Regardless of who we are or what our project is, we will get “no!” as an answer more often than “yes!”. Right now, sit back and consider how many nos you are likely to face about your work. Be honest and be in reality. Twenty? Fifty? More? Now double that number. Got 20? You got…
Invisible Downside
The downside of not losing weight is having excess weight. Hard to hide that. The visible downside of not stopping smoking is smoking and worse. Can’t hide that. Visible and even dire downsides can be motivating. Worrying and painful, but motivating nonetheless. Most people reading this post are working on creative projects outside the daily…
Take a Wide Road
There are two types of roads: narrow and wide. The narrow road assumes that your journey will require little sideways movement or much movement at all other than straight ahead. A narrow road is fine for that, getting a person from point A to point B. We all want the fast way to our envisioned…
Don’t Try to See the Future, It Will Drive You Nuts
No one wants to waste their time by not getting what they deserve after knocking themselves out over a creative project. To avoid that, the common approach is to stare into the future. If we stare, some creatives figure, the haze of time will clear away revealing to us how our projects will fare. One…
Look for the Hook
If we show up to our work space and if we show up consistently and if we make an earnest effort while there, something happens. A hook appears. The hook is a special type of motivating power that people who don’t consistently show up fail to experience.They never dream that it is there. One hook…
Find a Blueprint and Run With It
If you are just getting started or stalled out, find a blueprint and run with it. Blueprint? Yes, look for a blueprint that covers the next steps for you. For instance, if you want to write your first novel, get one of those books that tell people how to write a novel in 30 days, 90…
Beginner’s Mind, Constant Companion
Painful. Beginner’s mind is painful. We are swamped with self-doubt, uncertainty if we are doing things right, uncertain if we even know what to do next. But that is just the way things go. Being a beginner is being a beginner. We feel out of sorts most of the time, whether we are doing things…
Tackling U.F.O.s
I learned recently from Suzy, a student in one of my The Stuck Creative classes, that all quilters try to push the thought of U.F.O.s out of their minds. Otherwise, going on would just be too disturbing. U.F.O.s , as quilters know them, are Un Finished Objects. Yes, unfinished objects can truly haunt us. There…
Breathe Your Inner Troublemakers Away
We all face a host of inner troublemakers that include: The Inner Critic The Inner Type A Personality Self-Doubt Low Frustration Tolerance Fear Worry Psychotherapy gives us a method to get a grip on these guys when they come up and stop us from working: Take a deep belly breath – That’s right (how simple),…
Don’t Be Alone
According to the organization for professional trainers, the American Society of Training and Development, we can’t do everything alone. The following stats reflect a person’s likelihood of completing a project: -If you hear an idea (or I suspect, think up an idea), you have a 10% chance of turning it into a project. -If you…
The Checklist, Please
You are being bombarded with all sorts of things that have little direct relationship to your Creative life, right? You really get knocked off your path when things come along. Sound familiar? We previously defined some of these forces as distractions, dips, and dives. Today we go beyond definitions to actual practices for bouncing back…
If You Fail Today, Succeed Tomorrow
Let’s say you have all the intention in the world to paint 45 minutes, 6 days a week. You hit this target just fine for a few days but by the fourth day, some distraction (big or small) comes up and you just can’t get your work done. When we don’t meet our creative daily…
Workshops as Islands
I give credit to A. from Alexandria who suggested this at a recent The Stuck Creative Meetup. Even when A. is at her busiest and life is crazy with demands from other people, she makes sure she is scheduled to take a workshop a few times each year. Once she is off at the workshop,…
How Is Your Vision?
There are two major ways to get somewhere: leave most of your options open and stumble forward or narrow your options and move forward at a good pace. While there are plenty good arguments for leaving your options open (i.e. discovery), we will save that approach for a later post. To move forward at a…
Distractions, Dips, and Dives
How you handle the inevitable distractions, dips, and dives of life determines if you can get unstuck and stay unstuck. Distractions are the little things we can live with and without. Watching one rerun of Seinfeld or House, M.D. is o.k. but if you make watching a weekend marathon a priority ahead of your creative…