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 Unstucking – The Best of Unstucking Advice

Well, this is it. The final article in the creative un-stucking series (at least for the time being): UN-STUCKING TIPS from EVERYWHERE.

Thanks to all who read the series and a comment. While I made a last ditch effort to wrangle some of you into sharing your unstucking ideas, I did not get a slew of responses. The final total: zero. So, instead of sharing our best ideas, I've collected some of the best blog posts on the subject and am sharing them below. I think you'll enjoy reading them as much as I did.

The Best of the How to Unstuck Yourself Creatively Advice:

The Art of Getting Creatively Un-Stuck (+ Why You Sometimes Have to Kill Off Your Inner Nice Girl by Justine Musk

Getting Unstuck Creativiely from The Lilypad

How to Get Unstuck if You're a Creative Freak Suffering From Creative Paralysis by Karen Daniels (Zen Copy)

Remove The Dead Wood, Let The New Growth Breathe by Dan Goodwin (A Big Creative Yes)

PODCAST: Noah Scalin on Getting Unstuck produced by Todd Henry founder of Accidental Creative - Noah is the author of a 2011 book called Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio

Getting Unstuck by Todd Henry (Accidental Creative)

Getting Unstuck - 7 Techniques to Shake the Creative Duldrums by Tracy (Bent Tuba Studio)

To sharing about our 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.

Creative Un-Stucking – Just Do It (even if it’s a cliché)

This is the second to last article in the un-stucking series, which means it’s time to talk about the most important un-stucking method of all:

Moving Forward Anyway

By the way, it’s the second to last and not the final article because I have a special request of you for the final un-stucking article in the series. So, be sure to read through the end today to see if you’d like to throw your hat into the ring next week. Now, back to the topic at hand:

Moving Forward Anyway is the most important un-stucking method not because it’s the best tool for expanding or enhancing creativity, but because it’s one of the most valuable tools for just plain getting on with it. Meaning that Moving Forward Anyway is about taking a monumental step toward being able to confidently claim, “I AM CREATIVE.”

At a certain point in many creative processes, there is a deadline – either one you set yourself for any number of reasons, or one imposed upon you. Your deadline may be as non-urgent as “I want to finish this project, because I want to finish this project,” or as truly urgent as, “My boss needs to see my ideas by 10am tomorrow.”

If you’re not stuck, your only problem may be that you’re so in the flow that you don’t want stop. But if you do feel stuck, well, that’s where Moving Forward Anyway comes in. Even if there is no deadline, for the reason stated above, Moving Forward Anyway is simply an invaluable action step toward learning how creative you really are.

Two years ago, I bought a townhome. About two weeks BEFORE I bought the townhome, I bought three nice chrome frames from Ikea. I also bought three nice mats and several sheets of REALLY nice watercolor paper. The following describes what I wanted to do with the frames, mats and watercolor paper:

I want to create some original artwork to go above my blue sofa in the living room.

I want the artwork to pick up the colors of my downstairs – blue and orange.

I want the three paintings to be based on an interesting single concept.

Now, what that concept was going to be, I had no idea. And over the two years that I’ve lived in the townhome, I’ve played around with a bunch of ideas. I love creating word paintings and I thought about doing a concept about my husband’s habit of saying “the word of the day is ____” whenever I use a word that has more than two syllables. In fact, I even went so far as to write a poem called, The Word of the Day is Tenuous.

I really like the poem – and I have no artwork based on that concept.

I also thought about buying a fourth frame and doing one painting that represents each person in my family – my husband, myself and my two stepdaughters.

I also do not have any artwork based on that concept.

So, about three weeks ago, my youngest stepdaughter announced that she would like to work on a couple of creative projects for her room over Spring break.

I thought, GREAT! This is my chance to finish those #$%&!#*% paintings! 

We made a plan to go to Michaels to get ideas, and while my stepdaughter proceeded to figure out what she was going to create, I felt even STUCK-ER. I was totally uninspired to watercolor.

But what did inspire me was the idea of spending quiet creative time with my stepdaughter.

I remembered a song my husband shared about how taking your kid fishing has nothing to do with fishing, and I realized that what was important to me for this particular creative project was Moving Forward Anyway – moving forward so that I would not blow this precious opportunity to create side by side with someone I love.

So, in this case, Moving Forward Anyway meant just choosing something – anything – and just doing it.  I based choice on my goal of spending time with stepdaughters which meant I just need to mix the colors I wanted and paint something I could paint while focusing on her.

We spent two days painting together. She created three watercolor paintings, including a card for her boyfriend and I finished my three pieces for the frames.

I really hated my paintings – AT FIRST. After all, there was no big idea behind them like I originally wanted. But now, I absolutely love them - except the one on the left – I still hate that one, but it’s my husband’s favorite. And that is a good enough reason to keep it up on the wall. Because – does it really matter? Was that really the point? I had set my deadline (2 days with my stepdaughter), and I chose to make what I created in that time okay.

Un-stucking myself by Moving Forward Anyway on this one project did what Moving Forward Anyway tends to do. It made me feel creative. It made me feel proud. It un-stuck me in general. I received a renewed creative spark for a lot of other projects that had been on my mind.

So, whereas this one painting series is not what I wanted to create, Moving Forward Anyway got me more in return than what having a better idea or more inspiration could have possibly given me. It always works that way. If you let it.  

Never underestimate the value of just deciding to do SOMETHING. Pick your idea out of a hat if you have to, and just follow through and see what transpires. What you actually create is likely the least of what you’ll get.

Like me, you may walk away with a deeper appreciation of how creative you really are – and you may find yourself in flow in another place in your life.

Even more, you’ll strengthen the deeper “I AM Creative” KNOWING that lives in each of us. The knowing that knows the I’m NOT Creative belief is a lie.

Moving Forward Anyway is not a cop out. It’s a legitimate response to a stuck scenario that enables you to create even though you are stuck. Letting go of the outcome and just being in the creative experience is only one of the gifts.

What I love so much about those paintings was the process of creating an intimate moment, not a painting. That’s what I think about when I look at them – and that turned out to be the big idea.     

To choosing the act of creation over the creation itself,

Susan B.

THE BIG REQUEST: I’ve shared a few of my favorite ways to get un-stuck creatively – and they only scratch the surface. The final article in the series needs to be from all of you! Please share your favorite un-stucking method in an email to susan@unlockedbox.com. There will be a link to everyone’s tips in next week’s Spark Factory. Thank you in advance for “just doing it.”

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.

The Three Paintings:

How Creativity Works – A New Book to Take Us Yet Another Step Away from the Idea that Creativity is Only for Some of Us

Last week, we talked about the skill of making new connections as a way to get un-stuck creatively.

This week, I want to share a New York Times article about a new book by Jonah Lehrer that reportedly offers example after example of this skill in practice. Not to mention, a more in-depth discussion about making new connections via other people specifically; creativity within communities; and also a vision for facilitating a more creative world.

The book is called, Imagine: How Creativity Works. I ordered a copy especially in light of what we’ve been discussing recently about why traditional brainstorming doesn’t work and what does – a real hot button of mine!

Just click on the links to go either to the New York Times article or to the Amazon write-up:

Read the New York Times Article: “How to Cultivate Eureka Moments”

Check out the book: Imagine: How Creativity Works

 

To un-doing the b.s. around the natural act of creating, 

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 – Finding Inspiration from Within and Without

For those of you coming from WomanTalkLive - WELCOME - just scroll down to near the end of this post to the section title "Ways and Means of Inspiration Finding."

Last week we talked about what it’s like to get stuck creatively. We also discussed how shifting your perspective out of stuck and into something else can open you up to generating new and more innovative ideas.

But there are also ways of shifting your perspective organically. Like finding inspiration. 

Inspiration can be found in two places: Within and without. Technically, though, inspiration is by definition from within, so what I really mean by within and without is this:

Within: Sparking your creative fire by playing with your physiology.

Without: Sparking your creative fire by feeding it.

Finding Inspiration from Within: Playing with Physiology

Finding inspiration by manipulating your physiology is about putting yourself into a state of being in which your brain and chemistry automatically work differently. Specifically, in a way that triggers creativity.

Most of us have experienced the Shower Phenomena – the ah-ha moment that comes when you are naked, dripping wet and without a writing implement. There is a reason this happens – it’s the physiology of creativity.

Next week, I’m going to share a fantastic On-Being radio interview with a scientist studying creativity and the physiology of it, but today I don’t want us to worry about the inner workings of finding inspiration via physiology. Instead, I want to share several ways to trigger it (you’ll find those at Idea Tango – the link is at the end of this article).

Of course, having the understanding that there is real science behind physiology triggering methods – and knowing why they work – is not at all necessary to employing them. Yet, as we grow into the idea that we are inherently creative, and grow ourselves creatively, it’s nice to know people are studying this stuff and finding ways to support us in trusting and using our natural ability to create more readily – essentially, giving us better “tools” in which to do so.

Finding Inspiration from Without: Feeding the Fire

Finding inspiration by feeding yourself inspiring fodder can also be a way of triggering creativity-inducing physiology – depending on what you’re feeding yourself. So, there is overlap in the “from within” and “from without” approaches (example: a long walk in nature is an approach that falls under both – the act of walking shifts physiology and nature might be your brand of creative fire fodder).

But looking at feeding your fire separately from triggering creativity-supporting physiology is important because it gives us a whole separate toolbox for creativity. And that’s the whole put of the stuck discussion – to offer multiple toolboxes and tools for un-stucking.

While what inspires each of us is very individual, there are two common truths in finding inspiration from without that likely apply to everyone:

• Inspiration from without comes easier and faster when sought from areas related to what you are creating. It doesn’t matter if they’re a perfect match, they just have to be related for you. For example, if you want to write a poem, reading other poets is seeking inspiration in a related area (no one would argue that writing poetry and reading poets is related). But watching a David Mamot film may be related to you if it’s the craft of language that creates the relation. In this case then, looking for inspiration for a poem might come from the well-crafted language of a poem or the well-crafted language of a film. And your “related” may be broader than that. I can find my inspiration for creating almost anything in any media (from cooking to dressing to painting) by experiencing what I consider to be amazing and moving creations – watching Cirque Du Soleil or listening to the Saltimbanco soundtrack, for instance, gets me unstuck creatively almost always. 

• Generally, there are some areas that inspire all people, but what within those areas, what inspires YOU is still individual. Music is an example. And, here again is also an example of the crossover between finding inspiration from within (using your physiology) and from without (seeking inspiring fodder). Under our radar, music shifts our physiology and, on the surface, music contains many inspiring aspects.

Ways and Means of Inspiration Finding:

Specific tips, tricks and ideas for helping you get unstuck using within and without approaches. These very simple activities are more powerful than they might at first appear to be.

Inspiration from Within or Why Working at Being Creative Doesn't Look Much Like Work

• Take a long walk.
• Take a nap.
• Take a shower.
• Go for a drive.
• Listen to music.
• Have sex.
• Do a boring, repetitive task (hopefully, not sex)
• Workout.
• Go for a bike ride.
• Take a break.
  

Inspiration from Without or Turing Outside Input Into Creative Output

• Go outside and into nature.
• Read about people who are creating in your medium - or look at their works.
• Make a very specific music mix based on songs you know inspire you.
• Watch an artful film or play.
• Talk to others about what you're working on - and ask them about what they're working on.
• Blog or journal about what you are creating.
• Read, look at, listen to, watch others creating in your medium.
• Create a mind map, vision board or collage around your creation's topic.
  

To inspired un-stucking,

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.

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.

Sandbox: Editing Goethe

I’m really excited to introduce a new feature of Idea Tango – a creative challenge. A chance for us to exercise our inherent creativity, get our hands dirty and have fun creating together.

How it Works: In each Sandbox, I’ll invite you to take part in a new creative challenge. They’ll cover all types of media (words, pictures, ideas, sound, etc), and all types of creative doings and beings. So, if one challenge isn’t your thing, you might go nuts over the next. Okay. Let’s play!

Your Sandbox Challenge: Editing Goethe

Try your hand at re-conceiving/re-writing a quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German writer, artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, poet and all-around person of neat ideas. Here’s your quote:

Colors are the deeds and sufferings of light.

                     - Goethe

I heard this quote for the first time just recently. It really sent my brain spinning at the possibilities. I thought about what it means at face value; what it means under the surface; why he chose emotionally charged words to describe something of science; and, ESPECIALLY, how other things or ideas might be described using the same structure:

____ are the ___ and ___ of ___ .

___ are the deeds and sufferings of ___. 

How to Submit Your Creation: Simply share your Sandbox creation in a comment to THIS post. You can use either structure from the examples above – or try something completely different. Whatever inspires YOU. And don’t forget that the creative process we’ve been discussing applies to sandbox challenges. If you’d like to play, but don’t know where to start, click on the “creative process” category at the right and start at the first step – by being a sponge while holding this particular Sandbox in your mind.

Winning the Sandbox: Sandbox is a safe space to play with creativity and share ideas and creations. If you take part, you are clearly a winner! I’m looking forward to celebrating ALL the responses and I’d love for us all to support each other using the “like” and comment buttons.

Is it Worth the Risk of Ridicule? I moderate this blog. Nothing negative or mean will be posted. Plus, the only people who read Idea Tango are those who are also interested in exploring creativity – and typically openhearted and kind to each other. In short, people who understand the guts it takes to put your ideas out there and will cheer you on, not tear you down. 

The point is to simply participate in the great sandbox of creativity; to practice extending your comfort zone; and, most importantly, to build a foundation that supports an “I’m Creative” perspective. The best way to believe in the fire of your own inherent creativity is to experience it by walking through the fire.

More Sandboxes to come – but not too often! So, don’t miss this one!!!

To the playful creativity that comes from borrowing someone else’s genius as a starting point,

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 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.