Gary GoodwinOn the Journey to Unstuckness, it is necessary to bring a few partners along, sort of our own Wizard of Oz ensemble of inner characters. One character we must have at our side is a personification of forgiveness. We need to forgive our own lack of living up to our potential. As a Creative we harbor ideas, tons of ideas, ideas frequently to be turned from brain matter into real matter of a book, a painting, a blog entry, etc. Unrealized projects and unrealized potential come up in our night dreaming and our daydreaming, sometimes crying “Why did you forsake us? Oh why?” We need forgiveness to accept that we can’t give every idea life. Only a select few will go onto stages materialization. Even some of these will not make the final cut to production. That is the first thing we need to forgive.
Forgiveness is also required for projects that were in our hands or almost in our hands and we never were able to pick them up. For instance, we had someone knocking on our door (a potential publisher) or at least had someone’s ear (a gallery owner) who could have moved one of our ideas forward to production. For reasons we don’t understand we let things slip out of our hands out of fear of failure or perhaps, general procrastination. “Oh why did you let me go? All would have been different if you just would have taken action,” are the cries we hear from inside.
We can’t let a lack of self-forgiveness keep us stuck. A lack of forgiveness will not heighten our motivations for work. Instead they will go into a pile of reasons why we should not try to be a Creative. This pile generates poor energy, poor self-support, and poor decision-making. Instead, we need to use an approach that will hit us at the heart and gut level where true motivation is found. Using our imagination we can find our own, custom-made source of self-forgiveness.
Take about 10 minutes and go off some where you can be alone. Close your eyes and ask for an image of forgiveness. Anything can come up: a good teacher, a good friend, a good dog, a gesture, or just as feeling tone. Hold the image fast because you will want to remember it on your Journey to Unstuckness. Wrap yourself in how forgiveness feels. Tell yourself that later, when you are in the throes of being bugged by thoughts of potential unrealized or opportunities missed, you can turn to this inner image to get the ambience of forgiveness.
A Creative is strongest when traveling with others on the Journey.