You’ve heard the advice:
Just do it.
Schedule creative time in.
Make a plan and stick to it.
This is all good advice…unless for you, it’s not. I’ve built my coaching business not on pat advice for all, but on training creative people to learn what works for them. Here’s a peek into four unconventional methods I offer my clients.
Let the body lead. It’s so easy to override the messages our bodies tell us. When to eat. When to take a break from the screen. When to get some air in our thought process. When to take a nap. But the body, if we pay attention, is an excellent leader.
Pretend you’re not wrong. This isn’t designed to foster arrogance and self-righteousness. Instead, it’s meant to let you off the hook from being a screw up. We waste so much mental and emotional energy making ourselves wrong for our choices. We’re not doing it right. We should be better than this. Etc. Etc. Experiment with this: for a week, act as if your choices around your creative work are not wrong.
Do nothing. It’s often when we take space from focused work that new ideas or solutions arise. Yet it’s difficult to relax the constant tug of ambition or ‘shoulds’. Time and again, when we give ourselves space to accomplish nothing, that answers and insights arise. I know this is common advice, but how often are you willing to actually act on it?
Make a manual. This exercise is one my clients embrace with joy. Write or draw or mind map a manual for your creative self. Call it Care and Feeding of the Artist Manual. In it, include all the things you feel are important to maintaining your creative sanity and vitality. This will give you information about what works for you and what doesn’t.
What helps you get unstuck? Have you tried any of these methods? Leave a comment below to share your unsticking strategies.
I love the idea of a manual. Today I bought a Japanese moleskine, introduced by your blog, Cynthia, thinking to create a calendar–maybe a map to writing this year?
Indira,
Ooo! That will be fun to map your writing along the year in the Moleskine. There are so many ways to play with that. Let your instinct guide you – don’t think too much, just start.
Ah. Pretend you are not wrong. Take the pressure off and do nothing. and a manual. Some new ones here to try.
Easing off has helped me at times, and also just doing something, – Free Write Fling can be great, or sketching doign another kind of art. Or having a few days ban on reading as well as writing. Doing something new.
Julie,
You’re pointing to the need for variety in our expression. You’re so right – doing something different or new somehow renews or refreshes our creative outlook.
The ban on writing and reading is a good one. I remember doing that for the Artist’s Way. At the time I worked at a bookshop and it was hard to not read! I should try it again. It would be a real challenge!