Creativity

Denver, 1996. I’m working at Capitol Hill Books. Fueled by my passion for writing, I decide to teach a poetry class. Called Poetry Unbound, it’s the beginning of my career teaching and coaching writers.

I didn’t know it then, but I was embarking on a lifelong fascination with the creative process. When I became a coach in 1999, I gained a set of tools that has helped me understand why and how we human beings make things. Twenty years in, and I am still utterly fascinated by why we do or don’t make our creative dreams real.

Do you wonder why some people seem to create more easily than others? There are many reasons why some people succeed in getting their writing out of their head and into the world, and as many reasons why they don’t.

I’ve isolated four of the main reasons people fail to honor their impulse to write or create. Any one of them will prevent you from writing. Most people experience a blend of them. Do you suffer from any of these creativity blockers? [Read more…] about Creativity blockers that may hold you back

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.

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?

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!

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