Blog
You’re ready to create what’s inside you. Finally, you’re at a place where you can devote yourself to your creativity.
At Original Impulse, you’ve found a safe haven to dedicate yourself to projects that matter to you. Through online workshops, creativity retreats, our long-term creativity apprenticeship and customized one:one coaching, we are here to make writing a fun and vibrant part of your life.
Be sure to subscribe to Impulses to unlock your creative genius right away.
Get my popular book, The Busy Woman's Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book and start writing your book today.
How to make room for making
An Impulses subscriber wrote to me with the question:
“My creative life has been on the back burner due to day job and health work, family stuff. In addition to the day job stuff, I have 3 personal areas to keep going…yet I know that my artist work is the soul work (music and performance writing). How to manage my creative side when the “work” side takes so much time?”
This is a great question and is one we all face – how to manage our time and energy and attention?
We all have our valuable and precious resources – our time and energy. We are extremely privileged to be able to make decisions about how we spend these resources.
Yes, a certain amount is allocated to survival, i.e. making money to pay our bills. And if for some reason you do not have to work to pay your bills, my guess is there are plenty of other things that take up your time and energy.
But beyond our working hours, we do have time and energy and we are responsible for making the kind of choices that foster our happiness.
My question is this: What are you choosing over your Soul work? How can you afford to not do your Soul work?
If we set our Soul aside, what’s left? What is the lived and felt experience on a daily basis of not devoting at least some of your time to Soul work?
[Read more…] about How to make room for making
Without this, creating will be a battle
February somehow became my month of anniversaries. This month I am celebrating:
• 22 years of dedicated writing
• 20 years of practicing yoga (holy moly! Immmmmm)
• 15 years completely self-employed at Original Impulse
• 15 years of publishing Impulses (Have you been on this list since February 2001? Contact me with your postal address and I will send you a treat in the mail!)
• 3 years of non-drinking (alcohol, that is. I still drink a lot of liquids!)
When I thought about writing to tell you about this, I asked myself, So what? What’s the point of sharing all this? How does trumpeting my anniversaries serve you?
This forced me to look at what fuels my consistency. These are some pretty long-term investments. These commitments completely govern my days.
Why am I able to sustain these practices and this business of serving creative people? Because I’m so disciplined?
No. I hate the concept of discipline. The stern nuns at Catholic school only fueled my rebellious streak with their disciplinary tactics.
Because I’m from Ohio and we relish the value of good hard work? That’s true, but I also love loafing around reading and watching movies.
Finally, last week during a yoga class, it came to me. I am able to sustain these practices because my life purpose fuels me. My life purpose is this:
Love.
Love what I love.
Show that love.
Inspire you to love what you love.
I love these commitments. I love writing. I love how yoga makes me feel strong and open. I love being my own boss and serving your creative dreams. I love the clarity and energy I feel without alcohol in my life.
This love imbues the deepest essence of my work. While I know that a certain amount of discipline is necessary to make our creative work, I also know that we tend to respond more consistently to things we are devoted to.
Here’s how I experience it:
Discipline pushes us from behind to do the work.
Devotion pulls us from the heart to do what we love.
Without love, creating will be a battle you fight against yourself. In my writing class and year-long mastermind group, I train people to look for their love. I ask questions like:
• What do you love about writing?
• What time of day feels like a natural flow for doing your creative projects?
• What do you love in the world and what materials help you show that love in your journal?
On our group call last week, I shared my theory about why we get creatively blocked:
Our ability to create is directly proportionate to our ability to love, respect and honor ourselves.
No amount of time management, classes or discipline will work if you don’t feel you are worthy of taking time to write, doodle or dance. I hate to say it, but without love, it’s going to be very, very hard to make your creative dreams real.
Take that in and see if it’s true for you. If you feel stuck, could it be that you could use a bit more self-honoring?
Listen. There is nothing wrong with you. Seeking solutions to ‘fix’ or ‘force’ you to do the work never last. Instead, look for love. Look at your creative impulses as an invitation to love yourself, to love your life and to let what you love lead you to creative expression.
join me for more love
Follow Through and Finish: Lesson four: Make time for your projects
Week four! I hope you’ve found this month’s lessons to be useful in helping you wrangle your brilliance into form. Today’s lesson will be short.
Step one: Get present
Look at your calendar for the next three months. Take into account your existing obligations. Then return to your map and look at the stars next to the projects you wanted to focus on for the next three months.
Highlight those things. You should have no more than three projects or areas of interest highlighted for the next three months. Even that is probably too much but I understand it’s hard to choose just one thing.
Looking at your calendar and project desires might force you to re-assess. I almost always have to postpone or punt something off the list at this part of the process.
Step two: Make choices for this quarter
In a separate document, list those 1-3 projects you’d like to work on in the next three months. Go back to your mind map and take the action item bubbles and mark dates next to them. You want to be able to look at things in the order of when you do them. You might not have all the information to know this but make the best estimates you can.
Give yourself more time than you think you need. Take into account all the other things you are doing. If you have any big personal or work projects like: moving, a wedding, children’s graduation or other big events, take that into account.
Step three: Brainstorm next steps
Free-write your answers to these questions:
• What do I need to work on this?
• What will I do this week to prepare your workspace/workflow?
From here, put your action items into your to-do list.
Voila! This should give you a sense of how to move from planning stage to action stage.
Right about now, things might have gotten a bit, er, less fun. When I teach this in person, I always say, “What’s that smell? Oh, it’s the rubber meeting the road.”
I joke but it isn’t always fun to take a sober assessment of your time, existing commitments and things you want to add in. We LOVE possibility. It’s easy peasy to live with the possibility of all our great ideas. And it’s good hard work to actually make them. We may unconsciously know that and want to avoid facing the reality of our limitations, so we stay in the dreaming phase, clinging to the ephemeral pleasure of Dreamland.
Why do I care that you write and make things and not just dream about them?
I don’t give these lessons to you to make you feel limited. My intention is to train you to develop a process that helps you take your ideas into action and into the world.
I believe that it’s much, much, much better to face the challenges inherent in writing or making things than to sit on the sidelines as a dreamer watching everyone else publish their books, essays, blogs and whatnot.
I believe that making things makes us. I am a MUCH better person as a result of the books I have published, the art I have made and the things I have built through Original Impulse.
That’s why I do the work of helping creative people focus, follow through and finish things that matter to them.
That’s it! Our class is complete. Feel free to share your experience on the Original Impulse blog or hit ‘reply’ to let me know personally how this has helped you.
What’s Your Creative Edge for 2016?
Happy New Year, creative friends! I love this opportunity to hit the refresh, reset, refocus button. Frankly, it takes a few weeks into January before I feel I have solid footing on the new year.
But it’s never too late to consider your current creative edge.
The theme of my 2015 Annual Report was Thriving at the Creative Edge. At the beginning of the year, I posted a rallying cry to identify, focus on and live at your creative edge.
Rather than goal setting, or choosing a word of the year to focus my efforts, I prefer to think about my current creative edge. If you’re looking for a way to be more creatively satisfied this year, read on. [Read more…] about What’s Your Creative Edge for 2016?
Joyful solutions from SARK’s new book
I was thrilled to receive a review copy of SARK’s new book, Succulent Wild Love, co-authored with her fiancée John Waddell. I’ve read a lot of books about relationships and this one really stood out. I love SARK’s colorful, deep and insightful books and this is no exception. I’ve been telling my friends to read it right away.
The section on Joyful Solutions is useful for anyone. How do we share our lives with others without feeling like we are always battling or compromising? Here’s a…you guessed it..joyful solution.
Believe You Can Create a Joyful Solution
An Excerpt from Succulent Wild Love
Most people spontaneously look for solutions that meet everyone’s needs. We want to please the people we love and want to please ourselves. It’s when we get stuck that we start to look for a compromise or think someone has to sacrifice.
To create a Joyful Solution, you start with the attitude that everyone can get what they want. That is the biggest factor. Starting from that approach is so powerful because when you believe that everyone can get what they want, you can help the other person get what makes them happy.
Often people are focused on scarcity: they think there is only a limited amount of whatever, so they have to put all their energy into trying to get what they can of it. Then the other person picks up on that and feels pushed away. And then they feel they also have to put all their energy into getting whatever they can, and it becomes a tug-of-war.
But the dynamic changes dramatically when you approach the other person with the attitude of “This is what I want. Help me understand what you want, because I want to help you get what you want too.”
When people feel that, the tension dissipates. From that emotional place they will often happily make adjustments because they see it as getting them closer to what they want.
So, creating Joyful Solutions begins with believing you can. The greatest limitation to finding a fully satisfying solution for everyone in any situation is the belief that compromise is as far as you can go.
There is nothing inherently wrong with compromise, but intimate relationships feel more secure and supportive when both people know they’re on the same side. When people are limited to compromise or even sacrifice, each person tends to think they must push against the other or give up. [Read more…] about Joyful solutions from SARK’s new book
Returning to your writing after an absence
If you’re like me, sometimes it’s a struggle to stay on track with your creative projects. We make public commitments and big resolutions to stick to our plans.
But that doesn’t work. Sticking to a plan like a militant writer or artist isn’t how life works for us. In all of my years as a coach, I know that life will always interrupt our routine. Vacations. Illnesses. Visitors or even just our own creative slump can derail us. Then we feel bad and this guilt contributes to inertia that prevents us from getting our groove back.
That’s okay! It’s normal! Life is rarely under our control. What I’ve found helps most is to devise a simple approach to get back on track easily.
It is much easier to develop a very simple ritual or micro-action for returning back to your writing than to be rigid. Here are some suggestions for writers that apply to creatives in any medium.
- Sit with an open notebook and brush your hand across the page.
- Open the last page you wrote and read it with a curious eye.
- Make a 2-minute date to write gibberish, literally words that have no meaning.
- Have a 5-minute date describing the space around you in sensual detail.
- Use this prompt to begin a free-write: What now, my dear writer?
Notice how simple they are? Don’t be fooled; these micro-actions can be powerful. They’re meant to lure you into your creative zone where you will be tempted to fall back in love with your medium of choice.
Too often, we punish ourselves with high expectations. We go gangbusters, thinking we are going to do a three-hour stint. This is WAY more harmful than we think. Setting ourselves up to have a long writing session
Try ONE of these, or a similarly simple action, for slipping back easily into your writing practice.
What micro-actions help you get back on track with your creative practice? Leave a comment!
Paris, Oh Paris
Paris, oh Paris. I mourn for those who died that night, for those who were injured, and for every single person in the city who is experiencing the trauma of these events. I wish there were something I could do to make the pain go away but sadly, pain exists. It’s our work to reconcile that pain with the love we feel for Paris.
Paris is a glorious hub of expression and freedom. For a long time, it’s been a place where people go to be free, to discover themselves and to express their truth. I have been leading annual creativity workshops for ten years in Paris, and it’s always a source of inspiration for me and my students.
Paris is a city of unstoppable beauty and grace, from the elegant Hausmann buildings and boulevards to the tiniest detailed swirl on a manhole cover.
And, Paris is also a city with a long history of violence, from the Bastille uprising to the French revolution to the Nazi occupation.
When I visit Europe, the history of intense violence there is always present alongside the beauty of the present day.
When I stroll through Paris, savoring the scents and sights, coming upon another plaque commemorating someone who was gunned down by the Nazis…violence and hatred are there.
When I zoom around the Place de la Concord on bike, my joy rides alongside the knowledge of the many people who lost their lives to the guillotine there.
This is our world. Unimaginable violence jockeying with glorious beauty. How do we reconcile the two?
My life’s work is devoted to helping people express what is inside them. To write books. To make art. To build businesses. My hope is that the creative work we do contributes to the side of the equation that is a force of good and light. That somehow, the doodles we make, the essays we write, the fictions we craft make this world a better place, even if we don’t know how exactly.
Paris is a magnet for people who come to express themselves. It’s beyond unfortunate that some people express themselves by harming others. Expressing ourselves at the harm of others is never okay. Bullying, domestic abuse, gun-wielding expression are not okay. They are the lowest form of expression, expression that exists only in its ability to debase others.
Paris, like all places, houses the good, the bad, and the truly ugly. I don’t know how to reconcile the violence with the beauty. I can only stand for love, beauty and the power of creative expression.
Stand with me. Express yourself. Express your truth. Express your love. Peace.
Take inspiration into action and be a happy creative person
Online classes. In-person retreats. Blogs. Webinars. Books, magazines, TV.
You’ve consumed all of these things in joy, wonder and a desire to make your creative projects happen. You leave inspired and uplifted.
And then….what happens? Sometimes, nothing.
If you’re like me and a lot of people I know, you LOVE all these goodies. It’s so fun and exciting. But when it comes time to make your own stuff, to write your own masterpieces, to build your business or body of work, you’re still in consumer mode.
Switching from consumer mode to creator mode can be incredibly difficult. I know I’ve seen my attention span shrink. And, when we consume all that advice and information, we can lose our sense of what’s right for us. Faced with many decisions, we make none.
And we go back into the consuming loop, checking Facebook, Instagram and our blog subscriptions. OY!
I know you want to be more than just a consumer. You wouldn’t be in the Impulses loop if you were on the planet just to watch other people make things and show their talents.
How to take inspiration to action? There are a lot of things I can suggest but today I will focus on two ways to drill down and make your dreams a reality.
Return to yourself
If you’re a-swirl with ideas and no sense of direction, stop, drop and free-write. Free-writing can be used for all kinds of writing. In this case, you’re using it to get clear direction on what to do. It’s AMAZING how this simple tool can cut through the noise and help you hear your own truth and direction.
Use these two prompts in consecutive order. Write for five minutes on the first prompt, then switch to the second prompt. Feel free to write for as long as you need to get clarity.
1) My focus now is….
2) That class/blog/book/webinar (INSERT RECENT INSPIRATION) will help me with this focus by….
When you finish the free-write, read it over and see what’s there. Make some brief notes to give you direction as if you’ve just heard from the wisest person in your life about what you should do now. Then do the next step.
Plan your time
Now, look at your calendar and commitments. What have you already committed to? And how much space do you have for your main focus?
Then, schedule time for your focus. It may be finishing an ongoing project. It may be initiating a new project. Either way, get clear on how much time you have for this project.
Once you know the work ahead, and see the amount of time you have to devote to the project, this should help you see how much room you have left for consuming things. Hopefully this will tip the ratio in favor of creating.
I want you to have these last three months of the year be poignant and potent. I want you to leave the year feeling great. I hope this simple process helps you focus, follow through and finish things that matter to you. Let me know how it goes in a comment below.
Join me to make your own projects happen now
Want a chance to make time every day to write your OWN stuff? How about a class that’s all about writing. Not reading others’ writing. Not getting critique. Just a focused place to write daily.
If writing is one of your projects, my online writing class The Devoted Writer is a great way to get past blocks and just write. Some reasons why this is great to get your work done:
- The focus is on you writing every day, for at least 15 minutes.
- You can use this class for ANY kind of writing.
- There is no obligation to interact with others or read anyone else’s writing.
- No one will critique your writing. You are free to get that shaggy first draft OUT.
- You can use my prompts or prompts from your project. I show you how to do that in class.
- At the end of the month, you will have made significant progress on your own work.
Find out more about how to write with us in my online class The Devoted Writer.
Gutsy Geek Writes the Book!
It’s such a thrill when a client finishes a book! And it’s an even greater thrill when that books makes the extra mile out the door and into the world.
I only coach people to write books I believe in, and this new book is a world-changer! Rami, of Gutsy Geek, has released his how-to guide The Geek’s Guide to Getting the Girl.
I can’t tell you how much fun it was to coach Rami to get this book out of his head and blog and into book form. Rami’s blog, Gutsy Geek, has already helped so many people feel more confident and ready to date. And now, his book will take things even further for more great geek dating!
Rami jumped on a call with me to share how he made it past the many obstacles between his great idea and this book making its debut into the world.
Listen in on our conversation here.
Rami shares his motivation for writing the book and how that helped him stay on track. He also discusses his publishing decisions and how he’s using what he learned from writing this book to work on other projects.
Get your copy here.
How to WOW It Up Anywhere
What is Capture the WOW, anyway? It’s a workshop. An approach to travel and life. But what’s underneath it?
This summer, I clarified what this WOW is all about. I went to my summer office repeatedly (yoga mat in the park) to clarify what’s underneath all the color and play in a journal.
I’ll be practicing these tenets on my upcoming trip to Europe while I work my creative edge. I’ve got a wee project I’ll be working on that will help me make the most of the WOW I encounter in Berlin, Paris and Barcelona.
Let’s WOW it up
The basic principles of Capture the WOW can be distilled into eight tenets. No matter where you are, you can practice any one of these to feel instantly more creative.
1. Slow down. Speeding around all stressed out doesn’t improve your output or impact.
2. Make space. Nothing is created when our days are packed, when rushing from one thing to the next.
3. Go analog. Tune out to tune into the world and yourself. Treat yourself to some digital downtime for more insights and connection to your creative contribution.
4. Cultivate your attention. What you pay attention to feeds or depletes your vitality and your originality.
5. Attune to your WOW lens. Open yourself to the wonders of the world all around you. Be a porous wonder sponge for all the world has to offer.
6. Dial back the control tower. Become an explorer, a discover, an adventurer. Get lost to find treasures. Be curious.
7. Free yourself to play. Fun and lightness, especially with others, is key to regaining that kid-like joy that feels so good. Play stimulates our creativity.
8. Imperfection is your ally. Be messy. Be inefficient. It won’t kill you. But it may lead to your next best in art and life.
Notice this isn’t about having the right supplies, the right notebook or a whole afternoon to wander. You can WOW it up anywhere, anytime.
Try it! See if you can play with even one of these tenets and notice what’s different for your creativity.
Hint: number 1 and 2 are most important!
100 Paintings Art Exhibit in Boulder, Friday August 14th
The 100 Day Project was so much fun! In case you missed my recap of what I gleaned from doing 100 paintings in 100 days, check it out here.
I’m hosting an exhibit of the watercolor paintings I did for the project this Friday. My friend Alix Christian also did 100 watercolor paintings and she’s hosting our show in her art studio.
The show is one night only, so if you’re in Colorado, be sure to come check it out!
Details
Friday, August 14th only
5:30 – 8:30 pm
4593 N. Broadway, C-105
Boulder, Colorado
The studio is in a cluster of art studios behind the shops facing the street. Can’t wait to see you there!
10 Insights from 100 Days of Painting
When I heard about Elle Luna’s call to action to do The 100 Day Project, I knew I had to sign up. The mission: make something – anything – for 100 days, April 6th – July 14th.
I had never done anything of this scope before. Sure, I’ve written every day for 30 days and I’ve also made art for 30 days, but ONE HUNDRED?! That’s a lot. That’s a big commitment.
I decided to do 100 paintings on square paper, 8 x 8. No more complicated than that. Within those parameters I could paint whatever I wanted. Here’s what happened, in ten insights. [Read more…] about 10 Insights from 100 Days of Painting
Ever get overwhelmed? Here's how I cope
You may think because I’m fairly effective in getting things done that I don’t get overwhelmed. That I don’t get distracted by what other people are doing and that I never fall prey to Bright Shiny Object Syndrome.
Oh contraire. I think this happens to all of us. And that’s normal. If we aren’t affected by the world’s bounty, we wouldn’t be creative people, would we? It’s good to let ideas and people influence us.
And, it’s good to be able to process all that goodness and turn it into meaningful things we care about sharing. Easier said than done. This is the kind of thing I coach my clients on all the time.
Here are my simple steps that help me get focused when overwhelm threatens to overtake me and my effectiveness. These practices are great for any time you are overwhelmed, not just post-travel. [Read more…] about Ever get overwhelmed? Here's how I cope
Behind the Scenes of My Two Hands Paperie Illustration Project
It’s so fun collaborating with other artists. So far this year has seen a lot of fun projects that I get to do with others.
I’m in the final revision process for the book I am illustrating for Cory Huff of The Abundant Artist. I just finished a project with Two Hands Paperie and I want to share my experience with you.
It’s been fun to photo document the process of making something. There was a steep but satisfying learning curve, but solving these kind of problems is fun for me.
In this photo essay, I hope to share some of that process with you. You may have seen some of these images from my Instagram feed.
The project: Full-spread illustration for Two Hands Paperie newsletter
The idea: Travel like an artist with my visual journaling capture process, Capture the Wow
My creative edge: What’s the point of view? How to lay out a pleasing page?
The deadline: June 18, 2015
Want to Wow it up with me in Boulder this summer? I’m teaching a half-day Capture the Wow class in Boulder on Saturday July 25th. Space is limited so if you’d like to Wow it up with us, head over to Two Hands Paperie to register.