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Join the Wild Money Revolution and Fall in Love with Money

What is it about a new enthusiasm that makes us want to run out and spend money?

With my new focus on art making, the possibilities to buy are endless. New books. The incredibly seductive lure of the art supply store. Surely I need to get a new journal every week, right?

Then there’s the learning curve. The more I practice, the more I see the need to improve. Surely I need to take a class or sign up for some expensive retreat like the month-long program in New York at the Visual School of the Arts.

I see this trend with myself and my clients: the creative impulse is immediately followed by the spending impulse. But I think this urge to open our wallets is not based on need, but on our own discomfort.
We’re uncomfortable that the true next step is to sit the hell down and do the work. Fumble through that shaggy first draft. Fill pages of crappy sketches of distorted faces. It’s so much more fun to go out and get a (cheap) thrill by buying something we’re convinced we need.

Years ago I got my financial act together. But recently, I’ve had to do a refresh on my spending, saving and buying patterns. I’ve had the good fortune to work one-one with Luna Jaffe, an amazing woman who’s both artist and financial planner.

She gets this creative urge. She doesn’t tamp down my enthusiasm for my art. Instead, she points me toward solid practices that help me feel good about creating and about my money relationship.

Luna’s book, Wild Money, offers deep insights into why we thoughtlessly spend. Luna’s book kindly guides us – in bright, beautiful color – to design a financial life that supports our wild creativity. This book is part of Luna’s mission to lead a money revolution based on love, creativity and mindfulness.

Be part of the revolution and get your hands on Wild Money so you can create and play with ease, knowing you’ve got your money thing handled.

Won’t it be fun to say, I love money and money loves me, and to believe it? Join the Wild Money revolution now and tell your friends, because being rich in all ways is better with friends.

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Back to Class: Designing My Art School Curriculum

I always loved school, but I didn’t love getting an F in high school art. Now that I’m gearing myself toward making art, I am eager to learn and improve. I’m also eager to be financially prudent.
So it’s back to school for me, with my own art school curriculum.
I adore this concept of earning my A from Rosamund and Benajmin Zander’s wonderful book The Art of Possibility.
Current favorite podcast: Design Matters by Debbie Millman.
Books resource: Denver Public Library, for which I am eternally grateful, otherwise I’d be penniless from buying so many books. Check out more books in my art school reading list.
Other specifics:

  • Daily sketching
  • Weekly urban sketching excursions
  • Weekly illustrated column at Original Impulse blog
  • Weekly Friday art show and share
  • Continued learning about processing for digital sharing
  • Monthly meetings with art buddy
  • Continued absorption of the wonders of the world and openness to juju, guided by intuition and enthusiasm.

 How do you focus your ‘side project’ work? Do you use the frame of a curriculum or something else? Share in a comment below, and if this article inspired you, share it with your friends with one of the buttons below. 

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Take the Permission You Need and Create Something

Brenda Ueland, author of If You Want to Write, asserted that “Everybody is talented, original, and has something important to say.”
I love this. This belief highlights our innate creativity and power. We do have something important to say, by virtue of being human and having lived our own, unique experience.
So why does writing or any other creative act require permission?
During many years coaching my clients to write books and build businesses, I’ve seen that creating something is a radical act. Art making demands truthfulness and self-revelation. It’s not comfortable to put ourselves out there. In her book Daring Greatly, Brené Brown writes about vulnerability as the thing we need most but is also most daunting.
My clients often need permission to speak up for themselves and their art. They’re both excited and scared to start something new. Our conversations normalize this fear and help them take steps toward writing their book or blog.

Give yourself permission

This Scottish butter gave itself permission to sizzle with gusto.

The most powerful permission comes not from others, but from ourselves. When we grant ourselves the right to reach and stretch, we loosen up and begin to enjoy the process.
My wish is for you to discover your unique offering and to write it and share it as you see fit. Now that we have spent some time with our inner critic, let’s balance the scales with some extra encouragement to write. Enjoy giving yourself the following permissions to write, and give yourself your own permission!
Permission to be honest. Whenever you write, give yourself room to be honest. Do what it takes to give yourself permission to tell your truth.
Permission to imitate. Copy stories or poems that you like. When you write out other authors’ works, you can gain a deeper understanding of the way they craft their writing. Pay attention to what you notice most as you write their words down. Then try to write in their style.
Permission to practice with a curious eye. Practice word sketching.  Like an artist, sketch what you see, hear, and smell right where you are. Sketches are quick and rough, meant as practice, not perfection. Doing this will develop your skills of focusing detail in your writing.
Permission to maintain privacy. Promise yourself that your journal writing is for you and you alone. No one has to see what you are writing. This will help you to retain a sense of safety, which is important as you reach for your writing dreams.
Permission to listen to yourself. Keep a notebook by your bed and jot down your dreams and those wild thoughts that always show up just before you fall asleep or when you wake up. Our unconscious has wisdom to guide us if we stop to listen.
Permission to blab. Think of a secret that you have harbored. Now write it down as a story. This could be a personal secret, a family secret, or even an invented secret. Notice what happens as you write it down and what it feels like afterward. You don’t have to share this with anyone.
Permission to be imperfect. Try writing just for fun. Try writing badly. Give yourself a week or more to write just as you want to, without worrying if it is good. See what happens when you give perfectionism a break.
Permission to be human. Know that there are ups and downs in any endeavor. Don’t be hard on yourself if for some reason you don’t do as much writing as you want to. Enjoy the journey and do what you can.
Take the permission you need and make something. You will never know what your original impulse is leading you to if you don’t follow it.
What permission helps you get going with your writing or art? Share in a comment below.
This essay is adapted from my online class Make Writing a Happy Habit. This and other encouraging lessons start October 28th, 2012. Give yourself permission to start writing now.

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Seven Steps to Get Your Groove Back When You’ve Lost Your Writing Rhythm

You know the feeling – you’re writing regularly, feeling the flow of your unique writing impulse. You’re making headway on your project and you feel gooood.

Then life, as it is wont to do, throws a wrench in your rhythm, halting the sweet ratatatat of your keyboard. Events on a scale large and small, tragic or irritating interrupt:

  • vacation
  • honeymoon
  • illness, either yours or a loved one’s.

Once the chaos has settled, you start to hear the sound of your inspiration calling you back. You like this tune and truly want writing back.

But weeks pass and you don’t return to that project you flowed with so well before life intruded on your progress.

Despite our best intentions, life’s distractions can easily derail us from our writing.
It seems all the time we spent finding our writing rhythm and focus was a one-time investment, and we’re forced to learn the steps all over again.

But even though it may feel like it, you’re not starting from scratch. Try these seven simple steps to resume – and refresh – your writing groove.

Draw upon your past successes.
What structures, times or places helped you focus on writing? Resume your Friday afternoon writing date, return to your special writing café, and other rituals can be renewed.

When we consider what worked in the past, we will often get snagged by stories of how our plans fell apart. The inner critic loves to chime in with variations of “Remember what happened last time – it didn’t work! Why bother now?”

We lose trust in ourselves when we focus on what didn’t work. We build something sustainable when we turn a curious eye toward what will work for us.

If there are negative associations with any of those practices, what can you replace them with?

Manage your expectations.

We often set ourselves up to plunge back in, pens raised and charging forward with brio. We expect to spend hours at the work, producing pages and pages of scintillating prose.
But it’s more likely we’ll start slowly and ease back into our rhythm. Instead of letting your high expectations lead to disappointment, use little victories along the way to fuel more successes.

Fend off saboteurs.

If it wasn’t a major interruption but a foggy dissipation instead, what derailed you from your course? Knowing the main saboteurs can help you identify trouble when it shows up next time.

Write down all your naysaying excuses that beat you away from the keyboard. See? Once they’re exposed, they seem to carry much less weight. Keep the list handy for the next time you’re tempted to believe your saboteurs.

Start with a brief rendez-vous with your project.

This is a simple meeting to reacquaint yourself with your work. We’re talking a 15-minute ‘project assessment’. Take notes. Jot new ideas and insights.

If you are starting anew with shorter articles or blog posts, check what you had done before you took your sabbatical. Review your lists of content ideas to spark new posts.

Refresh your deadline.

Deadlines can motivate us, even self-imposed ones. Recall former deadlines. What worked? What didn’t? One of the most common mistakes we make is to be overly optimistic about how long things take.
What do you know about yourself and your pace? Use that to set a deadline that engages, not strangles you.

Keep your cards close to your chest.
Some writers find it useful to announce their intentions publicly. Others find the pressure of others’ expectations counter-productive.

I prefer a middle path. Speak your intention to your writing tribe: your writing buddies, former classmates and teachers, a coach, or your favorite writing forum.

Dial it just right.

When planning the return, people often envision something like this:
“I’ll write five days a week for two hours each day.”

What’s wrong with this picture?

We don’t operate in two-hour time periods. Saying we’ll strap into the writing chair for two hours is a guaranteed way to assure that you won’t do it at all.

Let this be easier by starting small – one or two 30-minute writing sessions per week are much easier to slip into.

Which approaches will you try to get your groove back?

Try any or all of these strategies to slowly but surely ease back into your groove. Focus on building trust, engagement and momentum for this new phase of your writing life.

Notice that these suggestions ask you to rely on yourself. Build a positive and sustainable relationship with your writing that can withstand the capricious fluctuations of life.

Set yourself up to win by choosing steps that are right for you, right for this time, right for your projects.
What has helped you return to your writing groove after losing your step?

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Why You're Not Creating Like You Want

I recently polled my Impulses subscribers, asking what was blocking their creative satisfaction.
What do you think is the biggest thing lacking in people’s lives? Guess.
That’s right. Time.
Lack of time is the #1 obstacle people believe prevents them from creating. Is this your excuse too?
An excuse, not a real obstacle? Yes and no. There’s one way that we make ourselves victims of time. Read on and see if this is you.

Curb your time optimism

It’s a wonderful thing to be an optimist. Life is good, things always work out, we’re on the right path…we like these optimistic perspectives.
But when we extend our optimism to the clock, our positive perspective backfires on us.
We believe that we can do it all, that tasks take less time than they do, and that we can catch up later. Consequently, we book our days to bursting. Our schedules are crowded. We rush to keep up with all we’ve committed ourselves and our families to.
There’s no space. No space to rest, to relax, and to allow fresh solutions and insights to float in.
I believe you can reduce your time optimism and increase your satisfaction with your creativity.

Fifteen minutes a day

Start taking back your time with fifteen minutes each day. Before the day starts, in between errands, at the end of the day – wherever – insert some sanity space into your days.
In your space, do what you want. Perhaps you nap, read, write, play, stroll or meditate.
Do not use this 15 minutes to check your email, peruse Facebook or throw in another load of laundry. This is space to dream, be, refuel and inspire yourself. Not a space to tick items off your list.

Space opening up for you

It’s not easy to slow down and do nearly nothing, even for 15 minutes. But it’s vital. In the cracks between busyness we hear our wisdom.
When we put pen to paper or take a walk, we often hear the answer to the question that’s been puzzling us. We get to know ourselves in ways that are necessary to lead an empowered, authentic life.
Experiment with inserting 15 minutes into your days in August. In this space do whatever you want, but don’t try to get anything done.
If you’re not creating how you want, be honest with yourself: is your time optimism stealing your creative satisfaction?
What would 15 minutes of space a day do for your mood and happiness?
Who’s in? This is an informal challenge, and I’d love to hear if you decide to do it. Leave a comment below and let me know you’re putting space into your life for the sake of your creative sanity.
I’m doing the Free Write Fling in August. I don’t have an agenda for my writing time. I look forward to a daily dose of space for myself, where I can lie on a blanket in the park and rest with my notebook, or prop myself up on the couch midday to pen my 15 minutes away. I look forward to this space.
We start August 1st. Ah, sweet space! Do it with us!

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Prioritizing for Creatives With Too Many Ideas

You’re gifted with tons of ideas, which all seem great. And you want to do all of them now.
The problem is, you’re not the goddess Kali, gifted with many arms and the ability to multitask. You have to choose. You have to prioritize.
Every client and student I’ve worked with has this challenge. I do, too. With so many things to do, how to know what to do and when? Here’s what my clients and I find works.
Start big, work small
Know what you want in the bigger picture. What are you doing in this life? What are you trying to achieve?
Having clarity on you’re about and how you want to execute that will help you choose projects that align with your vision.
Work with the calendar
At the start of each year, take time to explore your focus for the year. If you’re an artist or writer, is this year about producing work? Or is it time to put your work into the world?
Understanding where you are in your creative cycle will help you focus on what’s important. This will make it easier to say no to things that aren’t related to your focus.
From your annual focus, break it down quarterly. What is each quarter of the year about? What resources do you need, what actions do you need to take, what help do you need?
You may not be able to answer these questions past the first quarter, but even one quarter is a great start.
From the quarterly viewpoint, break it down into weekly actions. Again, you may not be able to plan it all out, but a sense of each week’s work will help.
Each week, get clear on the thing(s) you most want to achieve that week. Keep this to three or fewer items. Be sure you’re breaking bigger items (write novel) into smaller tasks (draft chapter one, write back story for characters X and Y).
Every day, when you go to work, do the same thing: identify the thing you most want to accomplish that day. Have no more than three things on this daily list.
This may not be the thing you want to do. It may be the thing that gives the most satisfaction to you, or that brings you closer to completing your goal.
When other opportunities spring up, ask yourself how they align with your bigger picture goals and focus. Learn to say ‘no’ as a way to say ‘yes’ to what’s really important to you.
Keep breaking it down
One mistake people make is thinking that once they set their priorities with their vision or even a weekly plan, it should be easy to follow.
But you have to keep driving yourself to reprioritize. I use this system and still have to keep asking myself throughout the day, “What now? What now?” After I complete each task or project, I consult my list.
The secret is to spend a little time planning. Plan the year, the quarter, the month, the week, the day. You’ll feel more satisfied on a daily basis and on an annual basis, you’ll see the results you want.
What helps you prioritize? How will you try my suggestions here? 
Coaches help prioritize
One of the things that really helps to prioritize and take meaningful action is working with a coach. Earlier this year I hired a coach to help me with my business. I tell you, when you plunk down money to work with someone who has your best interests in mind, you get clear on your priorities.
My coach helped me see the bigger picture and identify specific actions to attain my goals. It worked. 2011 was my best fiscal year ever. I finished my novel, increased my reach, and felt happier and more empowered by it. I published more, traveled more, and enjoyed life more.
This is what I experience when I prioritize. This is what my clients experience when they prioritize.
I have a few spaces open for new clients in 2012. My rates will be increasing slightly on January 13th. If you need help prioritizing, send me an email and we’ll talk about how to get started with our work together.

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Buff Up Your Creativity: Ten Creative Capabilities Enhanced by Travel

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Florence from the top of the Duomo inspires creativity

I gave this article to my Curious Boulder participants to remind them that travel itself is a creativity workshop. Formerly published in 2009 here, I offer these perspectives to you again, so your summer travel may incite your creative juju.
Creativity is a combination of skills, qualities and perspectives that allows someone to bring ideas into form. Identifying and cultivating those capabilities allows you to be more effective in life and work.

It’sno surprise that the rigors of travel build our creative capacity. Both
endeavors push us to our physical, mental and sometimes emotional limits.

Travel and creativity aren’t for pansies.

After a year as a creative nomad in Europe, and from observing the changes I see in my Curious Excursions participants. I have charted ten ways that travel sparks our creativity. Check out the following ten creative capabilities to see how travel has contributed to yours. 

[Read more…] about Buff Up Your Creativity: Ten Creative Capabilities Enhanced by Travel

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How to Be More Creative

People often tell me they want to be more creative. Of course, I’m curious. “What does that look like for you?” I ask.

Denise getting more creative in Amsterdam 2008

What does it mean for you to be more creative? You might not have a ready answer. If we can’t pinpoint exactly what ‘more creative’ looks like, we can have a sense of how we want to feel.
When we’re more creative, we:

  • Experience more vitality and vibrancy
  • Enjoy a sense of play
  • Feel more empowered
  • Attract more opportunities and success
  • Connect more easily to like-minded people.

So when we say we want to be ‘more creative’ we really want to be more alive.
The creative spark strikes us and lights us up, allowing us to savor those ‘aha’ moments where something new makes sense and can change our lives.
How does one get ‘more creative’? Practice by pushing the edges of your comfort zone. Try:

  • adopting an open ‘why not’ perspective
  • experimenting in new media
  • dropping perfectionism like a bad habit
  • a willingness to try, fail, and appear stupid
  • making new connections between things and ideas
  • acting according to your values without worrying what others will think of your lifestyle and choices

What does your ‘more creative’ look like? Share your ideas below.
Stay tuned for more ways to fire up your creativity. Get your juju delivered with a subscription to Impulses, my bi-weekly newsletter.

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Rebel at the Peril of Your Creativity

If you’re like my clients, you’re a bit of a rebel. You don’t like being told what to do and you’re happiest when you’re doing your own thing.

This rebellion might feel good, powerful, even, but if you’ve turned this rebellion upon yourself, you may be sabotaging your creativity.

Are you self-sabotaging?

You say you’ll write for an hour on Saturday morning. Once your writing time rolls around, you ‘don’t feel like it’ so you do something else. You chafe against structure so you never end up finishing your articles, stories and book.

Or…

You set up studio time, and choose a specific focus for your work. But once in the studio, you pass hours not getting anything done. You assert your right to ‘flow’.

Often creative people internalize the obstinate stance. We become so accustomed to positioning ourselves against something that we struggle against ourselves.

We like being bad, even if it’s damaging our creative power.

[Read more…] about Rebel at the Peril of Your Creativity

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Your Talent Is Not a Twinkie

Remember the Twinkie? That golden cake with fluffy white filling is rumored to have no expiration date, meaning it can sit on the shelf indefinitely and still be good when you unwrap the plastic.

While an infinite timeline can seem seductive, your brilliance is not meant to be held off forever.
Your talent is not a Twinkie. Your ideas, your projects, your unique expression, cannot sit on the shelf indefinitely.
Talent has a shelf life.
[Read more…] about Your Talent Is Not a Twinkie

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I Can't Draw – But Who Cares?

“I can’t draw!”
I hear this often, especially by people who are attracted to my Curious Excursions but feel the need to profess how much they are not an artist.
Drawing is one of the creative tools in my toolkit because it’s a practice in attention and awareness. The kind of drawing I encourage is about looking, not producing.
Drawing as meditation for those who can’t sit still
I began drawing in 1994 as a way to still my thoughts. Encouraged by others to meditate but unable to sit still, I found something amazing when I came upon Frederick Franck’s book, Zen of Seeing: Drawing As Meditation. Franck’s work helps people calm and still themselves by focusing and rendering on paper what they see.
When you look, really look at something, a calm settles in. The concept of ‘being in the moment’ finally roots in a practice of applying your pen or pencil to paper. When you truly give your attention to something, you occupy the moment in a simple yet profound way. [Read more…] about I Can't Draw – But Who Cares?

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Dumping Mr. Perfect

He’s busy inside your mind, squirreling away on a treadmill that never ceases. “Again!” he cries, never satisfied. “Better!” he urges, and you comply, re-working that sentence, re-painting that corner.

He is Mr. Perfect, and if he rules you, your creativity is at high risk. Your perfectionism gremlin is actually not helping you – he’s draining your creative vitality.

Mr. Perfect is a sneaky gremlin. He has you convinced that perfectionism is a good thing, that re-working something endlessly means you have integrity and high artistic standards.

The problem is, more often than not, Mr. Perfect grinds away at you for so long that you end up never completing that draft or that sculpture. Because it’s never perfect, you never feel satisfied and you don’t advance your creative career.

Mr. Perfect tries to dominate my clients’ creative process. They proudly and sheepishly proclaim that they are perfectionists, sensing Mr. Perfect isn’t good for them, but feeling unable to escape his grip.
Why do we labor under this illusion of an attainable perfection? [Read more…] about Dumping Mr. Perfect

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Got the Creative Blues? Write Your Acknowledgement Page

There comes a point in the writing of your novel when it’s just a slog. You’re close to the end but you don’t feel like you’ll ever see that finish line or hold your book in your hands.

This creative despair can be crippling. Time to lighten things up with gratitude.

The quickest way to gratitude is to write your acknowledgement page. If you’ve written a book, you know that this page isn’t just a nicety. Finishing a book really does require all those people, and even though it’s your name on the cover, the names on the acknowledgement page are equally important.
They’re especially valuable when you need to gather encouragement. You may not be able to invite them over to soothe your writer’s soul, but you can bring them together by drafting your acknowledgment page. [Read more…] about Got the Creative Blues? Write Your Acknowledgement Page

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Don't Let the Deadline Zone Kill You

Among the many strategies to help get creative projects done, deadlines rule. I love setting deadlines to complete my books and projects.
And, I nearly always miss my deadlines. But that doesn’t mean they’re not working – I’m just using them differently.
Deadlines aren’t just about meeting a goal by a certain date. Deadlines are a chastity belt for your wandering creative lust – keeping you focused.



Nowhere else to go!


But sometimes our deadlines can turn against us, applying too much pressure and choking our creativity instead of serving it. If you find yourself feeling too much pressure or avoiding the work, your deadline may be killing you.
Use your deadline as a way to focus rather than a whipping stick. Let your due date help you make choices that guide you toward completion. If the deadline’s choking you, back off on the pressure. Don’t decrease your workload or focus and don’t extend the date. Just keep going.
When you miss the deadline, just set another. Don’t make up stories about your integrity or your ability to write. Learn from it, and keep going.
How about you? How do you use deadlines? Do you always meet them and if not, what do you do when you don’t?
You know missing a deadline doesn’t mean you’re a dullard. Just another atom in the creative ignorosphere. This is part of my Creative Ignorosphere series, published here on the Original Impulse blog. Spread the word and help your friends out of the ignorosphere! #creativeignorosphere

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Not Getting Things Done? Enter the Deadline Zone

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a focused space in which to write your book or finish your project? You often yearn for that far-off creative zone, an idyllic escape where you can focus on your work without daily distractions, tempting dates with friends and other seductive projects.

A mountain getaway would surely help you stay focused on one project. You may even replace Julie Andrews with an image of yourself, singing blissfully to the sky because you’re so tuned into the creative flow!
Sigh. Maybe you can’t escape your daily grind, but you can create what I call The Deadline Zone. This is less a place than a practice – and your ability to shut off distractions to complete projects is a key factor in your success.

Something about the word ‘deadline’ strikes fear in the hearts of many. Most people understand the urgency and focus of a deadline. [Read more…] about Not Getting Things Done? Enter the Deadline Zone