Idea Tango

Creative Confidence – Taking the Pressure Off

For those of you coming from WomanTalkLive - WELCOME! As usual, just scroll down to near the end of this post to the section in blue: 10 BIG-LIFE QUESTIONS TO ASK EVERY YEAR.

Last time, we began a discussion about creative confidence – what it means, how to get it, how to keep it and how to pass it on.

The article I shared with you by the Children’s Creativity Museum provided what I thought was a quite moving definition of creative confidence “Creative Confidence: Having the freedom and courage to fail/take creative risks and the knowledge that all of the ideas you create have value.” – and so, today, we start on the path toward how to get it.

While I’m a big believer in the sometimes power of anxiety (when we can choose to perceive it as excitement) and sometimes pressure (in the form of outrageously daring deadlines that spark the good kind of creative panic), the overriding feelings, for me, as a creative being are joy, passion, freedom, adventure, poignancy, thrill and a whole bunch of other emotions unrelated to anxiety and feeling under pressure. I think that’s true for most of us. In the beginning, then, when we’re first tapping into our inherent creativity, it makes sense that one of the kindest things we can do for ourselves towards building creative confidence is to take the pressure off. Find a way to open up our creative selves and begin living a more creative life without the fear and dread. And, for many of us, that means without the fear of actually having to create – to just take the pressure off completely.

If we can set up ourselves to feel and experience the essence of creative being without the idea that there is some end game, some masterpiece that needs to appear at the end of it, we can free ourselves from self-afflicted pressure and tap into the passion and motivation that, in the end, will drive us creatively forward anyway – with nary a thought to the risk. We can get to the point where we’re so on fire about what we are experiencing that creative stuff naturally and organically happens.

What we’re really doing when we take the pressure off is opening up a space for curiosity and, ultimately, inspiration (which if you remember from the series on creative process is the whole starting place of the creative process to begin with: Sponge Work). However, on the take-the-pressure-off path, we’re not going to imagine opening this space has anything to do with sparking our creativity. In fact, we’re not even going to call doing this anything with the word creative in it. We’re just going to call it fully living.

In this world, it’s all too easy to fall into ruts and routines that ignore who we really are and that dampen our passion. We stay in jobs we hate. We forget to immerse ourselves in new experiences. We stop learning. We stop moving our bodies. We numb out. Not all of us, of course, and certainly not all the time, but perhaps just enough to prevent us from fully living (and from feeling inspired to create).  

This week, Ann Quasman shared an insightful article with me about the connection between creativity and health (A Creative Life is a Healthy Life by Amanda Enayati for CNN). In it, Enayati describes the path to creativity and innovation – which just happens to look very much like fully living. If we put the focus on broadening our experience and deepening our learning about ourselves and the world around us; if we choose to master new skills and areas of interest; if we make a commitment to jump out of the status quo and into what makes us truly happy, what makes us feel more alive, our inherent creativity flows to the forefront and real creative expression is highly likely to follow.

All we have to do is decide to fully live.

Below, I’ve posted 10 Big-Life Questions to Ask Every Year – these are questions I ask myself, as well as all my coaching clients annually, and which, I think, are really helpful for setting new intentions and new directions on a regular basis. Especially, the intention of fully living and, therefore, of embarking towards greater creative confidence at regular intervals. Remember, though, the whole idea is to take the pressure off by making fully living, not creativity, the goal.

In short, we’re building creative confidence by not going for anything more, or anything less, than full immersion into a full life.

To taking the pressure fully off by getting on with fully living,

Susan B.

P.S. If you’d like to share your Big-Life intentions as a way to make this exercise more concrete (and yourself more accountable – which always helps!), you can do that right here at Idea Tango by leaving a comment with your answers. I’ll be the same later this week - and I hope you’ll join me.

10 BIG-LIFE QUESTIONS TO ASK EVERY YEAR   

#1. What’s your theme for this year?

#2. What are three goals you’ll have achieved as a result of living true to your theme this year?

#3. What new things are you going to learn this learn?

#4. What are you going to master this year?

#5. What’s the one thing you’ve been scared to do that you ARE going to do this year?

#6. What will you STOP doing this year?

#7. Who are you going to help this year?

#8. Where are you going to go this year?

#9. What’s the motto you need to adopt this year to support you in moving toward, achieving and/or living all of the above?

#10. At the end of this year, what will be true about you?

Unlocked Box – coaching for risk-takers, box-breakers and wannabe’s. Sign up for the eZine Guts at UnlockedBox.com and get the 10 Un-Rules of Creativity.

Creative Confidence - A Definition

What causes one person to create with abandon and the other person to hold back their creative self? In a word: Confidence.

Specifically, CREATIVE CONFIDENCE.

Creative confidence is a term that’s been used a lot in recent discussions about innovation, design, raising creative kids, the difference between the two people scenario I just described and more. It’s especially used frequently in presentations by IDEO founder, David Kelley – a thought leader in the discussion around creativity.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to launch into a deeper exploration of creative confidence – what it means, how to get it, how to keep it and how to pass it on.

Starting with an excellent article from the Children’s Creativity Museum, “Defining Creative Confidence,” which not only defines the term in a way that literally made me tear up (imparting the belief that “all of the ideas you create have value,” just could not be a better expression of what drives me – why I love writing Spark Factory articles for the WomanTalk Live eNewsletter and what my blog Idea Tango is all about. Communicating this TRUTH to all people – and especially to the next generation is, for me, a personal mission and life’s work. 

And, not only does the Museum’s article define the term, but the author also illuminates the process this organization went through in getting to that definition and shares how it’s impacted their customer experience.

I found “Defining Creative Confidence” beyond fascinating and I want to share it with you as a way to start our discussion – I hope you enjoy!

Read “Defining Creative Confidence” by Ben Growsman-Kahn of the Children’s Creativity Museum

To the value of ALL ideas,

Susan B.

Unlocked Box – coaching for risk-takers, box-breakers and wannabe’s. Sign up for the eZine Guts at UnlockedBox.com and get the 10 Un-Rules of Creativity.

Creative Un-Stucking – Making New Connections

For those of you coming from WomanTalkLive - WELCOME - just scroll down to near the end of this post to the section in blue: The How-To of Making New Connections.

So far in the discussion about how to move forward when stuck creatively, we’ve covered two methods: shifting perspectives and finding inspiration. If you have a lot of experience being conscious of your own creativity – the how you do it part of the puzzle – you may have noted that these two methods are not only useful when you’re stuck, but are also great general creativity sparkers in that they help a bunch with idea generation, whether you’re stuck or already in the flow.

This week, we’re going to cover another way to get out of stuck that’s also one of the best idea generators I know. I would go so far as to say that the vast majority of really great creative ideas come from this one method alone: Making New Connections.

Interestingly, both the skill of shifting perspectives and the various methods for finding inspiration work so well, in part, because they help us make new connections. They open the mind to new ways of thinking, or just open the mind period. That said, making new connections is a skill all on its own. Which means it can be learned and practiced. And, of course, the more you practice making new connections, the easier it becomes.

At first glance, the concept of making new connections may seem fairly self-explanatory. You take what you are working on and put it up against ideas or “things” from elsewhere – weird ideas, incongruous ideas, ideas from other mediums, ideas from other fields, and ideas from other people. But when creative people (meaning everyone) use the skill of making new connections, it often does not look like the work of putting ideas up against other ideas.

Instead of work, it looks like magic.

As a result, being around someone who is good at making new connections (if you are unpracticed at it and doubt your own inherent creativity to begin with) can have a really negative impact. It can make you believe, even more deeply, that you really do belong in the “I’m NOT Creative” box, when you absolutely DO NOT belong in that box. Ever.

Like everything else, making new connections, easy as it may sound, means committing to using techniques that will help you make those new connections. In other words, it means committing to playing around with the skill. Even if you already feel wildly creative, practicing even more with making new connections can blow the lid off whatever plateau you happen to be on at the moment – no matter how high up on the creativity scale that plateau is or how prolific you currently are.

Going back to where we started, if the plateau you’re on is a stuck point, making new connections may be one of the fastest ways out.

Here are a few ideas on the how-to of making new connections:

1. Ask: What's it like? This simple question was asked in almost every start-up session I ever attended as a copywriter at ad agencies. Often, finding a comparison to something else - sometimes something already done before was the fast track to new connections that would not have been discovered if we had kept a hard focus on the project in front of us rather than looking out into the world for similar ideas, challenges, opportunities etc. What's it like? is also a way of finding a metaphor for your creative undertaking, but I want to include metaphors as separate connection making tools because What's it's Like? can also be about finding connections between your project and other projects by asking what else has a similar objective/goal or a strategic or tactical likeness. 

2. Mine for a Metaphor: Asking, "What is this like?" with the goal of finding metaphoric connections rather than practical ones is a really powerful tool. In fact, coaches use metaphors with their clients all the time to help them think and see outside themselves. Having a few metaphors at hand to start the ball rolling can be helpful - rather than jumping into to thinking about metaphors cold. Examples of metaphors include: caterpillars turning into butterflies is a metaphor change - even more, transformation; a candle burning down to the ground might be a metaphor for resources running out or tiredness.

3. Use Connection Cards: Get a stack of index cards and write a single word/noun on each (e.g. Light Bulb, Elephant, Rocket Ship). Pull out your deck when you're stuck and choose a card randomly. Explore the connection between the thing/word/noun on the card and your topic.

4. Become an Alien From Another Planet: This tip is based in perspective shifting, but it's ultimately about putting yourself into a perspective that sparks you to more easily see things differently and, hence, make new connections you normally would not. An alien from another planet doesn't know the rules here on earth. She doesn't know what things are. She is free to make up stuff based on what she sees without all the baggage you/we carry. She has fresh eyes, but most importantly she is going to naturally see connections we don't.

5. Make a Mind Map: We've talked about mind mapping before and this tool is particularly relevent for this discussion because the way to work with a Mind Map is all about making connections happen - creating something new from something else and building on your ideas as you go deeper - or toward the outter most layers of your mind map. 

To wild, weird, whacky and wondrous connections,

Susan B.

Unlocked Box – coaching for risk-takers, box-breakers and wannabe’s. Sign up for the eZine Guts at UnlockedBox.com and get the 10 Un-Rules of Creativity.

Creative Un-Stucking - Shifting Your Perspective on Stuck

For those of you coming from WomanTalkLive - WELCOME - just scroll down to near the end of this post for a little how-to on perspective shifting.

One of the most common drivers of the I’m NOT Creative belief system is the very real experience of STUCK.

In the past, we’ve talked about how starting the creative process in the middle, rather than at the beginning – specifically, starting at the Inspiration & Insight step rather than with Sponge Work – can create the feeling of stuckness really fast and, ultimately, the feeling that we’re not creative – simply because we’re trying to force the big idea or moment of creation before we’ve done the groundwork.

We want creative fire, but we’ve yet to rub our sticks together.

The best response to this type of stuckness is to go back and do the preparatory work – be a sponge. Breathe, relax, open, become curious, soak up surroundings and move on to In The Flow by playing with ideas, making connections, until AH-HA – INSIGHT happens. This is the best response to stuck if you catch yourself trying to get the big idea right away because the creative process is a process – and you really can trust it, if you move from beginning to end.

And, sometimes, you still get stuck.

This is the kind of stuck that comes after you’ve done the work, while you’re in process, as you’re in the flow, sometimes even after you’ve been inspired and had a big insight.

For me, this type of stuck has a very unique feel. It’s icky frustrating. It has no energy. It feels sloggy. Aggravating.

Over the next couple of weeks (interspersed between some new resources, tools and creative fodder), I want to open a discussion about responses to stuck – in service of getting unstuck, but also in service of embracing stuck. There’s value in both.

Getting friendly with stuck, as well as having tools for un-stucking is probably one of the most important conversations we can have about creativity, because once we embrace our creativity and begin to bring more of our creative selves to everything we do, stuck is a natural part of the terrain.

What’s especially interesting about stuck is that it’s both a real state of being and also just a perspective, and therefore, not real at all:

She is stuck. She is, in fact, not progressing. She is exactly where she was an hour ago. She is not moving forward.

AND…

She feels stuck. She feels like she can’t make progress. To her, it seems like nothing has changed from an hour ago. She thinks she’s unable to move to forward.

When it comes to creativity and getting unstuck, the fact that we are not moving forward is much less real than the perspective of stuck. Here’s why:

When we perceive ourselves to be stuck, we also experience all the feelings of stuck. And because we feel stuck, we end up behaving in stuck-like ways – ways that reinforce the stuck. AND, as a result of that, we stay, well, stuck. Our perspective is what’s in our way, what’s keeping stuck.

As a coach working with creative professionals and entrepreneurs, I coach the perspective side of stuck rather than the “real” side of stuck simply because changing perspectives yields far better, more thrilling and innovative solutions than thinking our way out of stuck ever could. As Einstein said, “Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” It’s really as simple as that.

Trying on different perspectives and seeing what your creation or project looks like through new eyes can be a difficult at first (it’s a concept that can be hard to wrap your head around to say the least), but once you get the hang of it, you have the key out of the stuck place, or any other perspective that’s not serving you, for the rest of your life.

Following is a little more about the how-to of shifting your perspective in order to get unstuck. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on stuck and ways out as we make our way deep into sticky.

Shifting Your Perspective from I AM STUCK to ____?

Whatever we are feeling, seeing and being, has a way of becoming THE TRUTH. When we get stuck in a perspective (just like when we get stuck in the creative process), the STUCK perspective can feel like the whole and certain truth - end of story. But it's not. To shift your perspective, think of I AM STUCK as a pair of glasses you've put on specifically to look at your creative project. When you are looking at your creative project through the lens of your STUCK glasses, you feel stuck. Now, imagine you take off those glasses and put them down on a table. If you looked at your creative project now, wearing no perspective glasses at all, you'd feel nothing, think nothing - you wouldn't being making judgements, you'd be blank). Now, imagine looking back down at the table and realizing there are five additional pairs of glasses besides your original STUCK pair. What those glasses are labeled does not matter in the least, and the idea is to simply label each with a possible new perspective and pick each up, one at a time, and look through them. As you become more agile at shifting perspectives, you can create new perspectives to try on that you know serve you in a various ways because they, for example, might be based on your values, your most powerful self, etc., but in just choosing even a crazy perspective, great insights and new feelings will come. A critical point to make at this juncture is that you are NOT trying to make it all better. You are not trying to find the pair labeled ROSE COLORED. You are using the different perspectives so that you can see your creative project with fresh eyes, discover ways out of stuck and commit to a new perspective of your choosing.

So, let's go back to your table of glasses and experiement with labling each one with the perspective you'll have when you put it on. One of the glasses might be labeled: THE DRAGON SLAYER PERSCEPTIVE. Another might be labeled: THE VACATION PERSPECTIVE. Perhaps one is the: DIRECTOR'S CHAIR PERSPECTIVE. While the fourth is labeled: THE NEWBORN PERSPECTIVE. 

Look at your table of glasses to try on AND DO NOT LOOK AT YOUR CREATIVE PROJECT - just yet. First, pick up the DRAGON SLAYER glasses and put them on. What does the world look like through those DRAGON SLAYER eyes? What do you feel when you are in the DRAGON SLAYER perspective.

Now, look at your creative project while wearing the DRAGON SLAYER glasses. What does it look/feel like now? What's possible for your creative project if you choose to wear your DRAGON SLAYER glasses? Now, take off your DRAGON SLAYER glasses and put on your VACATION perspective glasses. Do NOT look at your creative project. Instead ask, what's the world look like through my VACATION glasses?, etc. Then, still in your VACATION perspective, turn your attention back toward your creative project.

So, that's just one way of learning how-to shift your perspective - by playing with different perspectives and choosing the one that resonates with you most. There's a bit more to process than that, but you get the idea.

When I work with clients using this type of perspective shifting technique which stems from a very core principle (empowered choice) in the co-active model I use in my coaching practice (developed by The Coaches Training Institute), it's clear that it's helpful to have a partner guiding you through the shifting process - simply because we really do tend to forget that we are always just wearing a pair of glasses labeled something and that we can swap them out at any time. Not to mention, that when we foret that our glasses are not part of us, it can be more difficult to think up other pairs of glasses on our own and notice the nuances of what we are saying/feeling when we wear a new pair. That said, if we practice shifting, we get way good at it.

To become more adept at shifting your perspective, here are a couple of tips and activities: First, it can help to avoid either/or, good/bad type perspective shifting and stick with trying on a handful of perspectives each time you practice. Second, simply practicing naming the perspective (or glasses) you are in/wearing at the moment (any moment) can build perspective-shifting muscle quick. To do this, realize that you are ALWAYS in a perspective and that your perspective shifts as you look at various aspects or things in your life, about yourself, etc. Take a moment a couple of times a day and ask: What I am looking at, experiencing or doing right now? And then: What is my perspective on that thing? Maybe look again at the same thing a few days later and name your perspective again - noticing if it's different. Identifying your various and shifting perspectives on different things throughout the day is a great way to create more ability and freedom to change your glasses at will.

To the unreality side of stuck, 

Susan B.

Unlocked Box – coaching for risk-takers, box-breakers and wannabe’s. Sign up for the eZine Guts at UnlockedBox.com and get the 10 Un-Rules of Creativity.

Breakthrough! Creative Tools for When Your Ideas are Bigger than Your Technical Ability

In a past article, we talked about a very sneaky kind of external creativity saboteur, TECHNIQUE. You can read more about it via the link, but here’s the gist in a nutshell:

I believe creativity and technique are totally different things. Creative is who and what we are. Technique is a skill we learn.

But we sometimes confuse the two.

We think, “If I don’t have the SKILL, I’m not CREATIVE.” Or, “I don’t have the talent to create what I want, so I’m stuck.” The focus is on the technical part of creating, not on creativity itself.

Because of beliefs like these, we may not seek out alternative ways of making our creations real. But, in today’s world, lack of technique is not a creative deal breaker. Especially, with so many creative tools and resources right at our fingertips.

I’ll be sharing creative tools of all types as we go, starting with two that were recently introduced to me by Unlocked Box client, Tamara Connolly.

Tamara is scary smart (you can read more about her below). So I pay attention whenever she says, check this out:

Prezi – Make Your Presentations Zoom

If you want an immersive, engaging way to play with and present ideas, Prezi is your tool. Prezi is a cloud-based software that uses a zoomable canvas to make visually captivating presentations that lead your audience down a path of discovery.

Kickstarter – A New Way to Fund and Follow Creativity

Kickstarter enables you to post a video and a description of a creative project of any kind and raise the money to fund it. Just looking through this site inspires me:

Tuzina – We Dance A teen-conceived and run project that uses dance as a tool for women and children in Uganda to work through the traumatic events they have experienced and to celebrate their culture.

Singularity & Co A project to save old and out-of-print sci-fi books by making them available online and as eBooks.

What Makes a Baby A project to answer the question “where do babies come from” in a way that works for EVERY family structure.

If you want to create something specific and are looking for the right creative tools or resources, including the human kind, let me know. A monster passion of mine at Unlocked Box is figuring out how to make my own, my clients’ and the Idea Tango community’s ideas work.

About Tamara Connolly: Tamara is an artist, designer and owner of Gildengers Connolly, a design firm, and also of Kli, a new online store that revisions religious objects for the contemporary home – with the thrilling underlying mission to increase the relevance of ritual/symbols and spark a cultural dialogue about the role of religion in society today.

To borrowing talent from the best sources,

Susan B.

Unlocked Box – coaching for risk-takers, box-breakers and wannabe’s. Sign up for the eZine Guts at UnlockedBox.com and get the 10 Un-Rules of Creativity.

 

Creativity Saboteurs - The Power of YES

We’ve just begun to really dig into creative saboteur territory – the voices in our head that stop us from believing we are creative or that stop us from going as far as we could. So, now is also a good time to re-visit the external saboteur voices in our lives – the voices of friends, family, bosses, colleagues, partners and even of random strangers.

The voices of the naysayers.

It might not even be a direct statement that causes us to call our naturally creative selves into question. It might be a look. Or a pause that lasts a little too long. Anything that indicates doubt in our ideas, our creations and ourselves.

Whatever the naysayer uses to imply that we are anything but 100% capable of succeeding or that our creativity is anything but miraculous, has the power to hurt us and hurt us bad. Because when our own internal saboteurs sense they’ve got the support of comrades from the outside, the “NO! CAN’T! SHOULD!” party in our heads tends to run amok darn fast. 

I’m lucky. And I know a lot of you are, too. My life has been blessed with people who believe I’m super. I’ve got the best champions anyone could ask for – and I question, how did that happen?

Am I really lucky, or did I make a choice?

Do my cheerleaders talk and talk, louder and louder until I hear them? Or do I choose to hear them loud and clear right away?

Do I accept their words, gestures or actions only superficially? Or do I accept them deeply, without question, letting the kudos really land?

The first time I witnessed a person basking in another’s statement of their incredible ness, I was floored. It was one of the most important and game-changing experiences of my life. There was no blow off. In fact, the person directly asked for moment to let the acknowledge sink in.

I thought, well, we need much, much more of this.

Finding the YES in someone else. Looking for what is right instead of what is wrong. These are not Pollyannish perspectives. We are not lying to each other. We are simply choosing to see what’s important: The underlying truth of each other’s boldness, creativity, strength and passion.

If we see that truth first, if we find the yes, we become the kind of champion for others that we desperately need for ourselves – and, along the way, we learn how to manage, walk away from or straight up get rid of the naysayers in our own lives.

To put it bluntly, either we believe in the possibility of each other or we don’t.

If we do, then we have to see the yes of them. We have to trust THEM. We have to stop worrying that they’ll look stupid or silly if they pursue their crazy idea. We all need to back up our calls to “BE BOLD, TAKE A RISK!” with a way of being that champions and supports the risk-taking of others – for real.

Person A has to choose to see the YES of Person B, AND Person B has to choose to believe them.

The next time Person A sees the YES in you. Take a deep breath and allow it to be true. Eventually, the naysayers will be harder and harder to hear, drowned out by an internal cheerleader – your highest self – who knows what greatest you are capable of.

To the power of finding YES,

Susan B.

Unlocked Box – coaching for risk-takers, box-breakers and wannabe’s. Sign up for the eZine Guts at UnlockedBox.com and get the 10 Un-Rules of Creativity.

 

 

Creative Saboteur Navigation - Why We LOVE Our Saboteurs

Last week we began a discussion about internal creativity saboteurs and how to move from creative panic to creative power. We talked about the fact that no matter how far we get in managing our internal naysayer voices, they have a tendency to stick around. We may hear them less and less and, ideally, we get to the point where they are mere annoyance. But they rarely disappear completely. We just get better at managing them. That’s why we say “navigation” and “management,” rather than “obliteration” or “abolishment.”

The idea behind internal creativity saboteur management is simply to become so adept at navigating through saboteur territory that your saboteurs lose the power to stop you from creating.

No matter how nervous or downright terrified we get, we’re okay as long as we move forward anyway. Even though we do want and need to learn to navigate our saboteurs effectively, acting in spite of them is what’s most important. In fact, we don’t even necessarily want our creativity saboteurs to go away.

WHAT??!! Wait a minute! Isn’t that the whole point of this? To shut those internal voices up? Of course, the answer is yes – and no. Just ask yourself this question:

When do saboteurs (of any kind) generally show up?

If you’re like most people (and, now, really putting the focus on the creativity saboteur), your answer is probably something like:

When I’m doing something unfamiliar, new or scary. When I’m uncomfortable.

Think about that.

Internal saboteurs show up when we are stretching ourselves. They get louder when we are moving beyond our comfort zones. And they get especially BIG when we're about to get especially BIG. Like when we have a big idea or are going after a big dream.

When we’re about to do something so incredibly bold, forwarding and remarkable, our saboteurs appear on the scene. The bigger and bolder our ideas or planned actions, the fiercer and more menacing the saboteurs can become. 

In this way, internal saboteurs are actually a great sign. They tell us that we are playing a bigger game, and they show up en force when we want to, are about to or ARE creating FULL ON.

Ultimately, we want to be able to see that the saboteur would not show up if we were playing it safe. If we can see our creativity saboteurs this way, they can lose some of their power over us. Of course, there’s much more we need and will do with our saboteurs, and there’s much more we’re going to learn from them, but for right now let’s each just remember this:

When my creativity saboteurs show up it’s a very good indication that I’m going in the right direction.

To BIG, BAD-ASS saboteurs and BIG, BAD-ASS ideas,

Susan B.

Unlocked Box – coaching for risk-takers, box-breakers and wannabe’s. Sign up for the eZine Guts at UnlockedBox.com and get the 10 Un-Rules of Creativity.

 

Beyond "I'm NOT Creative" - Even Practiced Creative People Have Fear

Welcome to everyone coming from WomanTalk Live - you'll find the common saboteur sayings at the end of this post - under the sign off.

Philosophizing about internal creativity saboteurs when a creative undertaking is NOT in front of you is a totally different ball game from confronting and navigating that same saboteur when an actual creative opportunity has presented itself.

The reality is we can talk about our fears forever, but unless we put ourselves in fear-inducing creative situations and practice navigating the saboteur voices, we stay stuck. We miss chance after chance to take the next step toward developing saboteur navigation skills we can count on.

The very genuine responses to February’s Sandbox suggest that many of us spent at least some time staring our creativity saboteurs square in the face. Some may have even wondered if they’d ever be able to make the “I’M CREATIVE!” claim for real. 

And this is great. It means we have the chance to take that next step – because:

If you felt any level of fear at all about the Sandbox (or any creative opportunity you’ve had recently), you took a risk.

You opened the door (no matter how far); you moved out of your comfort zone (if only by a step); you allowed yourself to go far enough to put your saboteurs on high alert: 

“Hey, GUYS! She’s about to stick her neck out!

Everyone to your posts! Stop her by whatever means necessary!!!

DO NOT LET HER MAKE A FOOL OF HERSELF.”

Even those who contributed a comment – experienced some level of saboteur harassment.

The only difference is how much practice and skill a person has in navigating the saboteur onslaught. The reality is we’re all in the same boat.

And that does sound true, doesn’t it? Yet our human tendency to judge our insides by other people’s outsides means that, at times, we can feel like we’re the only ones who are scared.

So, it can help to know that even though the creativity saboteur singing in the practiced creative person’s ear may not be straight-up saying, “You’re not creative,” it is saying SOMETHING. And to move forward that person still has to navigate the fear. After all, any saboteur voice has the potential to steer us into the rocks, stopping us from taking life-enhancing, game-changing, goal-getting creative chances.

Shifting from panic around creativity (or whatever the emotion is for you) to power (the ability to move forward despite the saboteur) is one of the most important works of our lives. Sleeping within our inherently creative selves are tangible gifts of our creativity. Gifts so magnificent, they’re worth taking the next step. Starting now.

Engaging the Saboteur Week One:

• Ask someone you consider highly creative what fears she or he encounters when faced with a creative challenge, idea or project.

• Take a look below my sign off for a few of the common saboteur voices practiced creative people hear.

To leveling the playing field,

Susan B.

BEYOND "I'M NOT CREATIVE"

The limiting beliefs, negative self-talk and internal critic sayings that can run through even the most experienced creative person's mind.

• Sure, I was creative last time, but I got lucky.
• Sure, I was creative last time, but I had help.
• Everyone liked what I did last time, I can't risk losing their good opinion of me by trying something new.
• Okay. Everyone says I'm great, but I know the truth.
  
• I have to be brilliant - EVERY TIME.
• I'll never be as good as those guys.
• They don't know that it's easy for me. It doesn't count if it's easy.
• I'm struggling with this, I've lost my spark.
• I took lessons. That's the only reason I'm good.
• I better not (do, say, create) THAT! I'll look (stupid, silly, amateurish).
  
• I should be better than this by now.
• My (poem, painting, meal, formula) was rejected. I suck.
• If they don't like my work, they don't like me.
• If I'm successful, I'll have to do it again - and that's too much pressure.
• It's not the right time.
• I don't have the (money, time, talent) to pursue my creative dreams.
• I'm a phony.
• What if I fail?
  
• I'm not creating ENOUGH. Everyone else is so prolific.
• Thanks, but I'm not a real (poet, artist, chemist, chef).
• ABSOLUTELY ANY AND EVERY "SHOULD," "COULD," OR "WOULD."

So, this list is very incomplete. I SHOULD have researched it more. What are the REAL creatives going to say? They're going to find out I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING! Maybe I COULD just hit DELETE. 

Unlocked Box – coaching for risk-takers, box-breakers and wannabe’s. Sign up for the eZine Guts at UnlockedBox.com and get the 10 Un-Rules of Creativity.

Creativity is NOT a Contact Sport

A couple of weeks ago, we discussed silence and space in relationship to creativity. This week, Ann Quasman shared an interesting New York Times article with me that not only supports that idea, but moves the conversation significantly forward via the reporter’s discussion of the benefits of solitude in fostering creativity versus the very real and long-in-the-works movement in our society to take away that solitude in service of expanding creativity – a practice that has been shown through research, as well as anecdotally by some history’s greatest thinkers and creators, to decrease creativity, learning and the quality of ideas.

Anyone who’s heard my diatribe against sharing ideas too soon has gotten a glimpse of my beliefs about the importance of alone time and solitude in creating. I’m also not a fan of brainstorming sessions (they are great for sharing thoughts, but not for developing the best final product) and typically retreat into my own little world when working in a group in order to come up with the actual ideas. After reading this article, I know I’m not alone.

As reporter Susan Cain states, collaboration and teamwork are important for certain aspects of creation, and certainly have their place, but these concepts as realized by open-space offices, group work in schools and as a replacement for solitude, are simply not generating the outcomes expected in terms of greater creativity and innovation. Per Cain, the best-producing teams come together to share ideas, make critical human connection, but do the actual creative work solo. Cain has also written a book about the power of introverts that I can’t wait to read.

Enjoy her article. It really says it all: The Rise of the New Groupthink

To the wonder of walls,

Susan B.

Unlocked Box – coaching for risk-takers, box-breakers and wannabe’s.

Sign up for the eZine Guts at UnlockedBox.com and get the 10 Un-Rules of Creativity.

Creative Process - Making It Done

Special Note for those coming from the WomanTalk Live website Spark Factory article: Scroll down past the article for a list of tips and tricks for Getting the Grit to Get it Done

This past Saturday night I had the honor of joining Ann Quasman on the WomanTalk Live radio show for a conversation about the four steps of the creative process - what I titled in previous blog posts: 1) Sponge Work; 2) In The Flow; 3) Inspiration & Insight; and 4) Making It Real.

However, there’s one aspect of creative process that we didn’t get a chance to cover deeply – and one I also promised to re-visit in the article on the third step Getting the Big Idea: The idea that, under certain circumstances, we need to make a conscious choice to move to the next step whether we feel ready or not, especially:

• The conscious choice to “force” the inspiration or insight.
• The conscious choice to begin the hands-on creation work.
• The conscious choice to stop working and call your creation done.

While some may argue that the creative process by it’s very nature can’t be forced, anyone whose worked as a creative professional knows differently. So does anyone who has ever written a blog, or crafted a tweet. Or, anyone who needs to get dinner on the table by 6pm.

Obviously, there’s nothing that can force the next phase of the creative process faster than a deadline. But moving forward before we are ready, or finishing before we are “done,” is also a way of practicing a very critical aspect of creativity in general – letting go. To be even more specific, letting of perfection.

As imperfect as our creation is; no matter how much better it would have been if we had spent a few more hours, weeks, months or years; or despite the fact that infinite outcomes really are possible from any single inspiration or insight; there is a time to stop.

To paraphrase Julia Cameron creator of The Artist’s Way: No creation will EVER be done - and learning to finish is key to unlocking even greater productivity and, more importantly, greater confidence around our creations.

Below are a few tips for practicing and getting comfortable with the Making It Done aspect of creativity. I see the application of this practice as essential in countless situations and for all types of people. Entrepreneurs are a case in point. It seems so obvious that revenue will not be earned if your product or service is always in progress, and yet so many of us tinker so long, trying to perfect every aspect that we lose the chance to earn a living from our passion. Our competition soars through the finish line with a lesser product, perhaps, but more guts.

To achieve any dream or goal, we have to consciously choose to cross the finish line. If we look hard, we might see that those who have achieved success and fulfillment are those who have been willing to cross imperfectly, eons before feeling ready.

Getting the Grit to Get It Done

The following tips and exercises can support you in practicing making your creations real and getting projects done:

• Set a deadline and stop at the time you set - no matter what. Deadlines are a fact of life, but they typically don't apply to our personal projects. Having "forever" to finish is not always helpful when practicing building the Make It Done muscle. By setting a deadline and sticking to it, you can practice accepting that "finished" is subjective and that what's unfinished in your eyes is very often perfectly finished to other people.
  

• Embrace imperfection in all aspects of your life. Not just around specific creations, but in everything you do. Practicing allowing imperfection is a great way to become more comfortable with the imperfect and to actually begin to see the perfection in all things, including your own creations.
  

• Notice imperfection, and let go of judgement around that imperfection, in other's lives and creative works. Judging others less harshly, or even better, not judging at all, has a boomerang affect. If you can be less hard on others, you can learn to be less hard on yourself simply by applying the exact same thought patterns internally - and sometimes it's easier to begin with non-judgement of others than it is to stop judging ourselves.
  

• Display your creations (all your creations from what you wear and what you cook for dinner to art or anything else) without explanation, excuses or apology. Learning how to allow your creations to simply be is one of the most valuable lessons in all of creativity. It helps separate self from work and, over time, saying simply "thank you" or nothing at all builds confidence like nothing else. It is the practice of "acting as if" - acting confident before feeling confident.
  

• Avoid the second guessing game initiated by other people like the plague. Answer remarks from others such as "did you think about ...", "you could have ..." and "why didn't you ..." with: "I chose to do this [fill in the blank] this way and I'm quite happy with the result." And say nothing else. Be silent. You will likely be very surprised by what the person making the statement says after you refuse to play the "it could have been better" game. Usually, it's something very supportive and celebratory of your creation.
  

• Separate Self from Work. This is an ongoing practice for many creators. The idea that we are our work becomes ingrained in us from an early age (think about the kudos a child receives over a finger painting from a proud parent - or the shame/guilt he or she might feel when told not to draw outside the lines). We are what we create has a seed of truth within it - under certain instances, but we are NOT our physical creations. I work on this concept often - and I'm not always where I want to be (I know because of the pit I sometimes feel in the face of criticism). But I have made huge strides, and the best ways I've found to practice are by using simple mantras, visualizing the separation between myself and my creations and physicalizing the separation by creating physical space between myself and my creations for a period of time.
  

To finishing already,

Susan B.

Unlocked Box – coaching for risk-takers, box-breakers and wannabe’s.

Sign up for the eZine Guts at UnlockedBox.com and get the 10 Un-Rules of Creativity.