Impulses

Back to school time! Are you like me, with fond memories of school supply shopping? Do you love the fresh slate of a new class or semester?

It’s hard to rally that focus on our own, but it’s possible. You don’t have to get all fancy or formal. Just focused. Below you’ll find the inquiries I give my clients when they want to focus on learning and making and growing.

What do you want to learn? This is a great way to narrow down options and get excited about specifics. What is your creative edge, the thing you want to get better at or learn about?

What resources will help you learn this? What books, podcasts, courses, or lectures meet you where you are and help you with what you want to learn?

This is a good question to ask when those random opportunities arise. The irresistible class. A great new book. The OMG she launched that THING and I gotta do it! It’s all too easy to sign up for everything and then do nothing. To feel like we have abandoned the thing we wanted to focus on.

When opportunity knocks, simply ask: How does this help me focus on and meet my goal? 

Speaking of goals, what is your desired outcome? (I don’t really go for goals; instead, I work on projects and set a deadline for when I want to launch or finish them. That feels better for me, but you may prefer the word ‘goal’.)

• Do you want to make something and put it out into the world?
• Do you want to monetize your thing?
• What is your ultimate aim and what is your deadline?

When designing your own course work, ask yourself this:

When will you study and work? Determine how much time you will have for this and when it’s right to do your coursework.

Where will you study and work? Sometimes it helps to have a space that’s outside the norm. I get a lot done at the cafe, but you may prefer a quiet corner in your home.

Who will help you? Perhaps you sign up for a class or have a buddy. We often go further together, but maybe you prefer your own private Idaho.

What supplies will you need? I always LOVED back-to-school shopping. But now, as an adult, I realize that we usually already have everything we need to do the work at hand. I believe that consumerism is the weakest form of creativity, so don’t go buy stuff when what’s really called for is sitting down and doing the work. That said, if you really need a new notebook or gear to do the work, what would that be?

How will you determine your satisfaction? How will you ‘earn your A? This is a concept from Benjamin and Rosamund Zander in their book The Art of Possibility. I have adapted it for my Atelier program. Instead of earning an A, I ask what participants need/want to do to earn their JOY. This helps remove any striving or perfectionism.

Keep it simple. Don’t spend too much time planning. Just enough to get focused. Trust yourself to know what’s right for you.

What else would you add to your curriculum? Make it fun, make it yours and make it meaningful to what you want to write.

This fall I will be bringing back something I can’t wait to share with you. I am at a creative edge and it’s thrilling. I’ve been studying and focusing and I enjoy the feeling of being a student again. I’m using my Atelier to keep me on track.

What do you want to learn this year? Check out the workshops I have for writers this fall – I bet one of them is perfect for you.

Share your thoughts and curriculum plans below.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to a movie that energized me like few others. Pieces I Am is a documentary about the novelist Toni Morrison. I saw it again last night, and got even more from it.

I googled Toni after I got home and discovered that she is 88. Wow, I thought. That’s impressive. Then, last week, I got word that Toni had died.

I found it hard to feel sad. 88 is a long life. And Toni had done so much. She wrote many books. Since I read her novels in my early ‘20s, I’ve been inspired by her talent. Toni’s writing was evocative and she shared stories of the African-American experience that I hadn’t known before I read her work.

But the documentary filled in the picture of her life. Toni was an editor at Random House. There, she focused on publishing the work of other African-American women writers like Angela Davis and Toni Cade Bambara. She worked full-time, wrote novels and raised two sons as a single mother.

Through her talent and determination to write her stories, she earned a Pulitzer Prize. And, she was the first African-American woman to receive the Nobel Prize. What an amazing life and career! Rather than feel sadness that she is gone from the earth, I celebrate and am grateful for how she lived and what she did for American literature and for African-American people.

It might be easy to see this legend and think, oh, I could never do anything like that. And, for the most part, it’s probably true that neither you or I will get the Nobel Prize. (But you never know!!)

I want to underline four things I gleaned from Toni’s life for us:

Toni had an unshakable passion for writing and confidence in herself and her stories. Facing criticism that she didn’t include white people in her stories, she stood her ground. She wrote about and for African-American people. Her stories that did not center on or include the white gaze. This was groundbreaking and lit the way for other authors to stand in the truth of their vision. I am taking this inspiration now in the project I am writing. What stories must you tell that others might criticize you for? How will you set aside perceived pushback to write your truth?

Toni knew and trusted herself. At the time, she was one of the few women in the publishing world and certainly one of the few African-American women. But when faced with a room of white male colleagues, she didn’t waver. “I knew I was more interesting than them.” She didn’t try to be like them. She owned herself and her place at the table. Now more than ever we are called to stake our place in the conversation. To not back down, to not water it down and to not abandon ourselves. How can you trust your unique gifts and bring them to the conversation?

Toni asserted her authority. As an editor of Muhammod Ali’s book, she was responsible for helping him on his book tour. But he couldn’t really see her. She realized that he had her in his mind as a woman, and that he didn’t regard women as having any authority. When this became apparent to her, she shifted. She moved into ‘mother mode’, dominating him in a way he could understand and accept. Sometimes we have to exert our authority in new ways, but without abandoning ourselves. How can you claim your authority today?

Toni ‘went there’. Her books are so enduring because Toni addressed taboo subjects. She staked a claim for the African-American experience, and didn’t shy away from the bloody parts. Beloved, a novel about a slave mother who kills her children rather than see them return to slavery, shows the deep and absolute desperation of a mother who sees no way out for her children. While many would call a mother like that a monster, Toni saw her humanity. She strikes to the heart of the slave experience in ways that no one else had. Where do you need to take your writing to reflect a deep honesty that may not be expressed otherwise?

I could go on and on. Toni’s life and body of work is a true gift to the American people – to all of us. After I saw Pieces of Me, I felt so energized. I believe everyone should see this movie. Don’t doubt me on this one, friends. Just find it if you can and go see it.

It’s a fun game for budding authors to go to the bookstore to see where their books will go on the shelves. It’s a deep honor for me that my books nestle alongside Toni Morrison’s books. I don’t have any illusion that my talent matches hers even remotely. But I know that we share space in the pantheon of novels. That we have both taken the risks to write about what means most to us.

What has Toni Morrison inspired in you? What creative risks are you willing to take now? Share your thoughts below.

Clients often tell me: “I need to just sit down and write.”

This sounds reasonable, right? I mean, just DO IT!

But there’s something sort of punitive about this. The feeling I get is like being told to sit down and shut up. Be quiet. Toe the line.

Maybe it’s all my formative years in Catholic school with the nuns, but any kind of forcing or punitive vibe one my creating just doesn’t work. I can’t even use the word ‘discipline’ because it brings to mind punishment rather than focus. Dustpan spanking, anyone?

If you’re feeling stuck creatively and hear words in your head telling you what to do, and you’re not following that voice, perhaps it’s because the vibe is more of a punishment than an invitation. I mean, really. Who wants to be told to sit down and do anything, even if it is our own voice?

It may be that sitting down to write is not your style. Perhaps standing and jamming on the keyboard Tori Amos style would be better for you. Or bouncing on a big ball along with your typing.

But, honestly, most of the tips and hacks for getting our work done avoid the real issue. We’re scared. It’s scary to write our truth. It’s daunting to invent worlds and inhabit them with characters we will care about. It’s scary as hell to ‘put ourselves out there’.

What works for me and my clients is to make a commitment. And honor it. And honor our own way of doing things. If writing in the cafe works for you, do it. If writing standing up makes it easier to be with the discomfort, do it.

I invite you to bring pleasure to the process, not punishment. What delights you and your inner writer or artist? Maybe you ‘reward’ yourself after creating. Maybe you sip the cappuccino while you create.

I’m working on a writing project – NOT a book – that is daunting as hell. So I bring extra compassion and kindness. This does not mean bailing on my writing dates. It does not meaning skipping writing when I don’t ‘feel like it’. (We usually never feel like it.)  It means showing up for writing dates in ways that help me focus, follow through and finish – in my way.

This approach to creating is the very foundation of my work as a coach. We each have to find the process that works for us. Take all suggestions and ’tips’ that work for you and adapt them for yourself. Make up your own crazy rituals. And if a dustpan spanking works to get your work done, well, more power to you.

Whatever your rituals for making, make them work for you. Don’t bully yourself into it; you will just rebel against the meanness. As well you should.

What pleasures help you to get your creative work done? Share what works for you below!

I lead a workshop in Paris and elsewhere called Capture the Wow. Unlike tours or classes that teach you how to paint or draw, Capture the Wow is a playful invitation to become unabashedly receptive to the delights that surround us every single day, whether at home or away. Basically, I help people lure out their inner artist in a city devoted to art. What could be better?

I’ve been traveling this way for so long, it would be hard to imagine not setting out with a notebook (or two) in hand. I have shelves full of my sketchbooks, resplendent with stories, shapes, color and memories. It’s easy to whip one out to recall a special moment or share it with a friend. Sure, I could do that with a photo but it’s not the same.
But beyond the sketchbook, what does it mean, exactly, to travel as an artist? As I prepared to take my artist to Japan (I’m there now!), I set the intention that this was a trip for my artist. That I would come home with insights and inspiration for my art and my life.
In addition to the intention, I also practice the following approaches when I travel, and invite you to as well. I invite:

• Openness to synchronicity and random surprises rather than being attached to an overly-full agenda.
• Willingness to adopt a slower pace, perhaps even stopping to take things in more deeply.
• Using the sketchbook more often than your camera to capture things that move you.
• Veering off the well-worn path offered in popular guidebooks.
• Bringing out the camera selectively, perhaps using a theme or photo prompts.
• Reflecting on experiences and how they contribute to our art.
• Seeking out local artists and artisans.

This ability to tap into the wonders of the world is what allows artists to make art, musicians to compose great symphonies and photographers to see what the average person misses.
For the first time in 19 years, I took time off completely from work to go to Japan. No clients, no classes, no writing. I wrote this in advance of leaving so I could still keep my promise of sending a bi-weekly newsletter. I’ll be filling sketchbooks, writing daily haiku and making watercolor postcards. I can’t wait to see what inspiration and actions come from this time traveling with my artist.
What helps you travel like an artist? Leave a comment below.

Last year, I began teaching a new class that brought me back to the origin of my life as an artist. Drawing as Meditation had such a powerful impact, and yet it was so simple. My students showed me that there is a great hunger to slow down, savor, and feel more attuned creatively.
It’s amazing – in the true sense of the word – how our senses can offer us a new experience in any moment. Yet we allow our senses to be dulled. We fall prey to:

• Too much information
• Moving too quickly
• Doing more than one thing at once
• Overeating, overdrinking, over consuming anything

We are at the same time overloaded with input and starving for true, first-person information that really fuels us. With an abundance of sensory input, we crave depth. For that, we can start with something we all have access to anytime, anywhere: our senses.

By the end of my Drawing as Meditation class at Camp GLP, participants claimed a greater sense of freedom and permission with their drawing, and their creativity in general. The process I lead is very simple but had a big impact. I credit it to beginning the workshop with this meditative exercise.

I use this at the beginning of my Capture the Wow and Drawing as Meditation workshops. It helps us shift our state of being quickly and easily. We’re then more receptive and appreciative of what’s around us. The exercise is called Sensual Atunement.
Engaging our senses intentionally allows us to experience life more richly in any given moment. And they’re there for us always. When we attune our senses, we experience the world more vibrantly. This helps us to feel and be more creatively inspired.

Sensual Attunement exercise

Here is the exercise for you to try – it can take as long as you like and as little as three minutes. Read all the instructions first, then guide yourself though this simple process.

Before we begin, write down three words that describe your state of being. These words could be: overwhelmed, anxious, calm, stressed. No judgement, just jot down the words that describe your current state. Set that aside.
To start, find a place where you can be uninterrupted. You will be closing your eyes, so make sure you are in a place where you feel safe doing so.

The meditation usually takes up to five minutes. What we will do is go through each sense, one by one, asking two questions:

• What do you notice?
• How would you describe that?

Now, close your eyes. Start with smell. Take a deep breath in. What do you smell? Continue looking for smells, both subtle and gross. Take a minute to smell everything you can.

How would you describe that? Play with putting words to what you smell. How would you tell someone what you smell? What words would you use? Be as creative as you want.

Next, let’s go to sound. What do you hear? Tune in to the sounds in the room, outside of the room. Listen to the small sounds and the loud sounds.

How would you describe what you hear?

Now, taste. What do you taste? There might not be an immediate taste…keep exploring. What do you taste in your mouth right now?

How would you describe that?

Next, touch. What do you touch? What does your body touch? Your clothes? The place you are sitting on? The air on your skin? Feel it all.

How would you describe the touch now?

Before you open your eyes, tune in to the sixth sense. Intuition. Vibe. Energy. What do you notice?

How would you describe that? Again, be creative here.

Lastly, open your eyes.

What do you see? What do you notice that’s different from before you closed your eyes?

How would you describe that?

You can use this exercise whenever you feel frazzled, overwhelmed, confused about what to do next, or whenever you want to feel more present and grounded. It’s easy, portable and doesn’t require anything but a few minutes of your attention.

You can use free-writing to capture your experience from this exercise. Try it and let us know how it goes below.

When I lead my Capture the Wow retreats in Paris, we don’t travel in the usual ‘see that’ and ‘buy this’ way. Instead, we seek to experience ourselves and the world in new ways. Our goal is to bring our creativity to the surface.
But it’s more than that. Over many years leading this retreat, I noticed a pattern. Everyone had a part of themselves that wanted more air time: the creative part. They’d come to Paris to find her and enjoy her.
From our time together in Paris with our artists, I’ve learned a few ways to make it easy to tap into our creative side both at home and around the world. I’ve come to realize that artists travel in a certain way.
Of course, every artist is different, and it’s presumptuous to think we all travel in the same way. But I believe that artists are porous to the world in ways we can all adopt and benefit from.
Which of the following would you like to have more of in your life:

• more mental space to allow insights to land
• new connections with people, places and ideas that freshen your perspective
• reliance on your mental, emotional and physical capabilities to stretch and grow you.

There are many more benefits to traveling as an artist, but I’ll leave you to discover what happens when you slow down, savor and reflect on your experiences. Try the artist’s perspective on with the practices in my Travel Like an Artist manifesto below.

 
Remember, these practices can be used at home – no plane tickets required to ‘travel’ like an artist.
What does it mean for you to travel like an artist? I’d love to hear your perspective. Share your thoughts below!
Want the Travel Like an Artist manifesto for yourself? You can download your favorite version now to spark love between you and your artist.

You’re riding the wave of creative fulfillment with a project, getting it done and feeling great about it. Then you turn a corner and find yourself in a dark cul de sac of doubt. Your joy is replaced with questions:

• Will anyone care about this?
• Is this any good?
• Wouldn’t it be better to just drop it and relax a bit?

If you’re like me, this happens on almost every project, and especially on the ones that feel particularly vulnerable or meaningful.
I have been circling in the cul de sac of doubt with my latest project, my annual review. I’ve been working on it steadily for the last few weeks and am approaching the final 20% of the writing.
This last part of any creative process is always plagued with these doubts. We’re faced with our limitations and fears and it seems like such a better idea to just ditch the thing like a bad cold.
Even though I have been here many times, the fears seem as potent as always. Even though I know better than to abandon something this close to the finish line, it’s oh so tempting.
Here’s what I am doing to cope with the cul de sac of doubt:

• I move between working on the writing and working on gathering the visual images
• I take myself to various cafés to work on the writing helps me stay focused on the project
• I ask myself what could improve the writing, challenging myself to make an even better product.

And finally, I recommitted to finishing the project. When we want to ditch something, it’s offering us a chance to re-center ourselves on why we are doing it. I decided that I was going to finish the annual review to the best of my ability and put it out there in mid-December as planned.
The fears and doubts will still be there, stronger than ever as I approach the publication date. I know that. But I will not let my inner critic and fears decide what I do and what I create. I hope you don’t, either. Keep going until the joyful end.

I’m leading a coaching group, Write On, and last week many of the members found themselves waylaid from their writing goals. This is normal – a big shift or surprise can put us into shock mode. In this state of intense emotion, it’s hard to focus.
Massive upheaval can also bring our inner critic out into the light. I know I faced doubts about the annual review I am writing. Isn’t this selfish? Shouldn’t I be doing more important things? How privileged of me to be writing about my year.
These doubts made me want to abandon my work.
And yet I know that hiding is not my true path. My path is to share what I know about the creative process so that others are emboldened to do their creative work.
Even in times of uncertainty, fear and upheaval, we MUST keep creating. Yes, there is a time to process what we are feeling and thinking, but what better way to do that than through our art and our writing?
If you need a few pointers on how to stay focused on your work, here are some thoughts.
• Limit your consumption of media and others’ opinions.
• Begin your day with your own work, not others’.
• Let your body lead – listen to its needs and honor them.
• Watch out for self-sabotage tendencies – binging on food, drink or media will not serve you.
• Connect with loved ones.
• Access nature and other things that nurture you.
• Do your creative work.
There will be days when you cannot think, focus, sit still or create. Those are the days where you can do small bits of your project. Remind yourself of your original impulse for this project. Lay out the outline of your book in index cards. Look up links for things you want to share. Tidy up and clean the studio space. Do something, no matter how small, to stay connected to your creating.
It’s never been more clear that we must keep making. We cannot let anything – either external forces or internal fears – stop us from what is inside us and what must be expressed. Each of us has a voice and a role to play, and there is no longer any time to believe that we don’t matter.
Please,  do not let your inner critic or your fears win the day. Do not let a day pass without feeding your creative fire. Write. Make. Speak. Inspire.
We need you.

A ‘faux pas’ {ˌfō ˈpä/} in French is literally translated as a ‘false step’. We usually think of a faux pas as a social gaff, a mistake that puts us on the wrong side of the conventional line.
But today I want to talk about some of the mistakes we may be unconsciously making that get in the way of having a satisfying writing life.
In the twenty years I have been working with writers, these are ten things we do that I know diminish our writing happiness. These faux pas are common to writers and any kind of artist. Check the list to see if you are – oops! – making any of these missteps.
Faux pas 1. Blabbing. Writers are always excited about their projects. This is good! But when you blab your ideas, you lose motivation to actually write them.
Faux pas 2. Overambitious scheduling. We all think we need hours and hours to write, but then we never manage to block off all that time. Start small and build. Fifteen minutes, several days per week, adds up.
Faux pas 3. Spending too much time reading about writing. Admit it: you know when you are procrastinating by reading rather than writing. Don’t spend your precious writing time reading someone else’s words.
Faux pas 4. Isolating yourself. The loner archetype may be appealing but isolating yourself robs you of the chance to grow beyond the known. Find other writers to share the adventure with. Connect with writing buddies in workshops, at readings, in libraries and bookstores.
Faux pas 5. Comparing yourself to others. If you make a comparison and it propels you to do more writing, the comparison has been useful. If it makes you feel like giving up writing, give up comparing instead.
Faux pas 6. Letting your inner critic take the lead. We tend to take the negative voice in our head as the truth. In my work with my clients, we always start by identifying that inner critic. When we know its tendencies, we can more easily know when it’s taken over. Choosing which perspectives to orient our actions to is one of the most powerful ways to honor our creativity and get things done that matter to us.
Faux pas 7. Staying in student mode. Classes are great, but if we’re counting on them to do all our focusing work, we’re not building our own creative muscles. Use the momentum of the class to continue writing once the class is over.
Faux pas 8. Giving in to discouragement. Every writer I’ve worked with despairs about how long it’s taking for them to write. But writing is a long process, and we have to accept that it’s not a rush job.
Faux pas 9. Judging your writing prematurely. Our inner critics love to get in on the critique action right away. Give your words a bit of space before you bring a critical eye. Leave a day or at least several hours before going in with the red pen.
Faux pas 10. Abandoning hope. I’ve been writing steadily for twenty-two years. I am always finding ways to improve my writing and am grateful for the challenge to be better. It takes time to hone a craft, so steady on!
If you’ve found yourself guilty of some of these creative missteps, don’t sweat! You are now aware of them, and that’s the first step.