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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.

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Unconventional Advice for Getting Creatively Unstuck

You’ve heard the advice:

Just do it.
Schedule creative time in.
Make a plan and stick to it.

This is all good advice…unless for you, it’s not. I’ve built my coaching business not on pat advice for all, but on training creative people to learn what works for them. Here’s a peek into four unconventional methods I offer my clients.

Let the body lead. It’s so easy to override the messages our bodies tell us. When to eat. When to take a break from the screen. When to get some air in our thought process. When to take a nap. But the body, if we pay attention, is an excellent leader.

Pretend you’re not wrong. This isn’t designed to foster arrogance and self-righteousness. Instead, it’s meant to let you off the hook from being a screw up. We waste so much mental and emotional energy making ourselves wrong for our choices. We’re not doing it right. We should be better than this. Etc. Etc. Experiment with this: for a week, act as if your choices around your creative work are not wrong.

Do nothing. It’s often when we take space from focused work that new ideas or solutions arise. Yet it’s difficult to relax the constant tug of ambition or ‘shoulds’. Time and again, when we give ourselves space to accomplish nothing, that answers and insights arise. I know this is common advice, but how often are you willing to actually act on it?

Make a manual. This exercise is one my clients embrace with joy. Write or draw or mind map a manual for your creative self. Call it Care and Feeding of the Artist Manual. In it, include all the things you feel are important to maintaining your creative sanity and vitality. This will give you information about what works for you and what doesn’t.

What helps you get unstuck? Have you tried any of these methods? Leave a comment below to share your unsticking strategies. 

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9 Reasons You Must Write

You’re probably no stranger to the ‘challenges’  of the writing life. It’s a bit of a fool’s journey, isn’t it?

The work is difficult. Chances at fame and monetary success are slim. Friends and family wonder why you spend so much time working on something that doesn’t pay you back. Even you sometimes suspect you’re crazy.

Despite the difficulties, I take a stand for each and every one of us writing fools.

Because writing pays you back. I’ve seen it again and again with my students and clients. Writing is a gateway drug you’ll never regret.

Why I care that you write

I believe if you have the impulse to write, you must follow it. You wouldn’t choose this path. The urge to write isn’t something you control. You just feel it. So follow it.

In my writing classes, I give the prompt ‘I write because’. Writing for 15 minutes on this topic is often enough to reignite someone’s motivation to write. A satisfying writing practice follows from there.

If you’re someone who has been sitting on her hands, silencing her voice and not writing, I offer nine reasons why you must write.

Because it feels good. If you’ve ever caught the groove of the keyboard or pen across the page, you’ll know the breathless exhilaration writing can give. You can do that to yourself without spending any money?! Creative jollies for free! Who wouldn’t take that up?

Because you have something to say. Author Brenda Ueland believed that “Everyone is talented, original and has something important to say.” Believe it’s worth your time to get words on the page.

Because you’re curious to see what emerges from your pen and heart. And that curiosity must be satisfied for you to feel right in the world.

Because writing introduces you to your true self. Writing offers a transformative process similar to sharing with a friend or counselor. When you write, you may feel a sense of being heard – by yourself, at least. And aren’t you the one you most need to know and trust?

Because writing is a change agent leading you in positive directions in your life. You can’t help but notice the dusty corners of your psyche that need tidying up and the things you can no longer tolerate. Taking up the pen is taking up the sword in defense of a life you actually want to live.

Because it’s fun. Often in free writing, fictional stories will emerge from our pens. Free writing frees us to explore, play and enjoy a limitless freedom of our imagination. This is the giggly part of writing; not to be missed.

Because it frees you. You deserve to live without the weight of procrastination. Instead, you get to feel the exhilaration of your own creative flow. You get to move, and do things and share your world through your words.

Because it’s healthy to express ourselves. I was in the audience at a conference when Breneé Brown said “unexpressed creativity is not a benign force’. Tears flowed down my face. I’d known all along that our creativity is as vital to our health as is good food and exercise. To hear it validated by a researcher added wind to my wings.

Because you can. Freedom of speech is no small boon – take it and use it.

Add your own tenth reason for writing. Set a timer for 10 minutes, and using the prompt I write because…write your heart out.

Join us to write in February

I could go on and on about how much we gain from having a committed writing practice. I want everyone to have this fun and powerful practice.

Freewriting forms the basis of all I write. I’ve helped hundreds of people use freewriting to write books, blogs, articles, and the deeply poignant personal writing that leads to more, better writing.

Ready to have writing as your ally this year? Join us for The Devoted Writer. Throughout February we will write, write, write, at least 15 minutes a day. Together we’ll initiate a new relationship with our writing and with ourselves.

Join us here. And use one of the share buttons below to let your friends in on the fun.

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Upgrade Your Life Without Leaving Home

I was sitting on my couch journaling on Sunday before Christmas when it occurred to me that I could re-arrange my apartment so my art studio was more fun and functional.
I needed a new studio because my current set up wasn’t working. My art studio was really just a desk in my office. All my art supplies were at hand, but I wasn’t drawn to go there. (Pun not intended.) 

Newstudio
Last fall, Lisa Sonora Beam helped me focus my 2014 plans. I declared art making a priority. I dreamed on paper of having a separate, dedicated space for my studio. Maybe even out of the home.
So when the idea to shake things up arrived, I jotted notes. When I thought I was decamping to Paris, I had planned to pack everything in the last two weeks of the year. Now, I could move without going anywhere.
My friend Dennis came over and helped me. We shifted the living room and overtook the dining table for an art table, moving it in front of the sunny east-facing window. I now have a reading and journaling nook near the window.
Over the course of the holiday week I nested. Getting a new table, moving a bookcase, rearranging chairs – voila! I’m not done, but I upgraded my life without leaving home or spending money.
The new space arrangement is designed for how I want to live, making art at the center. It feels more functional and also larger and more clean.Best thing about my new studio? It’s already inspired me to make art. I’ve begun a new series. Last week, I made 23 pieces of art.
These greeting cards are gifts for my friends, family and clients. I loved making them and sending them, and I’ll be sharing them with you here. They’re something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time and I feel I’m entering year two of art school with a focus.
This is a lesson I keep learning – that I usually have everything I need right here. A few shifts, a new perspective is often all it takes for me to feel a sense of change or progress.
Cynthia Morris illustration scissors watercolor

Upgrade your life without leaving home

Maybe you won’t be shifting your living room around just yet, but even a small shift can cause a sense of upgrade. What’s one thing in your creative space you could change this week? Some possibilities:

  • get new lighting
  • clear clutter from one spot
  • try a new organizer

It could be time to upgrade your inner space, your thoughts and beliefs, a sort of refresher for your inner operating system. Maybe a shift in perspective is necessary?

  • New income ceiling – how much money are you willing to bring in?
  • New identity – is there a name you’ve been calling yourself that’s no longer apt?
  • New inner voice – how about replacing the nag with the champion?

This is the kind of work I do as a coach – help my clients clean out dusty rooms both inside and outside. The space around us affects our inner space and how we achieve our creative projects.
Have you done any upgrades lately? Take a look around your world and see what simple things could shift everything.

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Excavating a manifesto: to the glorious, exalted core!

Keeping your journals around can yield little treats. While rearranging my studio last week, I found this millennial manifesto I wrote. This was the year I became a coach, and after writing this, I went to Switzerland for a brief stint as a hot air balloon chef.
Present-day me would edit this a bit (fewer exclamations!) but it’s cool to see how the core beliefs of my mission are intact. I’ve learned a lot since I wrote this, but my enthusiasm and unbridled faith in the gifts of creativity still ride strong.
Let’s leap off the edge into the new year together, to the exalted core of our selves!
CMManifesto
Happy new year, everyone!

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Holidays on your own terms

Here’s the scenario:
I spend the holiday season with my loved ones, just the right amount of time with family, just the right amount of time with friends.
Color2013_1
Interesting and lovely holiday music plays in the background. Enticing smells float from the kitchen. We play games of Scrabble and charades and I always win. We go for walks and practice yoga together and feel great in our bodies.
We share lots of great conversation and laughs. It’s great to catch up and share the season with each other. We also have just enough alone time to process the glory and to recharge.
The gift giving – if any – is perfect. Perfect gifts all around, perfect amount of money spent. Actually, scratch that. No gift giving. The gifts we give are our attention and love.
We eat healthy, beautifully prepared food, and here’s the best thing: we eat with caloric impunity.
Perhaps we watch a movie at night or go for a long walk.
This is not the holiday season I usually have.
Why not? Because the holiday season is about connecting with others, and that means some external compromise. But it doesn’t mean you have to compromise what’s really important to you.

Enjoying life on your own terms

Does enjoying live life on your own terms make you selfish? We’re not talking about having all your external stuff handled perfectly. We’re not talking a wrinkle-free life.
Color2013_2
So what do I mean ‘live life on your own terms’? I means knowing:

  • yourself deeply, so your conversations are authentic to you and your truth.
  • what fuels you, so you don’t waste your precious life in draining situations.
  • where you want to make an impact, so your creative time is meaningful and satisfying.
  • what feeds you, so the food and information you consume contributes to your creativity and well-being.
  • who you cherish so you can spend quality time with them.

Your own terms is less about managing the external environment and more about owing and accepting your internal environment. This deep level of self-awareness and self-trust will inform your experience no matter what your external reality.
What are your own terms? How do you stay in alignment with yourself in all and any circumstances? 

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How I Finally Gave Up Rebelling and Got a Lot Happier

I always believed gratitude was a good thing, and regularly expressed thanks when it was due.
But the ‘gratitude practice’ of writing down daily all the things you’re grateful for – I resisted. Perhaps it was because Oprah encouraged it and anything Oprah recommended was too mainstream for me. Perhaps it was because everyone touted keeping a gratitude journal and I didn’t want to be like everyone else.
Vital Yoga customer party and picnicI have a rebellious streak in me, and for that I am grateful.
Last year, I received some positive psychology training as part of the Good Life Project. We were taught to keep an eye on our mindset through various practices, including, yes, a gratitude practice.
I grumpily tried it. It worked, and for awhile, I did feel happier. Then I stopped, and I became less happy.
I began to see how powerful our internal circumstances are compared to external causes for happiness. This summer, I resumed the gratitude practice.
I finally found something that worked for me – a special Jill Bliss journal by my bedside. Every night I list five things I am grateful for. It’s mysterious, but I do believe this practice makes a difference in my day-to-day well being.
But this is what it takes for something to work for me – I have to experience it. I can’t just believe in it because someone tells me to do it. (I reserve the right to rebel about other things!) More on this in my annual report, coming out next month. For now, my gratitude for you, my reader.

Five thank yous

Thank you for reading my writing. Without you, my writing is nothing.
Thank you for sharing with your friends. Without them, you create in a vacuum.
Thank you for being you. Without you, the world is incomplete.
Thank you for being brave enough to make your art. WIthout it, the world vibrates a little less.
Thank you for sharing your creative work. Without it, we miss out on your essence.
Happy Thanksgiving, Americans.
Do you have a gratitude practice? Have you seen an impact on your happiness? 

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Discomfort Is Good for Creativity

You attend a panel discussion about change at Samovar Tea Lounge. An athlete, an author and an entrepreneur discuss what it takes to change our lives.

Samovar Tea Lounge, Leo Babauta
Notes from Panel featuring Leo Babauta, Matt Frazier, Jesse Jacobs at Samovar Tea Lounge

With a sparkling view of the nighttime San Francisco skyline, you sip ginger tea, nodding when the panelists remark on something you know to be true. You are a change agent, after all, and you thrive on discussions of what it takes to grow and thrive.
But one topic strikes you more than others, and when one of the panelists brings it up, you pay more attention: Discomfort is a necessary and good part of the creative process.
You know this. Intellectually, you embrace change. But then you get the call to leave your comfort zone. At first, you retract against the hassles of change.
You wrestle with the complex details of the moving into the unknown. Your comfort zone feels pretty good as you enter the hibernation season.
The picture of your new life blooms in your mind, accompanied by the ballast of reality. You know the dream life has as many scuffs and dents as the lived life.
If you answer the call with a yes, you agree to enter a time of intense discomfort and decision making. If you answer no, you stay comfortable, but you’ll live with the question ‘what if’.
You consult your values. Hmmm…, ‘comfort’ is nowhere on the list. Beauty, good food, health, yes, but comfort? No.
You take a deep breath, and leading into your value of adventure, you say yes.
When you get the call to leave your comfort zone – whether it’s a new book idea, a business idea, or a personal move like divorce or moving – what helps you decide to risk the discomfort?

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Stop Being a Victim of OPA

You’re tooling along, writing your book or making your art. The next thing you know, you’re a victim of OPA – Other People’s Agenda.

OPA shows up in the following ways:

  • emails
  • social media links
  • requests
  • phone calls
  • brainstorming that has nothing to do with your focus
  • opportunities
  • friends and family’s ideas of who, how and what you should be

Often, OPA is disguised as opportunities. Offers for you, invitations to speak or write for others. Sounds great, right?

But these opportunities can pull us away from our own agenda. Away from the things we write, the programs we develop, the art we make. Remember, not every opportunity is your opportunity.
OPA can seem harmless enough. But as our attention gets more dissipated, our time becomes more valuable. Our ability to focus is one of the main factors that contributes to our success. I work on this all the time with my clients – how to stay focused on their agenda over the long haul.

How to fend off OPA

I’m not advising you to shut yourself in a cave and ignore the world. OPA can be incredibly enriching. Unexpected possibilities, new insights, new friends and colleagues all come from OPA.

Living at the mercy of OPA dissipates our already-scattered focus. It prevents us from doing our best work.

This is a complex issue. We don’t want to create rigid rules that shut us away from the world. We do want to maintain our focus and stay in relationship with the world.

My focus became much easier to hold when I drafted some policies around requests. These policies clarified my focus and reduced the amount of time I spent responding to OPA.
I recommend developing some boundaries so OPA doesn’t override your agenda. Some include:

  • Clear agenda for the year, quarter, month, day
  • Timed social media and online wandering sessions
  • Focused, offline creating sessions
  • Written policies to easily respond to requests

Take stock of the kinds of OPA that regularly show up in your life. For each kind of OPA, write a strategy for managing it.

What helps you avoid being a victim of OPA? Please share your thoughts below. This is a topic I think we all need help with, so your input is appreciated.

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Don't Go It Alone: Connect with Groups for Creative Success

In his book Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam laments a plight common to many people today: we’re disconnected from others and lack a sense of community. As a creative person, you may feel this more acutely. While we need to have solitude to generate our next creative genius, we also need support of peers. If you’re feeling isolated, take the initiative to participate in groups.
Connecting in groups can enhance our lives immeasurably. Here are some reasons why you should consider being a groupie:

  • share the journey: writers, artists, investors, entrepreneurs can learn and grow more with others
  • glean tips and ideas you would not find on your own
  • be inspired by others’ boldness and successes
  • get support from your peers
  • have regular accountability.

The inroads I’ve made on all my goals are largely due to the conversations I have with my groups: my Rich Women group, my writing group, and my book group. Without regular gatherings, I would still be looking for a retirement account, and would still be eking out chapter one of my novel.

How to start your own empowerment groups

One of my writing groups in Paris
One of my writing groups in Paris

Ready to commune with others? You may consider starting a group. There are several steps to initiating groups, whether they be writing groups, art support groups, financial empowerment groups, investment clubs or whatever tribe you need to move forward in life.
First, figure out what you want. Write down the characteristics of your ideal group. Include:

  • regularity of meeting
  • size of group
  • group focus
  • qualities you want to see in the group members
  • where you meet and how long the sessions are.

Your ideal vision of your group might look like this:

“My Rich Women group meets once a month. In the summer, we meet outdoors at a park, and in winter months, we meet at a café. Once a year we go out for happy hour to celebrate our successes. There are no more than five women in the group. These women are pro-active, have a lot to contribute and are willing to share information. They are also kind and supportive and listen to each other. Our focus is personal and professional finance. We talk about: saving, investing, retirement accounts, managing our finances, how we bill for our time, best business practices, wills, insurance and anything that relates to financial empowerment.

“We meet for 1-2 hours and stay focused on the money. Each person has 15-30 minutes to share her wins and challenges. Each woman has homework that she assigns to herself. This helps the members to make progress – knowing that the group is holding her accountable.”

Secret sauce for creative success
Okay, I’ll admit that my creativity is also fueled by caffeine – yummy tea like this!

Once you have your vision of your group, start seeking members. Make a list of people you know who may want to join. When you contact them, you’ll be able to describe exactly what you want to create. They’ll be able to tell if this is something they want to join or not.
Set your first meeting and use some of the meeting time to come to agreement on how you want to operate. Setting up your group will take a little time, but it is worth it.
Not into initiating? No problem. Check out Meetup – an international organization that connects like-minded people in your area. Look for writers’ groups, business groups, philosophy groups, whatever you’re into, there’s likely a group for you. Most Meetup groups connect online and meet in person.
Whether you start or join a group, I think you’ll find the benefits can be huge. Your life will be richer for it.

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Reveal Your Original Impulse with Your Adventure Resume

I’ve been working for myself since 1999. Let me tell you, it hasn’t always been easy. In the early years, I wasn’t sure Original Impulse was going to make it.

This fear usually arose when I needed to do something difficult in the business. Among these challenges:

  • writing marketing copy
  • going through the process to sell my first e-book online (Create Your Writer’s Life, 2003)
  • becoming a corporation and dealing with all the paperwork to manage that

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, I am so glad I stuck with it. What helped me get over my fear and resistance?

Pulling out my resume to apply for a job.

It always seemed that the difficulties of running a business paled in comparison to fitting my skills onto one sheet of paper. And it seemed the things that go on a resume are not the things that make me me.

Use your experiences to know yourself better and empower your future

One of my favorite exercises for my coaching clients is the Adventure Resume©. This process helps them recognize themselves on a deep level. With this awareness comes a greater power to access their original impulse to make better choices.

I created this process years ago when I was at a crossroads in my life. I mapped all the things I’d done on paper. When I was finished, I was astounded to see that I felt much different about my seemingly random experiences. My values were clearly outlined in the choices I had made. Astonishingly, I felt okay about dying; I felt I’d lived an adventurous life.

Plus, it’s fun to look back and see all your adventures chronicled in one place.

 

 

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Stop Letting Money Squelch Your Creativity

Like many creative types, I used to be really inept with money. I mean ostrich-like, avoiding the realities of finance. In the early days of building my business, I’d put things on credit cards. I had no financial plan. I had no financial sense at all.
Every time I thought, “I should do something about my money situation” a cloud of righteous anger would rise up. I’d huff and puff that someone should have taught me about personal finance. We all should be taught about personal finance.
And then I’d do nothing. This hiding from money was squelching my creativity, coloring my relationships, and holding me back.
Does this happen to you regarding money (or any issue) – you want to change, and then an emotional cloud overcomes you and paralyzes you?
I say it’s time to start using our emotions instead of letting them stop us.

How I changed my financial life

I love money painting by Cynthia Morris
Finally, I changed my mind about money. I decided that I am smart and that I love to learn. I decided to teach myself how to be financially empowered.
I set out on a self-directed course I called Financial Empowerment. I used two things to change my relationship with money:

  • Books
  • Conversation

Now, books and conversations may not seem like strong enough tools to change my outlook with money, but they were. Here’s what I did.
I read every book on money I could get my hands on. I did the exercises. I learned new terms and saw where I needed help.
But reading wasn’t enough. I needed to talk about this. In other areas of my life, I’d benefited from peer-led mastermind groups. Regular meetings to discuss a specific topic and to hold each other accountable can be incredibly strong.

Gather a Rich Women Group of Your Own

So I rallied several friends who also wanted to be better with money. Four of us met monthly for several years. We called ourselves Rich Women. We:

  • read a book each month and discussed it.
  • used an exercise in Smart Women Finish Rich to identify our financial goals
  • held each other accountable to make progress on our goals.
  • kept our own money journals where we tracked our processes.
  • kept track of the unexpected boons that came our way as a result of our efforts.

Those conversations – real, honest, full of numbers conversations – changed the way I thought, felt and acted around money. The shame over my financial mismanagement dissolved.
Over the course of several years, I:

  • cleared $24,000 in debt
  • got health insurance
  • opened a health savings account
  • opened two retirement accounts
  • increased my income

Lessons from Money

DSCN0654-37One of the biggest things I learned about money management is that every step is accompanied by a powerful emotion. This emotional cloud threatens to halt our efforts. But when I realized that emotions were part of the empowerment process, I didn’t let fear or shame stop me.
The other big thing I learned is that my relationship with money is an ongoing one. Money is a game we all get to play, every day of our lives, until we die.
Because I needed a financial tune-up, I recently worked with Luna Jaffe, author of Wild Money. Her combination of financial planner and artist helped me get past some issues that had crept back into my life.
Another new book, Money: A Love Story by Kate Northrup, is on my shelf and I can’t wait to read it.
That’s the biggest change I’ve experienced since getting financially empowered: I no longer dread money. I love money and money loves me. We’re having a great time together.
Here’s the best thing about being empowered around money: when I realized I could make this kind of change in an icky area of my life, I knew I could make change anywhere. The ’empowerment’ in ‘financial empowerment’ has changed how I live my whole life.
I invite you to rally your own Financial Empowerment Group. Because you deserve to be empowered here and everywhere in your life.

Books for your financial empowerment

cover-papercut-final1-copy-232x300There are a lot of books out there, but these are the ones I recommend the most:
Overcoming Underearning by Barbara Stanny – Exercises to deal with the emotions and beliefs that keep you stuck in a money rut.
Smart Women Finish Rich by David Bach Nuts and bolts of how to manage your finances.
 Secrets of Six-Figure Women by Barbara Stanny – Inspiring stories of how women can earn a lot of money, but at the end we discover they don’t manage their money well.
The Energy of Money by Maria Nemeth – Similar to Overcoming Underearning but a bit longer and more complex.
New books I recommend:
Wild Money by Luna Jaffe
Money: A Love Story by Kate Northrup
How have you empowered yourself around money? Share in a comment below, because we’re here to get rich together! 
In an upcoming post I’ll share some tips for how to have a peer group that works, for money or any other topic.

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What Kind of Transformation Do You Want?

TulipWowBy Cynthia Morris
Justine Musk, one of my favorite bloggers, wrote an article about how the reader, not the blogger, is the heroine of her blog. She encouraged us to consider what we want our readers to become. I love this way of thinking of the writer/reader relationship.
This sparked me to write an article for Alyson Stanfield’s Art Biz Blog. In today’s article, I offer ten kinds of transformation I’d like to see for you.

I want these ten things and more for you:

  1. You recognize yourself deeply.
  2. You embrace, celebrate and nurture your quirkiness.
  3. You are inspired to make your life your own creative adventure.
  4. All the inner and outer obstacles to your creative satisfaction dissipate.
  5. The process of dissolving your excuses is one of challenge and delight and victory.
  6. You feel seen, heard and appreciated.
  7. You finish the creative projects that are most meaningful to you.
  8. You find people who recognize you and who want to join in the fun that is your life.
  9. You feel as creative, resourceful and whole as I believe you are.
  10. You have the time and space to bring your most titillating creative ideas into form.

If any of these ring true for you, feel free to turn them into blessings. Copy them into your journal. Hand letter them and place them on your shrine.
Better yet, commit to being and having the full creative expression that is you.
What about you? What do you, my heroine, want for yourself? If you’re a blogger, what do you want for your readers?
Share your thoughts below. Feel free to offer thoughts on what you’d like to see me write for you.

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Just Keep Showing Up

Every morning, I leave the comfort of bed, make a visit to the bathroom and then take a seat on a cushion. I set a timer for 15 minutes, offer a brief prayer, and try to sit still until the timer goes off.

I’ve been doing this since November 6th, 2012. On the advice of my mentor Jonathan Fields and my friend Kristoffer Carter, I took up meditation. I can’t point to any specific results of this practice. I can’t say I’m a better, more calm person. But I can say that I keep showing up for myself, and that feels good.

Meditation instructor Susan Piver helped guide my practice. She insists that sitting meditation isn’t about quieting the mind. It’s about being with ourselves, being with our mind as it is. With compassion and attention.

This no-judgement practice has allowed me to keep showing up. The only goal: sit down and show up. Even a year into it, I haven’t applied any specific goals other than that. I don’t demand quiet. I don’t deride myself for thinking about episodes of Breaking Bad. I just show up.
The best thing about this meditation practice is that it’s become a habit. A habit is something you do almost without choosing. You just do. The relief and pleasure I feel from this routine that starts my day is great. I don’t have to decide. I don’t have to worry about missing it or forgetting it. It’s as much a part of the day as visiting the bathroom – I just do it.

What does this have to do with the creative life? This is the kind of practice I want my students and clients to cultivate. I urge them to keep showing up, without judgement, without an agenda that chokes the vitality of the work.

I’m not concerned about a good meditation session or a bad one. It’s almost as if every session is the same. The only thing that counts is that I show up.

The same is true for writing or art making. Keep showing up. Let what happens in the session have its own vitality, its own say.

I kept showing up for my novel, draft after draft. It took 12 years, but finally all my efforts culminated in something worth publishing.

How do you keep showing up for your writing or art making? How often can you leave the judge behind to simply and humbly bear witness to your creative impulses? Share your experience in a comment below of the practices that guide your creative life.

Practice with us

Starting today, I’m leading a group of writers around the world in a daily practice. We write every day for 15 minutes, using a verbal and visual prompt. This online writing class, The Devoted Writer, is one of my favorite things to lead.

It’s not too late to join this writing class. Your new writing friends are waiting to welcome you to this practice of showing up for your words.

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Creative People: Are You Clinging to an Asset That's Really a Liability?

By Cynthia Morris
Recently, I was with a group of creative adventurers, and we were sharing our dreams with each other. One person’s story showed me the truth of something I’d suspected for a long time: what we consider an asset is actually a liability. Here’s what I mean.

Cynthia Morris Paris cheese shop
Too many choices leads to despair

As he described one project idea after another, I clearly saw his energy drain away from him. A film, a book, a new business, blog ideas…all these great ideas buzzed around his head. We listened and I know I wasn’t the only one who was initially excited, then drained by all the possibility.
He confessed that he wasn’t making satisfying progress with any of his ideas. Yet he still clung to the notion that having all these ideas was a good thing.
It struck me like a gong and I had to speak. “Your wealth of ideas is actually a liability,” I said. “Thinking that an abundance of inspiration is a good thing is actually holding you back.”
An abundance of ideas is only an asset if you consistently make and ship them.
No one wants to hear this. We love or precious and brilliant notions. You’ve probably said, “If only I could be paid for all my great ideas!”
But here’s the truth: ideas by themselves are worthless. The thing that makes a creative idea valuable is the sweat and tears and work that goes into making it real. Our creative ideas are nothing without the commitment and labor we bring to them.
Here’s where the true gold lies: our creative projects work us. Your great ideas are not going to make you happy perched in the attic of your imagination.
No. Your idea is going to make you happy because it’s going to demand the best that you’ve got to give and more. Because once your great idea is an actual reality, you’re going to be a different person. A better person.
This is why I spend my precious life coaching people to create their great work: we’re given these great ideas not so we can get our jollies from looking at them and talking about them. We’re given these flights of imagination so we can get on board, one idea after another, and pilot our way to best selves through the work they demand from us.
If you’re guilty of hoarding your ideas as a precious asset, drop it. Instead, commit to one asset at a time and build true creative wealth.
How about you? Have you turned the corner from thinking of your ideas as an asset only if you execute on them? I’d love to hear what you think about this. Please comment below.