Creativity

What does 2020 hold for you and your creativity? Perhaps it’s time to bring that long-held creative dream to life. There’s nothing like a safe, supportive environment to help you get on track and stay on track with your project.

The Original Impulse Atelier brings the best of us to the table. It brings my coach, leader, artist and writer to the group. We have enough information for our work. We have taken classes and signed up for things we don’t truly need or use. We don’t need more teaching. We just need time, space and support to do the creative work in front of us.

The Original Impulse Atelier is a unique opportunity for people who are ready to focus, follow through and finish a project that matters.  This is the cherished space for us to become our better selves through our creative work.

Being in the Atelier was super valuable for me. It was the perfect, supportive container that allowed me to step into my creative channel. It was an awesome group, a really rich experience. I know a lot more about my writing process and look forward to having more fun writing next year.” – Elizabeth

I’ve facilitated many groups over the last twenty years as a coach. And while I love them all, I really appreciate the people who show up to commit long-term. It’s easy to sign up for a month-long class and hope it sticks. It’s another thing to sign up for a year-long thing and stick with it through the ups and downs of making.

I learned mostly about myself and how to be the best person I can be as I approach the work. Be clear. Be Patient. Be Loving to yourself. Celebrate the wins!

The practice of setting intentions through writing, declaring very short term goals out loud, and creating a cadre of accountability buddies has established a foundation that I can build upon for life.” –  Sam 

We still have room for dedicated creatives in the 2020 Original Impulse Atelier. Find all the details and application here.

Maybe I am the only one who appreciates this, but I’ve made it a guiding principle of my business that I do the tough work of making alongside my Atelier clients.

Every year, I choose a main project to work on. The first year in the Original Impulse Atelier was devoted to writing my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book. The Atelier members got to see how I carved out time to write, how I grappled with organizing the content of the book and how I stuck with it even when all the other stuff of life was happening.

This year, the project was publishing and promoting the book. Members saw me struggle with all the decisions that go into self-publishing. The cover design, the editing, proofreading, indexing and finalizing. Oh, the pain of those final phases!

But when that ended, the work of getting the book out there was just starting. Here’s what’s true about me historically: Once I finish a project and put it ‘out there’, I have a hard time doing the work to stay with it to promote it. It’s kind of like building a boat and putting it in the water and not putting up the sails or starting the engine.

This year, I committed to staying with the promotion all through the year. It wasn’t easy. Right after I launched the book, I started on my new project, my podcast Stumbling Toward Genius. The new project was so much more fun than writing pitch letters and reaching out! But because I had the support and commitment of the Atelier, I stuck with promoting the book. And it paid off.

My definition of a master

A traditional Atelier has a master of the craft leading and teaching the members in that craft. The craft we are studying in the Original Impulse Atelier is our own creative process. We learn how to be the masters of our creativity so we can make all the things we want.

But I have a different definition of a master: I believe a master is someone who is so engrossed in their craft that they become not perfect or enlightened. Instead, a master is a perpetual student of their craft. I am constantly learning about the creative process – my creative process. I have made a lot of things. That doesn’t make me a master. What makes me a master – in my own definition – is that I keep learning and growing.

Working my craft alongside my Atelier members is a privilege and an honor. It’s not always easy to share my challenges every week. But I ask them to be bold, and so I meet them with my own boldness. We spur each other on.

Oh, and my project for 2020? I’m so excited. I will be returning to art making! I’ve given two full years to my book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book.

Now it’s time to bring the paints back. I’ll be working on surface pattern design. In 2018, I did 100 days of patterns. I loved it and am eager to return to see what I make and how I sculpt my year around surface pattern design. This is a passion project. I confess, it’s been easier to stay on track with a work project, my book. But sticking with a passion project isn’t easy.

Ready to master your own creative process? The Original Impulse Atelier could be for you. Seats are filling; claim yours soon. Check out all the details here. 

What’s the value of focus? These days, finding our ability to focus is a rare and valuable thing. We seem to always be all over the place, wandering online, consumed with a love for possibility. We have many project possibilities, and we like to keep our options open.

As creative people, we often have a lot of creative projects. It can feel good to have a sense of possibility. We sheepishly claim that we suffer from Bright Shiny Object Syndrome.

Much of the self-help space profits from the confusion we have over what to do, where to focus, what to make. Often mastermind groups are devoted to people who are figuring out what they are doing. We can live in an endless loop of ‘figuring it out’.

But here’s the thing that actualized creatives know: It feels incredibly good to focus. Focusing on and finishing one project brings us to a level of creative maturity that flirting with many projects never will.

I just got an email from a client who finally launched her thing. She told me about all the feelings she felt. And that despite the angst of getting it out there, on the other side was such a sense of joy and empowerment. This is way richer than the feeling of being ‘all over the place’.

The Original Impulse Atelier is designed for people who are ready to take that passion project off the back burner and put it squarely in front of them on the making table.

What’s so cool about the Original Impulse Atelier is that over the course of 11 months, when you stick with one project, you learn how to ride through the difficult spots that show up for any project. You develop new creative competencies that help you not only stay with this project, but with all your future projects.

Focus feels good. I’ve seen members of the Original Impulse Atelier thrive like never before when they sink into the joy and relief of focusing on one thing.

The Atelier is a working sanctuary where you enjoy the focus on one project. Where when you bump up against the obstacles and hurdles, you have a cohort of fellow creatives who get it and who encourage you to get back up and keep going. Or take a rest, if that’s what’s called for!

Interested in being part of a dynamic group of people who are mastering their creative process? Check out all the details here. 

Mastermind groups are trendy now, but not all groups give equal value. Anyone can claim they know how to facilitate a group. But I’ve been in groups led by people whose genius is not facilitating. 

A group led by a certified coach is different. A coach is listening, challenging and championing. It’s not just someone who is an expert in her domain. It’s someone who is trained to get the best of their clients to the table. I cannot imagine being able to lead the groups I lead at the high level I expect without my coaching skills. I remember teaching writing workshops before I became a coach and the ones I lead after my training – night and day. 

It’s not just about the accountability we so need. Nor about the community we all crave as creative people. That’s what usually motivates us to sign up for these things. But what we can get when a trained coach is at the helm of a group is much, much more. 

As a certified coach, I am always operating on at least two levels with my clients. At the first level, I am helping them achieve their goals on their project. That’s making sure that their agenda is fulfilled through our work together. 

Secondly, I am training members of the Original Impulse Atelier to be their own coach. I ask them tough questions. I teach them how to recognize and outwit their inner critic. I train them to be savvy about their own process so they are empowered outside of our group. 

I’ve been a participant in mastermind groups. I have seen the difference it makes when one is led by a trained coach and facilitator. I am a stand for my participants’ success in my groups, so I bring all of my coaching, leadership and teaching skills to the table. 

Having a coach help you write your book, make your body of artwork, be a consistent blogger makes all the difference. You will recognize patterns that keep you stuck and will learn new ways of working. You will gain the benefits of staying with something over the long term – confidence, clarity, empowerment and joy. The gifts of having someone on your team are many. 

If you are ready for a mastermind group that helps you achieve the creative success you crave, consider the Original Impulse Atelier. Enrollment is open now for our 2020 session, which begins in January. All the information is here.  

Enrollment has opened for the Original Impulse Atelier. An atelier is an art studio guided by a teacher who has designed a space for those who wish to learn deeply.

The Atelier Method is a form of fine art instruction often modeled after the private art studio schools of 15th to 19th century Europe. Taking its name from the French word for “artist’s studio,” an Atelier consists of an artist, usually a professional painter, working with a small number of students to train them in art.

In the Original Impulse Atelier, we aren’t teaching art or writing skills. Instead, we’re focused on how to live at our creative edge.

I believe that we need to train ourselves in our own creativity. What works for you to get your creative work done?

Our curriculum in the Original Impulse Atelier is creativity – our creativity. Through working on one project at a time, we glean valuable and usable insights to work on any creative project, any time. 

Members of the Original Impulse Atelier learn how to:

• design our time and focus around making art or writing
• make our creative work a priority
• easily get back on track when life disrupts the creative flow.
• care and respect the artist self
• befriend the inner critic so creating feels more joyful and less painful.

I’m psyched to open enrollment for the 2020 Original Impulse Atelier. The last two years have been phenomenal. Atelier members have written books, published blogs, developed and profited from live performances, made projects for their businesses and more.

What are you making in 2020? Will you make it with us? 

All the details about the Original Impulse Atelier are here. This is a small, curated group of dedicated creatives.

It was great fun to talk with Tara McMullin, host of the What Works Network and Podcast. I appreciated the chance to reflect on being in business for 20 years. I am certain I couldn’t have done it without my coach training.

Check out this interview on What Works podcast.

 

It’s all too easy to play it safe with our creative work. There’s a segment in my podcast that’s the fun part. The whacky part. The part that brings me joy and makes me giggle.

It’s also the daring part, the part that is different than anything I’ve heard. It’s the part that makes the ‘safe’ self in me worry about what others will think. Where I wonder, is it any good? Will it be…dumb?

Although this was a fun part of the project, I had to set this concept aside while working on the main parts of the podcast. I had to let it go so I could feel safe enough to work on the stories and the assignments.

I was even ready to go forward without what could be the best part. And then, when we had most of the episodes wrapped, my engineer said, What if we just add that part in at the very end?

And that somehow helped. It gave me permission to do it, and to do it in a way that felt safe.

So I recorded some new bits and had a blast doing it. It felt easy. A friend listened to them and loved them. And they may indeed be the best part of the podcast.

Sometimes we don’t have to abandon the scary stuff, but just set it aside while we gather our confidence. What are you working on that feels too scary or too much of a risk? How might you set it aside to work on parts that aren’t as daunting?

I work on this all the time with my clients and Atelier members. It may seem counterintuitive, but I am always nudging people to lower the bar. To make the work easy and simple. To layer in the process so that we can build confidence over time and tackle the hard things when we feel ready. This doesn’t mean doing nothing and sitting on the sidelines. It means knowing what we can work on in a sane and safe way.

Making things is daunting. What helps you feel safe to take your creative risks? 

I do a lot of things in my office/studio aka atelier. I write, meet with clients, lead groups. I make videos, art and recordings. I ship packages out.

That’s a lot of different activities, and I need different spaces for each one. Lately, I’ve been frustrated having to move things around each time I switch gears.

I know we can’t always have our perfect environment. But we can make tweaks. Later this year, Steve and I are moving to our new home. I’ll be keeping this place and taking it over for my work, art and writing projects. I’ll be hosting events here. I cannot wait! But I have to wait.

When I realized I needed to set up my space for better lighting on video, it was clear that the light needed to be in a different spot. And then when I got my new microphone, I saw that would need to be positioned on the other side.

I haven’t been making changes to my space because I know the big change is coming. But one day, a door of possibility opened to me.

What if….I turned my desk around? That would give me the long side facing the way I wanted. I could put the light on one side and the mic on the other. It might not look pretty, but it would work better.

So on the weekend, I shifted the table. I re-positioned the equipment. I put the box on the desk and my computer atop it. It seemed good.

And then I got on a call with a client. And the setup? It felt GREAT. I don’t know if it was more space or a better view, but the whole thing just functioned much better. I am easily able to sit or stand and can adjust my desktop accordingly.

I’ve been enjoying this a lot. It’s hard to believe what a difference one shift makes. I would have lost months of this good feeling if I had waited until the big move.

Is your creative space working for you? Even if it’s a corner of your home or if you’ve commandeered the dining table, it can be tweaked to work better for you. Here’s a process I lead my clients through to help make simple, powerful shifts in your creative space.

Sit or stand in your space. If something feels off, identify specifically what it is. The lighting may be not right. You might perhaps not like your seat. Or the view.

Make notes about what doesn’t feel right for you. List as many things as you can about what’s not working for you in this space.

Then, step back. Ask yourself what tweak might be possible? I challenge you to not buy anything new. We often think purchasing something is the solution. And sometimes, it is. Hello new chair! But more often than not, we already have everything we need. Perhaps something just needs to be moved or removed.

Another shift that will change your writing

Maybe you don’t make a shift in your physical space, but in your mental space. Here’s another simple shift I invite my clients to make all the time. The results are profound.

We often think we need a long period of time to get any writing done. Two or more hours is what most people consider necessary to write. But when do you get that amount of focused time? Rarely!

I suggest starting with short bursts. Small writing dates add up. Fifteen minutes. Thirty minutes. I know we think we need some time to get into the zone. That’s where a short free-write can help with the transition. You can free-write about anything to drop in. I often end a transition free-write with: Now I am ready to write….and I fill in the blank.

That’s just one mental shift my clients make. This kind of shift is deceptively simple. But small tweaks can change our creative course for the good.

What simple shift have you made recently that’s affected your creativity? Share in a comment below.

It’s my birthday today, so I am thinking about gifts. We get so many gifts from our parents and ancestors. It’s up to us to use the these gifts, so we can continue and build upon the legacy we’ve been given.

From my parents, I received creativity, rebelliousness, and tenacity. They taught me a love of nature, of plants, gardening and cooking. They gave me a sense of style and taste that differed from the norm. My parents worked hard to make a beautiful life for us.

Our home wasn’t a place of creative projects or writing. But the way they lived, with their innovative taste and willingness to do things differently, showed me how we can carve out our own paths and live according to our values. I’ve been able to turn those gifts into a livelihood that allows me to express my other gifts for writing and art. Big gratitude to all my parents have given me and all the support they have shared for my unconventional life path.

What happens when we don’t use those creative penchants? It might seem benign to shelve our creative dreams, but I see otherwise. When we don’t express our gifts, when we don’t heed the call, they become a burden. Our project ideas linger in the space of fantasy. If you don’t become a creative doer, you’re not honoring the gifts. That brings pain, lack of integrity, and suffering.

And, another way to look at it – not using your gifts is holding back from the rest of us who might truly benefit from what you create. Don’t hoard your gifts!

Don’t be stingy with your gifts. When you express your creativity, you give yourself the joy and pleasure of creating. Let the challenges you face when doing your creative work empower you. But it’s not all difficult! Gifts are meant to be given. You are the first recipient of your gifts. Give yourself the satisfaction and joy of your gifts and see where it leads you.

What creative gifts have you been hoarding or ignoring? How can you honor them more this month? Share your thoughts in a comment below.

Listen to the story here:

 

You’ve probably had a year that marked a pivot or change in your life. You take a bold leap in the direction of your dream and everything shifts. 1999 was that year for me. The changes I made set me on a new course as a writer, a coach and a person who finally felt like she was living the life she was meant for.

Part of me resists going into the way-back machine to write this story. Another part of me insists. I’ve seen it so many times: we all need more acknowledging and celebrating our wins. But as I reflected on that first summer of coaching and on all the steps between then and now, I recall how hard it was. How many times I wanted to give up. Getting to a 20-year business anniversary isn’t an accident. A blend of hard work, good fortune and the generosity of others has brought me here. I don’t want to skip over what it took to get here. In sharing this and other stories of things I have created, I hope to inspire you to take up your own daring projects.

That summer, I enrolled in a training that not only gave me a career, but a set of skills I could use to design my life according to my dreams and skills. I began writing a novel, and though I didn’t know it then, launched a business that would carry me through the next twenty years.

Earlier that year, I had heard about coaching from a magazine article. I signed up for the entire Coaches Training Institute program. The coach training coursework offered a completely new way of looking at life. It was a crash course in conscious communicating. I learned how to make choices according to who I am and what I want for my life. This wasn’t just a way to help others; my own life would be transformed in the process of serving others. It blew the lid off my mental state and opened up so much possibility. I started putting into place some of the things I’d dreamed about when I did The Artist’s Way five years earlier.

I was naive about what it would take to actually build a business around a skill set. I had just left my long-time job at Capitol Hill Books in Denver. My time at this quirky second-hand bookshop was my graduate school. I felt great freedom and joy in charting my own course of study at the bookstore. I had just abandoned pursuit of a master’s degree in French and set off on my own path.

I lived nimbly and humbly. Several income streams helped me make a new life for myself. I taught cooking and writing classes, worked as a personal chef and picked up other odd jobs as needed. I didn’t own a car, a home or lots of possessions. I wasn’t responsible for pets or children. Housesitting at a friend’s for the year brought my expenses way down. I spent my extra money on travel or workshops as I still do today.

Remember when you were a beginner at something? It’s not easy. It’s humbling. You kinda suck and you know you suck. I loved learning the coaching skills. But practicing them was daunting. I stumbled my way through client sessions, with sweaty pits and my mind on doing it right – asking the right questions, giving the client my best effort. It would be many years before I could drop the model from my awareness when coaching. It takes time to go from conscious incompetence to unconscious competence.

Most of us get really frustrated on a steep learning curve. I was no exception, but I kept practicing. I was grateful for those people who trusted me in those early days with their hopes and fears. I had no idea what I was doing building a business but I was slowly improving as a coach.

Finding clients as a new coach

I practiced coaching on anyone who would sign up for a 60-minute session. At the end of my vegetarian cooking classes, I talked about coaching. I passed around a sign-up sheet for a free sample. I did all the things one did back then to enroll clients: giving sample sessions, leading workshops with a coaching element, publishing a newsletter and hosting a web site. I had been teaching writing classes already, so I knew how to facilitate a group. Now I was adding coaching to the workshops to address the challenges we face when we commit to writing but that no one ever talked about in writing workshops.

But it wasn’t easy. I had to somehow overcome the feelings many of us have. Do you recognize yourself in these things I told myself? I didn’t want to ‘sell myself’. I resisted ‘pushing myself onto people’. It took all my courage and the support of my coach to do the things required to spread the word about my new work.

When we embark on something new, one of the first things we have to do is let our people know what we are up to. Nudged on by my coach, I wrote and sent a letter to everyone I knew. It was terrifying to ‘put myself out there’. Letting people know what I was doing and why was very uncomfortable. Even though this was incredibly difficult, tapping into my network helped me get started. Some of my first clients were people I already knew. Back then, most people hadn’t heard of coaching. There was a lot of work educating people. I worked in the ‘fake it ‘till you make it’ zone while I built confidence and competence.

There were fun things about building a business, too. I got to indulge my tastes and preferences for how I wanted my days to flow. I’d always been an office supply nerd, ever since I was a girl. I used to have my own desk and office at home. I was just like my dad, who ran his business from a desk in our home, and later my mom, who also had her own business. I loved keeping my pencils and pens tidy, and my notebooks in order. I had a ledger in which I wrote down all the books I got from the library and my rating for them. Not much has changed, hello Goodreads! My ‘office’ was a closet desk, with shelves and drawers. I was small enough to crawl inside and sit ensconced in the scent of pencil shavings and paper. I loved the order of my pens, paperclips and ledgers.

So in 1999, starting my coaching business meant, of course, getting office supplies. I went to Office Depot with my friend Gigia. There, we each put a Mac computer on the Office Depot credit card. If you paid it off in six months, there was no interest. I also got a fax machine and a ream of paper. And pens, I am sure. Thus in the summer of 1999, I entered the digital era.

Who would have known that I would take up a skillset and turn it into a thriving, 20-year old business? Back then, the internet wasn’t yet the platform to launch yourself and hang your shingle. I could not have known I could work completely online and from a home office. I’m grateful for it all – timing, luck and connections to new people and new ways of thinking.

Bringing coaching to writing

I took the common advice to find a niche for my work. Being a creative type and a writer, I focused on helping people get their work out of their head and into the world. It’s been a twenty-year deep dive into the creative process. In the course of thousands of conversations with clients, in the thick of my own making, in the study of what works to be an empowered creative, I have learned so much. I’m endlessly fascinated by how we humans make things and how that process in turn makes us who we are.

When I think back to my 32-year-old self, I feel the excitement of the new world opening up to her. What would she think if she could look ahead to 2019 and see what grew from that seed? She would be super psyched. There was of course a lot of stumbling, picking myself up and plunging ahead. This was a way to live and work on a growth edge, and I, a lifelong learner, was up for it. If you want to work through your ‘issues’, take up an art form or launch a business.

I’m working on a big project to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of Original Impulse. I’m not ready to share yet, but keep your eyes open for news. I will need your help to make this happen!

Celebrate your own milestones!

Get in your own time machine and travel back twenty years. What were you beginning? Who were you becoming? What would your young, newbie self say if she saw things now? Maybe you took a creative leap more recently. What inspired you to go for it? Finally, how can you acknowledge and celebrate your courage and conviction that helped you get going?

I did pay off the computer, interest-free, in six months. I’m still an office supply geek and I still love organizing and being in my current home office. Later this year, I will move to a new home. It will be the first time in all these years that I will work outside the home. I’ll be setting up my Atelier, or studio, for better workflow. I will also be hosting live workshops and events here in Denver.

When I started out 20 years ago, I didn’t know what I was doing. But over time, with luck, persistence and a good bit of magic, it all worked out. I remember this when clients want to plan out every detail before diving into the work. Planning takes us only so far, and I well know how easy it can be to hang out in that comfort zone. But over and over, the books and programs and artwork I have made have taught me about life, making and letting go. And that cluelessness when taking a leap isn’t always a bad thing!

What does my business’ origin story spark in you? Ask me anything.

The things I consume hopefully inspire me to create more or teach me to be a better human. Podcast conversations illuminate my drives, my kitchen time and my walks. Podcasts and books go a long way in buffering the loneliness that can come with working from home. Sharing some recent favorite books, movies and podcast with you helps me feel more connected. Enjoy!

Books

Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg.  I am a Myla Goldberg fan, so when I saw this at the library, I had to get it. The story of a female photographer when photography was just being born in the ‘50s. Another great story about the creative life and what it costs women to be artists.

Museum of Modern Love by Hannah Rose.  I loved this novel that centers on Marina Abramovic’s performance piece at MoMA – “The Artist Is Present.” A beautifully written book about love and making art.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer.  A fun romp with some depth that carries the protagonist, a waning author, around the world where he hopes to elude his grief over a lost love.

It’s Not Your Money by Tosha Silver.  I have been reading Tosha’s books for awhile. This one focuses on abundance, prosperity and invites the reader to surrender to the Divine. I am working on this.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. I recently had the crazy idea to become a therapist. So when I heard Lori Gottlieb on Good Life Project podcast, I wanted to read her book about being a therapist and also being in therapy. I haven’t finished it, but it is engrossing and illuminating about the human condition.

Vietnamese Food Any Day by Andrea Nguyen. I heard about this book on The Splendid Table, another favorite podcast of mine. I love cooking but it’s easy for me to get into a rut and make the same stuff. I love Vietnamese food and with a few new cupboard items, I have been making tasty meals!

Podcast episodes I’ve loved

I don’t know what I would do without podcasts. They make driving and cooking so much more enjoyable. When do you listen to your podcasts and what are some of your recent faves? Share below in the Comments section. Here are my recent faves:

On Being with Krista Tippett with guest Atul Gawande
Tim Ferriss Show with guest Amanda Palmer; also episode with Ramit Sethi
Design Matters with Debbie Millman with guest Shantell Martin
Elena Brower with guest Lauren Zander
Hurry Slowly episode with guest Scott Barry Kaufman

Movies

I love cinema therapy. I watch a movie at least twice a week. I go for the dark French psychological dramas and Steve prefers a light and fluffy rom com. We seem to find a happy medium and enjoy the cinema therapy, two hours away from my own life and problems.

About Time
Dumplin’
The Edge of Seventeen
Roma
The Chaperone

TV Shows

I am trying to not get into watching shows, because I get hooked and then binge watch and then feel like I have lost some precious non-renewable time. But there are some shows that aren’t just blobbing on the couch, but inspire me creatively. Here are some recent faves:

Fleabag. The final and second season of Fleabag, written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Wanderlust. I love Toni Collette so will see anything she is in. I LOVED this show about a therapist who asks her husband for an open marriage. The therapy episode was amazing.
Glow. SO much fun – Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling is a delightful tale of the underdog.
Babylon Berlin. I love Berlin and this historical show was fabulous, if dark.
Salt Fat Acid Heat. Four-part food show on Netflix with Samin Nosrat
Heal. Documentary about the mind/body connection and its role in healing. Profound.
Wanda Sykes Not Normal. Stand up comedy show. Hilarious.
Amy Schumer Growing Hilarious. stand up show.
Brené Brown The Call to Courage. A lot of this you have probably already heard, but it’s worth watching anyway. A masterful and inspiring talk that may change the way you create.

What is inspiring your creativity these days? Share what you are reading, hearing and watching below.

You’re tinkering in your studio, making that Erector Set capital A. Or, you’re pulling over to make notes about this story that keeps pestering you. You unroll your washi tape and mask out a colorful shape.

Your creative output may not earn you a Pulitzer or a show at the Guggenheim, but I assert that your creative efforts, however meager or non-profitable, are contributing to world peace.

We’re all creative, sure. Each and every one of us is making things every day — sandwiches, relationships, and choices.
And then there are the creators — people who are driven from inside to make things. Writers, artists, businesspeople, inventors, these are the people for whom making is not an option.

All the obstacles to creating

Even with this inherent creative drive, making is not always easy. Our natural creative impulses have perhaps been mocked, belittled and shut down. We tamp it down and play it safe for the sake of getting along, getting a job, and getting ‘real’.

Our excuses (Not enough time! Too many ideas!) often mask the inner obstacles. We’re insecure about our ideas, so it’s easier to do mundane tasks that call for no risk. Laundry, anyone? We are ignorant of how to write a novel, so we let that be an excuse to look at what other people are making instead. We don’t esteem ourselves enough to dedicate effort to something the world isn’t waiting for, so we defer our creative time to others’ agendas.

All the costs of not creating

It’s easy to layer these excuses over our creative dreams. Our default mode of ‘busy’ makes it easy to pretend we don’t have time for our creativity. But the cost of burying our creative drive in commonplace excuses is high. And it’s not just costing us, it’s costing the planet.

When we defer our creative power, we often feel:

• Jealousy over others’ output.
• Anxiety around unfulfilled purpose.
• Irritation over little things, a surface dissatisfaction hiding a deeper discontent.
• Overconsumption of others’ creativity, or of food or drink. Shopping, anyone?

If these aren’t bad enough, what’s worse is the persistent feeling of lack of integrity. When we defer our creativity, we are out of alignment with our very essence. Our ego or social self ‘gets along’ but our stifled creative self simmers in resentment.

This might contribute to mean gossip, road rage, unkind online comments or squelching someone else’s dream. Disconnecting from our creativity disconnects us from empathy and this disconnects us from others.

With so many of us walking around with our most vibrant creative selves locked away in the basement, it’s no wonder things are askew in the world.

Our creativity changes the world

I imagine a world where our creativity is liberated and fully expressed. What if:

• Honoring our creative impulses made us feel better and thus contributed more kindness, acceptance and joy to the world?
• Satisfying our muse satisfied the greater order of things and perhaps fosters more solutions to the world’s problems
• Honoring our creative impulse sparked a daily joy that ripples out and made a difference beyond our own selves, even if we don’t become rich or famous?
• Perhaps the time you selfishly protect for your doodling is not so selfish after all.

What if by dint of making, you make yourself a better person to be around? What if your own creative satisfaction makes you feel more energized, more productive and more purposeful?

What if that vibe made a difference in the world and you, tinkering away in obscurity, were actually contributing to world peace and healing?

Creativity makes a real, daily difference

This isn’t just a hypothesis. I’m not making this up. The real results my clients and students — and myself — have experienced from spending our ‘free’ time making include:

• Renewed vitality.
• Greater sense of spiritual connection and empathy.
• Release of old baggage, limiting beliefs and lingering emotional burdens.
• Feeling of fun and playfulness.
• Renewed enthusiasm for life.
• Sense of personal power and greater purpose.
• More flow of creative ideas and inspiration.

I could go on. In twenty years of coaching creatives, I’ve seen all kinds of miracles happen when people honor their inherent creative drive. Sure, some have published their books. Others have won awards for their art and built thriving businesses.

But every single person who has devoted themselves to their creativity has felt immediate and potent benefits. We don’t have to produce a bestseller to change the world. Changing our own state of being has an impact on those around us.

We grow through our creativity

I believe the work we make works us. And the works we don’t make diminish our humanity and our creative essence. In my work as a coach and teacher, I spend my days unlocking the creative basement so those who feel the drive to create can get out of their own way.

When we say yes to our creative work, we’re not just making a book or a piece of art or a business. We’re making ourselves. We’re making ourselves whole and that makes the planet a better place. Our creativity is the source of our vitality. Anything that brings alive our natural creative drive contributes to peace and healing.

You’ve heard that song, Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. I say, let peace begin with your creativity. You might think this is a simplistic or perhaps unrealistic expectation for our tinkering, our scribbling and our making. But when love drives our creative acts, there’s no greater force.

What will you make today?

At the end of February, there was a confluence of activity here at Original Impulse. I wrote a vulnerable article for you. My web site, that I’ve been working on since October, went live. That caused my email to go down. Also, an RSS feed for my blog got triggered and started sending out blog notices to people who hadn’t heard from the blog since 2014. It had an old image from 2010.

All of this vulnerability and technical glitches caused a profound mortification in me. You know the type, the visceral, “Where can I hide?” feeling.

Luckily, I had the good fortune to speak with a dear friend the day of the clusterfluff. She said, This is true imperfection. This is not you having an experience and writing about it later. It’s real time, real imperfection.

This was the best thing she could say to me. She asked what was I had imagined would happen or what would it mean if the world saw that I am not perfect.

In theory, I know I am not perfect. But in business, I seek to execute my actions at a high level of, well, perfection. No typos, no glitches. I do what I say I will do and seek to do it well.

But this need for perfection is a joy killer and a creativity crusher. In my writing groups, and with my clients, I help them wrestle down the need to be perfect. To write or say things perfectly. To make sure their work is ‘good enough’.

While I understand and share this hope for ‘good’, I also know that perfection is the enemy of beginning. We don’t start that essay because we know we don’t have the words figured out exactly. We don’t initiate that difficult conversation because we don’t know what to say. We don’t start our business because we don’t know how to do all the steps well.

The act of making anything is deeply humbling. We bump up against our limits. We face our ignorance – our not knowing how to do something. We find that we need help.

But isn’t that all the best? Dumping the idea of perfection allows us to tap into our truest and richest humanity. We become someone who is trying something – how cool is that?! Someone connected to everyone else who has braved something! Someone who embraces their humanness by reaching out and asking for help.

If you only dare something that you can do perfectly, I invite you to try anyway. Write that imperfect story. Have that messy conversation. Make that completely wonky drawing.

Use me if you’d like as a reminder that you can and will survive the imperfections. Even if you put it out there and omg make a mistake, you will survive. I survived my launch glitches, and was even able to laugh about it.

What about you? Have you survived imperfect creative efforts? Share your experience below.