on Sean. We talk about:

  • Giving ourselves permission to explore and create.
  • Ending a lifelong struggle with creativity.
  • How Sean makes his art a central part of his days with project management skills.
  • Why and when and how to share.
  • Keeping good notes as a key to a successful art practice.

If you’ve ever struggled to find space for your art or to reclaim the artist that got shut down as a child, this episode is for you.

Mentioned in this episode:

Sean’s Instagram account

Mark Dion

Emilie Wopnick

Barbara Sher

Filed Under: Podcast

December 14, 2021 by Cynthia Morris 12 Comments

Doing an Annual Review Can Change Your Year

At the end of the year, it’s tempting to just dive into planning for the next year. But if we don’t pause to reflect on the year we had, we rob ourselves of much of the empowerment and joy we earned through our actions. For creatives especially, doing an annual review process can give us the confidence and courage to brave new things. In this solo episode, I share why it’s so important to reflect. I also share some of the major challenges I experienced, some creative wins, including one of the biggest creative projects of my life.

The lens I look back through is always focused on my creative process. What did I make? What did I learn from that? How did the books and podcasts and shows and movies and things that I consumed impact my life and my creativity. With these guiding inquiries, I’m able to not only see what I did, but I can appreciate who I became as a result of doing those things.

Doing an annual reflection process helps us digest the year, the things we did, and who we were. It allows us to honor and savor our efforts and our being. We often skip this step and end of the year feeling harried and unaccomplished, we start the new year on an empty tank.

Mentioned in this episode:  

Annual Review for Creatives workshop  

Sparketype  

Write Your Travel Stories  

Victoria Bresee, therapist  

Mindfulness Workbook for addiction: a guide for coping with the grief, stress and anger that trigger addictive behaviors by Rebecca E. Williams, PhD and Julia S. Craft MA
(also available in the Denver library)

Tim Ferris with Paul Conti: How Trauma Works and How to Heal from It  

School of Life: Why Happiness is a Useless Word  

Things that made a difference in my life this year  

Workshops 

Center for Applied Jungian Studies  

Esther Perel The Great Adaptation Conference  

Natalie Goldberg haiku workshop  

Transform Your Relationship with Food  

Suleika Jaouad’s Isolation Journals   

Books 

Still Writing by Dani Shapiro 

The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick’s

Living Color : Painting, Writing, and the Bones of Seeing by Natalie Goldberg

Illustration Workshop : Find Your Style, Practice Drawing skills, and Build a Stellar Portfolio  by Mary Kate McDevitt 

Three Simple Lines by Natalie Goldberg  

How to be an artist  by Jerry Saltz  

Let’s Eat France
This might be the coolest book I have ever seen. It’s for the lover of food, the francophile and the person who loves trivia and history. Feel free to treat me to this for Christmast!!  

Magazines 

Cook’s Illustrated
I got this randomly from the library. I couldn’t even get past the masthead because it was so interesting and valuable! I tore out the subscription card and handed it to Steve. “Birthday present,” I said. I LOVE this magazine and cannot believe I am only this year getting on board. 

Poets & Writers
If you are serious about the life of a writer, this is the magazine to have. In this episode of Stumbling Toward Genius, I mentioned a special piece I have in the January/February 2022 issue. Don’t miss it!

Podcasts 

I listen to podcasts constantly, it seems. These are the ones I especially loved this year.  

Daring Greatly  

Unlocking Us 

This Jungian Life 

Art Juice  

The Splendid Table  

Other treats

A fun, unexpected treat was Mud\Wtr. My stepson Mark Davenport and I were talking about mushrooms. I have been using Lion’s Mane in my morning coffee and also taking a mushroom supplement. Mark asked if I knew about Mud/Wtr. I checked it out.

Their copywriting and marketing was so compelling, I had to order. I got their morning kit and was in love with it before I even tasted it! Then I tried it. I love the blend of spices, mushrooms and a spot of black tea. This has replaced my second cappuccino. I highly recommend this. Use this link to check it out.  

Zen Grid notebooksMy new favorite notebook! I put images from my favorite calendar on the front of these to jazz them up a bit.  Zen Art Supplies dot grid notebook 

Affiliate links are used in this blog post.  

Filed Under: Podcast

December 8, 2021 by Cynthia Morris 4 Comments

Falling in Love with Poetry with Mark McGuinness on Stumbling Toward Genius

What’s your relationship with poetry? You may have read or written some back in school. Perhaps you think poetry is obtuse and intellectual and not for you.

I love poetry for how essential it is. Every word matters in a poem. A writer has no place to hide; their truth and emotions are right there in the sparseness of the lines. The very first writing class I taught was a poetry class. The things I learned from that class inform all the writing I do. Whatever your relationship with poetry, I think you’ll love the conversation I had with poet and poetry lover Mark McGuinness. Writers of all genres will benefit from the things he shared about bringing his love for poetry to life in his podcast, A Mouthful of Air.

Mark and I talk about what it’s like to create something from your passion, to finally have a place for all the enthusiasm he has for poetry.

“This is the most complicated thing I’ve ever created,” he confessed. As an introverted Brit, learning how to read poetry with emotion and his true voice was a challenge. Mark shares the story of how he broke out of his self-consciousness and into his true voice.

Voice is one of the most important elements of writing. Somehow, even though our voice is right there within us all the time, it’s oddly elusive when it comes to expressing ourselves. Mark shares some surprising perspectives on voice that gave me new ways of thinking about voice and how to access it.

Even though Mark is a seasoned podcast host and producer, A Mouthful of Air gave him new challenges. He was able to break away from traditional podcast formats in order to shape an experience he wanted people to have of poetry.

Our conversation was energizing to me and gave me a renewed sense of hope and vitality. I feel emboldened to return to poetry myself, both reading and writing it.

Enjoy this episode of Stumbling Toward Genius, getting insight from Mark’s stumbles and how he recovered with grace and commitment.

Find A Mouthful of Air here:

amouthfulofair.fm

Twitter @amouthfulofair

Instagram

Facebook

Linkedin

Mentioned in the episode:

Kristin Linklater Voice Center

I’d be so grateful for your help with a review of the podcast Stumbling Toward Genius on iTunes.

Filed Under: Podcast

December 1, 2021 by Cynthia Morris Leave a Comment

Your Words Are a Gift on Stumbling Toward Genius

When you’re a writer, people will often say you have a gift with language. What if we used our words as a gift? I love the idea of being generous with your words. There are a million ways to do this. I suspect you give the gift of your words all the time.

In this solo episode of Stumbling Toward Genius, I share a few thoughts on how to use your words as a gift to others. Plus, a special treat from my client, Christopher Robbins, who generously agreed to give the gift of his words to us here.

Warning: There is explicit language near the end of this episode.

Mentioned in this episode:

Christopher Robbins

Annual Review for Creatives workshop

Impulse Writing Club

My new favorite postage stamps

 

Filed Under: Podcast

November 24, 2021 by Cynthia Morris 2 Comments

Putting good intentions into good action: Kelly Beck on Stumbling Toward Genius

Many of us want to help when we hear about others’ challenges, but we don’t know how. Sometimes the problems seem too big. It’s all too easy to tune out and surrender our ability to connect.

Kelly Beck impulsively said yes to a random request that changed her life. She not only went on a cross-country mission to give support to a community, she connected with that community in profound and lasting ways. Kelly’s story is a great model for how to surrender helplessness and step into right action.

She’d done a lot of things including running a successful business, but she’d never done anything like this. In this episode of Stumbling Toward Genius, we hear how she overcame bureaucratic red tape and inner challenges to take consistent action. She’s growing herself and using her gifts to make a direct difference in people’s lives.

Mentioned in this episode:

Almost anything worthwhile is done together. – from Accomplis website.

Accomplis

Lide Haiti

518 Free Store

Jonathan Fields’ Sparketype assessment

Rainn Wilson

Soul Pancake

I’d be so grateful for your help with a review of the podcast Stumbling Toward Genius on iTunes.

Filed Under: Podcast

November 17, 2021 by Cynthia Morris Leave a Comment

Wonder as a Tool of Resiliency with Jeffrey Davis

I have always loved Jeffrey Davis for his calm, wise ways. I’ll never forget him at Camp GLP one year, onstage, wearing the most fabulous red corduroys while reciting his poem, Coat Thief. Jeffrey’s most recent book, Tracking Wonder: Reclaiming a Life of Meaning and Possibility in a World Obsessed by Productivity has so much to offer sensitive souls like me in the way of being productive without sacrificing our sense of joy and delight.

In our conversation, we touch on the origins of devotion, intelligent naiveté, which I feel is a great way to describe my willingness to learn and grow. You too? Jeffrey shared the six facets of wonder. He gave us an inside peek into his process of writing his book and the practices that have sustained him through many revisions.

I know you’ll love this conversation with Jeffrey where we look at the challenges and delights inherent in life and creating.

Mentioned in this episode:

Tracking Wonder: Reclaiming a Life of Meaning and Possibility in a World Obsessed by Productivity

Instagram @JeffreyDavis11

I’d be so grateful for your help with a review of the podcast Stumbling Toward Genius on iTunes.

Filed Under: Podcast

November 10, 2021 by Cynthia Morris 6 Comments

Why it’s so hard to finish our creative projects

Have you ever wondered why it’s so difficult to finish your creative projects? Why do you have so many great ideas but getting them across the finish line feels beyond your abilities?

Based on seeing hundreds of people through their projects, and my own creative stumbles, I have an idea of why it’s so hard to stay focused to the finish line.

I have a model that I put in my ebook, Cross the Finish Line that can be a way of understanding why we so often stumble before completing projects that matter. We’ll delve into it here. Hopefully, this will help you banish the idea that you are a creative loser.

If you’d like to work with me and others who are headed toward the finish line, join my writers’ coaching group, Write ON. We meet live each week to make real and satisfying progress on our writing projects. Get the details here. 

Also mentioned in this episode, my Paris historical novel Chasing Sylvia Beach.

Here’s a visual of the model:

Finish creative projects model by Cynthia Morris

 

I’d be so grateful for your help with a review of the podcast Stumbling Toward Genius on iTunes.

Transcript (lightly edited, excuse any wonkiness!)

Welcome to Stumbling Toward Genius. I’m your host, Cynthia Morris. In today’s solo episode, I’m going to share my model for why I think it’s so difficult for us to finish things. If you have struggled with not completing projects that matter to you or even have assumed the identity of somebody who doesn’t finish or a non-finisher, this is the episode for you.

[00:00:35] Have you ever wondered why it’s so difficult to finish your creative projects? Why do you have so many great ideas, but then getting them across the finish line just feels like it’s beyond your abilities. I have a model that I put in my ebook Cross the Finish Line that can be a way of understanding why it’s so difficult and hopefully that understanding will help you feel a little less like a creative loser and B give you insights into making change for the next time.

Before I get into the model of creative blocks, I want to say that I go through these phases in this process with every single thing I make. I haven’t figured it out. I haven’t figured a bypass. I think we all go through this. When I coach my clients. I see them go through this too. So when I see these patterns, it’s the first big step to disrupting them.

Okay, let’s get to the model. First, I want you to imagine a funnel at the top of the funnel. It’s a wide-open field. It’s a big space, and this is where all of our ideas live. This is where anything is possible. It’s so fun and exciting up there. And we love to hang out in this wide-open field of possibilities. We love this part of the creative process because here we are omnipotent, we have all the power in the world because anything is possible.

We can do all of it, we can do everything. And this is where all of our ideas are brilliant. We’re so smart up here. And every idea has this shine and this sparkle. And it’s just like I’m in love with this idea. So this dreaming space has incredible value to us because we love the sense of possibility. We really get a lot of joy and thrill from it.

[00:02:56] We often make the mistake of thinking that is the most we can get out of the creative process. That is the best part, this sense of potential and possibility. So as we move down the funnel, we come to a place where we see, oh, I have to choose an idea to focus on. We want to actually take our ideas out of our heads and put them into form.

[00:03:23] So here it’s still fun because we’re getting into it. We’re having a good time in our creative zone. And if you again imagine a funnel you’re still like in this kind of the cup of the funnel, and there’s still a lot of room and a lot of space. You’re trying things, you’re working it out. You’re coming up with new ways to work with your idea.

Maybe, getting more ideas. We just love this ideation zone, but as we continue on down the funnel, things get more and more difficult as the funnel narrows, we have to shut down our sense of possibility in order to [00:04:00] focus on what is actually in front of us. We start to make decisions here is where the emotional undercurrents that underlie all of our creative processes.

You may start to bump up against existential questions. Like, can I do it? Am I any good? Who will care about this anyway? These are the fears and insecurities that all of us have. This is where it starts to feel so painful because we feel our sense of limitations. And it’s where it’s almost like the sense of possibility flips from everything is possible.

[00:04:41] And it’s all good and shiny and fun. Then it tips to the dark side of possibility. Where, what if it’s really bad? What if people don’t like it? What if I’m just actually terrible? So I think everything has its shadow side and this is where we start confronting the shadow side of possibility. This is when it starts to feel painful and our insecurities sort of take over.

[00:05:09] And this is where we may pop back up to the top where we can frolic in the light and the field of possibility where things feel good. And we love that sense of. But let’s say you stay with it and you keep going further into the project and further down the tunnel. As you’re getting into the narrower part of the cup, you start to come up against even more limitations and constraints.

[00:05:36] Do you have the time to devote to this? Often something strange happens when we commit and we get really into it. Our external world throws us a big challenge. You may have committed to writing a novel and then your computer completely breaks down. You may commit to working with larger pieces and then you have a fire in your studio you’re suddenly becoming a mobile artist, things that you can’t control that make it really easy to give up on what you’re doing.

[00:06:12] Anybody would say, of course, you can’t do that. I call this the test and it happens so frequently and it’s so freaky that I have to think that it’s there to get us to really be clear about how committed are we, what are we willing to do in order to make our thing real and not just an idea? Um, it’s not fun.

[00:06:38] It’s not what we want. It’s not what we’ve ordered up from the universe, but it happens a lot. So if that happens to you, please don’t give up, just use the test as an opportunity to commit evermore de. So another thing that happens when we get further down the funnel is we rub up against our] actual ability to execute on our ideas.

[00:07:04] And this is painful. This is where we have this great idea and we think we can do it. We can write that novel, that’s set in another era. We can write it as a time-travel book. We can write about a real person. Um, this is what I did. I didn’t actually have the ability to do that. My ideas did not meet my skills.

[00:07:29] It took me 12 years and 17 drafts to develop those skills, to meet those ideas. I don’t really even know if I succeeded. I did finish the book. So I feel I’ve succeeded. My novel Chasing Sylvia Beach is no longer an idea. It is a thing out in the world that you can read. But right away, I certainly did not have those skills.

[00:07:53] So 17 drafts may sound painful and definitely at times it was, but the cool thing was that with each subsequent draft, I got so much better as a writer and I could see the changes. I could see the improvement and that is something that I really clung to. And I still cling to whenever I’m iterating on my projects and my ideas that each version is better than the previous version.

[00:08:21] So that really helps me. And maybe that helps you too. This is where in the funnel, as you bump up against your skill limitations, you might look for, what do you love about your medium? What do you love about learning? Finding your humility? It’s great to not know what I’m doing.

[00:08:41] It’s great to get help and learn how to do it better versus thinking that you should just give up or you’re not good enough. You’re getting good enough by doing it. You don’t get good enough by thinking about it or sitting on the sideline. So. Often at this phase when we’re deep in it, another project comes along, maybe it’s an assignment or another idea that pops up that makes you think I should do that thing.

[00:09:10] This happens so much. I’ve done it myself. I see people do it all the time. And my challenge as a coach is to catch somebody before they just bop off to another project. That’s in the easier phase and ask them. You know, some deep questions about committing to the original project and what is their original commitment and what’s important about staying with it.

[00:09:35] so sometimes we will be lured away from the challenges of the current project and we will pop back up to the beginning honeymoon phase of a project because that space just feels good. Okay, but let’s imagine we do stick with it. We really stay with it, despite all of our fears and actual limitations.

[00:09:56] And we get to the last part of the funnel, that narrow tube. I think of this as a kind of creative birth canal. This is the last 10 or 15 or 20% of a project and it is excruciating going down through that tunnel toward the finish line. At least it’s excruciating for me because here you’re in this tube, and you can really only focus on your project.

[00:10:23] You can really only focus on the minute details of the project. You can’t look around and do other things you can’t multitask. All of your energy has to be focused on getting this thing across the finish line and out the tube. And that’s where for me, I get so tired of the project.

[00:10:43] You’re tired of the details. You’re not in love with the idea. You’re in a deep relationship with the reality of the project and the scope of the project and what it demands of you. And often this is the place where we’re bringing something out into the world or publishing a book where need to do all that marketing and pitching and all of the things that we don’t really like doing here, we have to develop a whole new set of skills, including asking for help. And when I think about those last percentages, the last 2%, like the night before launch the night before hitting publish the night before bringing it out there. The demons love to gather around. They’re waiting at the bottom of the tube to catch you and slay you. That’s when you really want to rally your allies and the people around you who believe in you. You definitely don’t do any project alone. You’ll see this in the acknowledgment pages of a book.

[00:11:48] It’s no joke. The acknowledgment pages of a book are incredibly true that you really need a group of people to help you get stuff across the finish line. So what makes it really hard at this last phase is this is where you’re in the final decision-making zone. It’s so hard to complete things because there are a million little, and big decisions you have to make at the end.

[00:12:16] And most of us aren’t really great at making decisions. We have a tough time committing. We second guess ourselves, we fret over quality and we tend to overwork things. We’re seeking to achieve some standard of good that we haven’t even defined. We’re just trying to make it better and better.

[00:12:37] So here in this creativity, birth canal, we face our limits. It gets so challenging in this final phase that we will sometimes opt out and pop back to the realm of possibility where creativity is really just about play and fun. And I understand how we don’t want to face our insecurities and lack of skills. If this is you, you will see that you have a lot of projects in various phases of completion.

[00:13:00] You probably have an identity of being a non-finisher or someone who doesn’t finish things. This may seem benign and depending on your reasons for creating, it may not be a big deal that you never finished. But I have to say that it’s worth getting at least some of our projects across the finish line, even if we don’t publish or share them publicly.And here’s why.

You may have heard me say that what we make makes us, we grow into who we want to be and who we really are when we’re able to honor our original impulse and make the things that we are called to me. Even though we face our demons and challenges while making things, we also gain a lot. We feel good honoring our commitment to our creativity.

[00:13:48] We improve on our skills. We connect with others who are making things, and we can feel an almost ineffable sense of wholeness and satisfaction. Well, before the project is even finished. And when we finish, we get even more for each project that moves across the finish line. We earn a gift. It might be more confidence or a sense of your tenacity or insight about what’s really important for you.

[00:14:20] I believe wholeheartedly that we are rewarded through the process of finishing things and not by accolades or validation from others, but by our own sense of fulfillment. I’m on a mission to help banish the identity of being a non-finisher. If you relate to what I’ve said here, do yourself a favor. Please get more comfortable with the discomforts that are inherent in the creative process.

[00:14:47] You’re not facing these challenges because you’re inept or incapable, but because they are part of the job. Get better at recognizing your demons at getting help and sticking with projects that matter to you deeply. I hope this has helped you if so, make some notes about it.

[00:15:05] If you know somebody who thinks of themselves as a non-finisher, please pass this episode onto them. Again, you can find the visual for this funnel model at this episode’s webpage at. Impulse.com and there you’ll also find a link to my ebook Cross the Finish Line, where you can get more guidance and support for bringing your projects across the finish line.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this, and whether you’ve seen yourself in the cycle, please leave a comment below and share your experience and thoughts.

Filed Under: Creativity, Podcast

October 27, 2021 by Cynthia Morris Leave a Comment

Marty Gregg and his fabulous journal on Stumbling Toward Genius

When you see an illustrated journal, it’s almost like peeking into someone’s mind. Denver designer Marty Gregg has one of the most complex and interesting visual journals I’ve ever seen. In this episode, we look at how he uses modeling and journal sketches to design work for his clients and to design a life he loves. This interview is also available on video. Find it and the show notes at OriginalImpulse.com/podcast.

Back in 2010, I did video interviews with some of my interesting friends. The first video I did was with Marty Gregg. I had to bring him back to Stumbling Toward Genius.

We kept the video recording because there was so much to see.

Here are a couple of images of Marty’s journals where he chronicles his life, dreams his future, and brainstorms project ideas in sketches. Plus, there is a lot of typographical joy here.

Marty Gregg illustrated journal

Mentioned in this episode:

My first video interview with Marty in 2010; more peeks into his pages and process here. 

ArtHouse Denver

Marty’s Leuchtturm 1917 Sketchbooks

Lula Rose General Store Denver coffee shop

Lisa Sonora on Stumbling Toward Genius

Marty Gregg on Instagram

I’d be so grateful for your help with a review of the podcast Stumbling Toward Genius on iTunes.

Filed Under: Podcast

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