Creativity

If you’ve heard me talk about my group coaching program, The Original Impulse Atelier, you might have questions.

The Atelier could be great for you if you:

• have a project you yearn to focus on – even finish!
• can’t seem to make the time/space for it on your own
• enjoy being part of a community of creatives dedicated to their projects
• are ready, willing, and able to finally fall in love with your project.

If you’re like me, you feel a wave of excitement accompanied by fear at the thought of committing to your project. It makes sense – when we step up to do our creative work, we decide that our passion is more powerful than our fears and excuses. We decide YES! Now is the time to heed the call and commit to this thing that won’t leave us alone.

I’ll be working on my own project. Atelier members love how I am in it with them. I never come from a pedestal, expert mode, or teacher above anyone else. The way I see it, we are in the same river of creative adventure. I may be just a few paddle strokes ahead. I’ve spent years refining what works for me. Sure, I get stuck…but it takes less time for me to recover.

I also know that the feelings of joy and personal empowerment on the other side of the fears are worth all the angst. I love knowing that I can trust myself to follow through on projects that matter to me. I want this for you and everyone who wants to make things.

Atelier members love being in deep relationship with their project. If you are part of this group. finally, there will be no more guilt or avoidance. Just the pleasure of knowing you are honoring your creative impulse in a fun and effective way.

All the info is available here; just download the program guide for details.

I’ve noticed that many of us suffer from the ‘not good enough’ illusion when it comes to our writing, creativity, and heck, life in general. We’re all trying to prove something to someone that we are worthy. Is this true for you? If so, read on.

It’s absolutely valid that there are standards of excellence that must be met in life. Applying for school, becoming a doctor or engineer or architect, yes, you have to exhibit a certain level of skill there. There’s a clear bar and yes, you have to rise to it.

But with writing and art – what’s the exact metric for ‘good’? When we are writing, we may feel in the flow. But soon enough doubt creeps in and tells us crappy things like ‘this sucks. Who would care about this?’

The reason you are not ‘good enough’ is not because you are untalented or unskilled. It’s because you haven’t taken the time to define ‘good’ for yourself. ‘Good’ is an ambiguous target that you’ll never reach because it’s not about a level of craft. Instead, it’s about your ego’s demands to be liked, accepted, and validated.

If you’ve ever won a prize or gotten kudos for your work, and felt great for a moment, then that was followed quickly by your inner critic pointing out how that feedback doesn’t validate you, you will know what I am talking about. No matter how ‘good’ you are or successful, that voice will jump in to trample your creative gains in the mud.

Imagine me saying these things to you after a creative win:

Yes, you got that newsletter out but it wasn’t as good as you’d like it to be.

Sure you wrote for an hour, but you didn’t get as much drafted as you hoped for.

Yea, you got into that art show but you didn’t get any feedback or sales.

That’s great that you painted today but the work isn’t really what you want it to be.

These are the things you say to yourself because you never let your efforts be good enough. If you heard those things from me as your coach, you’d fire me! Or maybe you’d keep me on board because I collude with your inner critic and the part of you that can’t let yourself have even a teeny weeny gain.

Another challenge is that when we are working on something, we simply don’t have what I call critical distance. We are not able to judge in the moment whether something is good enough. Your inner critic takes over the mic and you come to believe that’s the whole story.

These are the voices in my clients’ heads that I am honored to listen in on every day. I don’t collude with their inner critic. Instead, I invite new perspectives so the creative process feels empowering and enjoyable. 

What do we do with this persistent need to prove we are ‘good enough’? If you’re in the phase of the process that’s not reliant on other’s responses such as submitting your book for publication or your art for review, there are ways you can work with this issue. Here’s what I suggest if you suffer from the ever-moving target of good enough.

First, define your ‘good’. Identify where you are in the process. Are you hacking away at the first draft? ‘Good’ might be just getting ink on the page. Later drafts might need a different metric. Focus on the craft of writing.

What makes for compelling passages? Engaging sentences, authentic voice, and dramatic tension are a few elements of craft you could measure. Does the writing flow? Is it moving me as I write it? As the writer, am I engaged on a deep, emotional, visceral level or am I skating on the surface with clever phrasing?

Ask yourself: What constitutes ‘good’ for the piece you are working on? And don’t let the inner critic aka perfectionist demand too much in the early stages. A piece needing to be excellent right away is like expecting your toddler’s first steps to be elegant and swift. Our first and even second or third attempts are full of stumbles and places to learn. You’re growing.

Another way to get past ‘good’ is to savor the process rather than the outcome. Most creative projects are a long game and take years to complete. If you are constantly operating on a tank of ‘not good enough’, you won’t have enough fuel to make it to the finish line.

How does it feel to show up for your project? What benefits or changes do you notice in yourself when you dedicate yourself on the regular to your creative work? In my workshops, I invite people to do a simple but powerful reflection process. Ask yourself: how was that for me? Then jot down three words at the end of a session. Keep a list of your reflections. Over time you will have a true picture of the real value to you of doing your creative work. This can replace an ambiguous goodness that you’ll never attain. You can finally feel some satisfaction in the process.

Make ‘good enough’ an inside job. You’ve done well when you show up consistently. You’re good enough when you put in the hours. You’re good when you let yourself ‘go there’ to be honest in your work. You’re ‘good’ when you show willingness to be humble and learn. You are enlivened because you are honoring your values at a deep level when you show up for the work, even when the outside world doesn’t see or validate your efforts.

Do you suffer from never feeling ‘good enough’? Share below what has helped you overcome this insidious creative challenge.

Do you have items on your to-do list that never seem to get done? They either get pushed to the next week or fall off your radar. Even must-dos get ignored or ditched. But the tasks we avoid don’t just disappear. They haunt us. They live in the dark valley of our unlived potential. Deflected work becomes proof for our inner critic that we can’t finish things and that we don’t have what it takes to succeed. Continuing to defer the difficult stuff isn’t as benign as we may think.

This happens to me. There are plenty of things looming on my to-do list week after week. Finally, one day, I understood why. This may sound obvious to you, and it is, but how we deal with it may not be apparent. Ready for the big aha?

Some of the tasks on our lists are more emotionally difficult than others. 

Pause now and scan your to-do list. Do you feel an emotional charge when you see some of them?

This may seem obvious now, and perhaps when you write the tasks down, you feel a twist in your belly or your jaw clenches. Anxiety creeps into your planning process, but you override it. When we are planning, the actions we need to take are still in the distance. The fears they may evoke aren’t threatening until we step up to do the work.

The items that get ignored, avoided, or deferred to the next week are likely the tough stuff that pushes you out of your comfort zone. Maybe it feels hard because you have to ask for help. Or, you simply don’t have yet have the skills or tools to do it.

Not surprisingly, the difficult items are often the things that drive my inner satisfaction and my outer success. When I do the hard things, I grow personally and professionally. 

I found a simple solution that honors the challenging nature of some of the tasks. It allows me to get things done – even the scary stuff.

Here’s what I do. I color-code my tasks.  When I started color-coding my list, it because crystal-clear which types of tasks are emotionally charged. I can easily see when I have heaped too many hard things on the week. I can plan for how and when to do the daunting tasks. Here’s my system:

Green – easy peasy. I default to these behind-the-scenes tasks 
Blue – challenging, but with focus and planning, I can do it 
Red – super tough, accountability and deadlines are likely needed 

Easy stuff for me includes writing, curriculum development, easy admin stuff, planning, ideation. The challenging tasks almost always include outreach and follow-up, including asking for help.

Take a look at your task list using my color-coding method. Instead of colors, you might use emojis or symbols for how ‘hot’ the tasks are. I like the idea of flames – three flames mean it’s a hot one! Two flames, not so unbearable. One flame, easy to do.

In most of the productivity advice I see, there’s little that respects the emotional nature of the work at hand. Use a deadline, set a timer, get external accountability. All of those hacks are great. But there’s not a lot that helps us understand why things are emotionally daunting.

Acknowledging our challenges gives us the chance to overcome them. Bullying ourselves to ‘get it done!’ or ignoring the hard stuff leads to failure and disappointment. This inner work is my favorite part of being a coach. Anyone can follow guidance about how to use the Pomodoro method. But unless you’re aware of and working with the undercurrents of your project, you’re not going to get the job done solely with a timer.

In my coaching group, the Atelier, we take the time to understand the factors at play in our productivity. Members of the Atelier get training in what works for them to get their best creative work done. At the end of the program, they know themselves and their process. Atelier members no longer get stuck when things feel hard. 

We’re currently enrolling for the fall 2021 session. If a curated group of dedicated creatives feels like the right thing for you to get to that project of yours finally, check out the Atelier here.

Do you take some downtime in summer to enjoy the season? Longer days, flowers aplenty, and gardening give me the incentive to step away from the computer and get outdoors. I generally work in the first part of the day and spend later afternoons doing other things.

Recently, I’ve visited the Denver Art Museum and Botanic Gardens. I’ve enjoyed writing dates and friend visits and poking around in the garden. I’ve put summer hours into effect for years now, and I see the positive impact it has on my work. It feels great to give my brain a break from work mode. And when I do get back to the desk, I feel focused and energized. I learned long ago that a certain amount of time off, even in the middle of the day, serves me more than pushing through and bullying myself to be productive.

Why do I tell you all this?

In the thousands of conversations I have had with creatives, I’ve seen that space is vital to the creative process. When we exit ‘doing mode’, we access new ways of thinking, feeling and being. In the ‘empty’ spaces, new connections form. Solutions to problems in work and life pop to mind. These new connections are vital to our making.

Yet, it is hard to unplug from the efficiency imperative that is engrained in us. Time and again, my clients struggle with the messy, meandering path that our projects require. We’ve been trained to think ‘doing’ is the only valid mode. Every single minute doesn’t need to be optimized and productive. It’s as if creativity snubs its nose at efficiency and ‘making the most of our time’. And yet, every minute of our lives can be valuable to our projects, but that doesn’t mean we have to be constantly ‘doing’ or ‘on’.

When strolling around the pond a few weeks ago, I got a huge download of ideas for an art project I am working on. I grabbed my notebook and wrote it all down. This would not have come to me if I had been trying to find it or constantly staying in busy mode. I also had my notebook nearby to capture the ideas after the walk.

When we give ourselves space, we are able to rest and replenish. I created a ton of things last year, from my Patreon to Write Your Travel Stories to a series of low-cost workshops for creatives and more. I needed some time to rest and replenish. Stepping away from projects gave me space to be just a person and not a worker bee. I find myself sleeping longer and taking more frequent breaks. (I think I need this also now because there’s been a lot more socializing this month!)

The only way this works is because I trust myself and my work process. Anyone who knows me sees how wildly productive I am. For me, time off fuels more creativity and productivity. I train my clients to learn to trust themselves and their work style so they can enjoy free time if they wish.

Stefan Sagmeister encouraged this in me in his TED talk, The Power of Time Off. He shares how he overcame fear of time off on his sabbatical.

It’s okay to be efficient. It’s necessary! But not all the time. I hope you give yourself the space you need to be your most creative, vibrant self.

This is just one of the counter-intuitive pieces I work with in the creative process. In my coaching groups and workshops, these are the vital practices we put into place around our projects. My coaching is high-level training in learning to trust yourself and your intuition. It’s not always easy to step out of the mainstream assumptions and habits. But it always pays off for our creative work.

Have you had more space for yourself to roam, rest, and replenish this summer? Let us know how it’s impacted your creativity here.

My friend and colleague Alyson Stanfield of Art Biz Success is offering a wonderful planning workshop for artists. If you are overwhelmed by possibilities and don’t know what to do next to ensure your art business success, this is a great, affordable class.

And Alyson makes it fun, too!

Click the image below for all the details.

Affiliate links are included in this post.

Recently, I was in the final lap of writing the curriculum for Write Your Travel Stories. I just needed to pull together the final lessons. Then one final polish to make sure it was all in place.

I had been making great weekly progress, with accountability from my Atelier members. But suddenly, with the end in sight, sitting down to do the work became difficult.

While spring’s glorious distractions didn’t help, I knew it was more than that. I was experiencing what awaits many of us in the final phase of a project.

I know very well how difficult the last bits are. For all the books, programs, and projects I have made and launched into the world, I have waded through the brambles in the final, painful phase. There’s something about the last 15% of a project that just feels so difficult.

Are you one of those people who can’t seem to finish your creative projects? Books, blog posts, art pieces…no matter what you try, the finish line remains an elusive land you can’t seem to access.

Why, why? Are you simply lazy, inept and perhaps stupid? I doubt it. Here are the main things I see that prevent us from completing our projects.

• We face the reality about the quality of the work. Is it good enough?
• We struggle with detail management – not my strongest suit and maybe not yours either.
• We get closer to hearing the opinions of others. How will our work be received?
• We’re forced to make final decisions. Making decisions can be a challenge for us; we have to commit for one last time. Doubts can peck at us when making these last choices.
• We don’t know how to let go of our identity as someone who doesn’t finish things.

Recognize yourself in any of this? I have heard countless people claim that they are not finishers. It becomes a sort of identity, and believing that we cannot finish things becomes another way to beat ourselves up.

What’s happening? The further into the creative process you go, the more restrictive the space feels, and the more you are required to deal with the emotional eddies that swirl under the surface of your creative life. Everything that quietly prevented us from creating now shouts loud and clear. It gets more and more painful to even think about your once-beloved project. Check out the video I made about this.

If only it were as simple as telling yourself to JUST DO IT! And wouldn’t it be great if our apps and hacks could get us across the finish line?! Yet there is no app yet that addresses what’s really going on under the surface that keeps us from completing.

You’re not a fool for feeling these things, and you’re certainly not alone. The work of creating calls us forth in deeply powerful and challenging ways. We often need to address our doubts and fears in order to get things done.

I hope this has helped to normalize the challenges you face at the end of a project.

What resonates with you? Do you struggle with finishing things?

When someone comes to me to get ‘unstuck’, I invite them to identify their Creative Edge. This gives us a way to consciously develop our craft and advance our work, on our terms.

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.

A creative edge is specific and actionable. It’s that place in your writing, art or professional work where you:

• need to improve skills
• feel uncomfortable and out of your depth
• are hyper-engaged
• learn the most
• grow rapidly.

Benefits of a Creative Edge

Your Creative Edge allows you to make progress in art and life. If you delved into this one area, you would advance overall. 

The Creative Edge is both structured and liberating. It’s just focused enough so that you can be responsive to unexpected things that show up and still be on track. 

It’s often the place we avoid. The Creative Edge is a threshold that demands we shed our excuses and step forward. We are required to move from indecision and insecurity to action.

In the end, your Creative Edge should excite you. I personally like a challenge, so my Creative Edge is often equally exciting and scary. I am careful to balance it so it’s not something I dread and thus avoid.

Choose your Creative Edge

Brainstorm possibilities. Jot down ideas that came up as you read this. Don’t overthink or make this difficult. Look for aliveness and excitement.

What do you want to learn? What skill could you take on as your Creative Edge?

Some of your creative blocks might point you toward your Creative Edge. Tick off any of these that apply. You:

• Get bored with your projects and don’t finish them.
• Don’t know how to improve the quality of your work.
• Are afraid to seek constructive feedback.
• Get stuck in confusion and indecision.

Your Creative Edge could be:

• Learning how to edit and revise your own work so you can…
• finish things.
• Find reliable, helpful feedback from people you trust.
• Focusing, following through and finishing projects you care deeply about.

I like to have a Creative Edge for the year. Perhaps you prefer a shorter window of focus. What is your Creative Edge for the first quarter of the year?

It takes courage and commitment to be at the creative edge. But it’s where we find our originality and where we grow as artists and people.

What’s your Creative Edge for this year? Share it below. 

Join us for Best Creative Year, a live, online workshop on Thursday, January 14th, 2021. We’ll set the stage for a fabulous year with our creativity in clear focus.

All the details are here.

I received a notice recently from my web host. In the email, I saw that I had registered the domain on September 3rd, 2000. A twenty-year-old web site, imagine that!

With the help of the Way Back Machine, I was able to go back in time and gather images of my website through the years.

What’s cool is that while the look of the site has changed, the message of my work has stayed consistent. For over twenty years, I have been an advocate for our creativity as a necessity for our well-being. I’ve used my coaching skills and experience as a writer and artist to walk alongside thousands of creative people who have been ready, willing, and able to say YES to their creative dreams.

My website and newsletter have evolved over the years, and so have I. I’m happy to say that while the style of the sites may be outdated, I’m still proud of the design of each of these iterations. While design trends have come and gone, my commitment to writing and creativity as sources of personal growth and empowerment has always stayed steady.

Here are six versions of OriginalImpulse.com. Of course, the seventh version is the one you see now.

You may know that I am a notebook geek. I use notebooks* to gather ideas, process feelings, make plans, and stay on track with my projects. I’ve tried digital systems for these things. But I already spend plenty of time looking at a screen, and I prefer to dream and plan offscreen.

Right now, I have six notebooks going:

• Sketchbook
• Garden sketchbook
• Garden progress log
• Business notebook
• Personal journal
• Art project notebook

This last one is important. You know how you only notice the value of something when it’s gone? I usually have a notebook for my art projects. Inside are ideas, plans, notes from meetings, to-do lists, and other jottings related to the process of making things.

But this summer, I wasn’t using a notebook for that. For some reason, I thought I could just roll my art planning into my personal journal. And guess what happened? Not much in my art projects. Once I finished the 100 Day Project, my focus on my art waned. It wasn’t until I got a notebook off my shelf, made a pretty cover with decorative paper, that my zest for art projects came back. This reminded me that what we focus on thrives.

Recently, I dove into the art journal for a brainstorming session. What had begun to feel like a dry field – no ideas, no enthusiasm – became fertile ground, rich with possibilities and plans. I returned a direction for my art that has been in my mind and notes for over three years. My artist, and what she wants for the world, is back.

All this joy came because I dedicated a specific space for her and her ideas. A simple notebook provides the container for my artist.

While this part of me is vital, my art can still get pushed aside. It’s easier to focus on work, where I am rewarded more quickly and visibly. I see the impact my coaching has on my clients. My bank account gets the reward of being paid for my work. I feel a kinship with my colleagues, who are also working hard. We get a lot of external validation from being a hard worker and getting things done. 

My artist might not make me money now or ever. But making art feels good to me. It fills in the picture of me, giving me a sense of integrity and wholeness that we all seek. And yet, to the outer world, it might look like I am sitting in the garden painting pretty flowers. Frivolous. Not contributing. Not making a difference.

I believe that when we feel whole, when we feel our full vitality, we do contribute. We don’t waste time feeling envious because we are aligned. There is no part of us that’s banished or ignored. When we give attention to the things we love, we signal to ourselves and those around us that we matter.

Make space for yourself and what matters

Space isn’t just a physical spot like a studio or corner of the desk. Space for yourself and your dreams can look like:

• A dedicated notebook for your ideas and dreams.
• Time marked off – and kept – on your calendar.
• Regular meetings with an accountability partner – a peer, a coach, a group.
• A program or class that allows you to focus, learn, and grow.

This last one – signing up for something to force our focus on our passion projects – is pretty common. It’s not always the wrong way to make sure you get the space you need. Signing up for a class or program is a bad idea when you think that signing up means you’ve done the work. Sometimes we sign up and then go AWOL. We don’t show up. We don’t realize that there’s more to creating space than just getting the notebook, or the supplies, or registering for the class.

When we commit to space for our projects, we commit to ourselves. To facing the fears and insecurities that are our actual reasons for not showing up. To confronting the skills gap that has kept us on the sidelines. To reckoning with where we are and what we genuinely need to do our creative work.

It’s not the gear or the class. It’s self-respect that’s required to take a stand for ourselves and our ideas. To say, you know what, I don’t have any idea where this book or body of work or business idea is going, but my ideas and creativity are worth exploring.

What are you doing to make space for your passion project? 

We have a few spots left in the Original Impulse Atelier. This is a creative haven designed to give you the space and focus you crave for that project that must be made. Find out more here.

*I am considering doing a series to share in-depth how I use various notebooks to keep me on track personally, professionally, and creatively. If this is of interest to you, please let me know in a comment below.

Notebooks shown in this article include**:

Hahnemühle watercolor sketchbook

Go To Notebook by Chronicle with Mohawk dotted paper, Sage Blue

Moleskine Classic Dotted notebook, XL, reef blue

Moleskine Cahier, soft cover

**Affiliate links are used in this article. I only recommend products I use and believe in. I may receive a percentage of the sale price if you buy from one of these links.