It really is that simple.
We’re programmed with messages from the minute we’re born: That doing the creative thing you love isn’t important, that it’s a waste of time.
It’s a lie.
The truth is, human beings are born to create, just as horses are born to run, fish are born to swim and birds are born to fly.
You know this, deep inside.
Keeping the lid on the part of you that wants needs so desperately to play is like keeping a wild bird trapped up in a tiny cage, too small to even spread its wings.
You may feel stifled. Hollow, unfulfilled, flat. Like you’re living your life in black and white instead of full, brilliant color.
The child in you wants to create, but the responsible adult thinks there isn’t room for play.
Plus you’re weighed down by so many inner voices:
“What do I have to offer?”
“My stuff isn’t good enough.”
“I can’t make money at this, and if I can’t make money, it’s not worth doing.”
Even:
“I’m not creative”
Darling, I know.
I’m just like you. Those same voices have plagued me too. The same fears and feelings of “not good enough.” That sense of weariness and tiredness that saps your energy and leaves you paralyzed, just when you’re finally fired up and ready to go.
But here’s what I’ve learned: if you’re a creative person, letting yourself create – actually making space for it – is critical to your health and happiness.
When you’re creating, you’re living in joy and fully alive. And when you’re living in joy and fully alive, you’re:
- a better parent
- a better spouse or partner
- more effective at work
- able to make much better decisions
- more open to opportunities that come your way
When your soul is adequately nourished, you have the attention to be there for the people who need you, and to make the kind of impact on the world you really want. (And I know you want it.)
Rather than just marking time.
Yes, it really is that important!
The problem is, it’s hard to get there on your own. Those voices are loud and the blocks are strong. It helps to have a creative guide with a sharp machete to chop down the tangle of resistances that get in your way.
I just happen to carry a very sharp machete. (At least metaphorically-speaking.)
I also have a kind of x-ray vision that lets me see the holes in your blocks, the invisible doorways wide enough for you to step through.
Let’s get you through, and out to the other side. Sparked, stoked and creating!
Here are the ways we can work together:
1) Free Monthly Coaching Calls
2) One-on-One Coaching (Phone, Skype or In-Person)
3) Creative Ignition Circles (coming soon!)
4) Online Courses: The Thriving Artists Project (and more on the way…)
and in the meantime,
Take the 15-Minutes-a-Day Creative Challenge!
What my clients have to say:
Hi Melissa Thank you so much for the coaching today. I really appreciate your directness and clarity. I’ve not had anyone just go through my offerings like that. There is too much and (I now realize) it has been all presented in a confusing way. People just didn’t know what to say to me, I guess.
I have been working on the mind map work that you assigned in the first few lessons of the Thriving Artists Project, and now know that I need to delve into that deeper. I’m taking some time today to go on a short road trip while I deliver a piece up north for a group show.
I’m going to take an hour today to focus on this again today, given your coaching today. It is as if I have been the confused goo in the chrysalis, and am just now beginning to take definition. I am exceedingly grateful for you and the Thriving Artists Project.
Sincerely, Dena
Talking with melissa was both validating and invigorating! She helped me assess where I’m at instead of wishing away our session on lofty goals five years down the line. We laser focused in on practical things I can and NEED to do right now, right where I’m at. I feel empowered that, yes, my creative juices will be restored!
-Nicole Crist, Aerialista Moving Life Blog and Altitude Aerials
Melissa zeroed in on a handful of issues I could implement immediately to foster a growing readership. She has an innate way of not just seeing and creating options for clients, but sparking the creativity you already have within you to come up with your own solutions. Our time flew by and I had a plan of how to make some changes immediately and what to work on long-term. I left inspired and ready to take action.
- Susan Finch, Creative Guide to Life
In my time with Melissa, I was re-energized, admitted to the things I need to stop doing, found the things I want to be doing and was given easy actionable steps to get me back in the creative swing of things. Simply amazing! She is full of energy and wonderful ideas.
-Delisa Carnegie, The Creativity Rebellion
Melissa is incredible at helping me figure out how to use all the technology that has had me stumped. I am very technologically challenged and thanks to Melissa’s limitless patience and vast knowledge, I can now actually update my website. She has even taught me how to do very advanced things like sell my workshops and products on line, post blogs, upload photos, rearrange the content of my website and take advantage of all the latest technologies available. She is a techno-junkie and seems to always know the latest products and what will work best for me. I highly recommend her for as a teacher and consultant.
- Susan Fox, A.I.M. High Coaching
Two years, it had been almost two years since I had truly engaged in the joy of creativity. While I had indeed been creative during that time, it was always with a purpose; a project I committed to, gifts, charity projects. Little by little, I felt less and less connected to my creativity. I’m normally obsessive about knitting, but when I looked in my knitting basket and simply shrugged, I knew that I was in trouble.
Enter Melissa Dinwiddie. A friend pointed me to her websites and I started reading her blog and totally fell in love with her authentic voice, how she spoke of her own creative journey. When Melissa offered coaching, I jumped at the chance. Although we spent just a short while talking, I gained such HUGE insights! Each time I came up with a reason that I couldn’t, she came up with a way that I could. In the end, she gave me an assignment, a realistic and doable one.
Not only did I follow through, but came back to one of the roots of my creativity…needle and floss. I eagerly flew through my tasks for the day, so I could get to my project!
I’m happy to say that not only was my creativity jumpstarted, but that the love and the joy of creativity is back. I’ve not only attained the state of MOO (Multiple Ongoing Objects) but in the short time since coaching, I’ve completed one embroidery project, one knitting project, and have two rugs under construction!
- Sandi Wedemeier, psychic, coach and newly joyful creative, Wit and Wisdom Transformational Coaching
Talking to Melissa is delightful! She charges up my artist self-confidence instantly, and demonstrates through her actions how to approach a client with her sincere, encouraging ‘touch,’ all while giving me very practical advice! Thank you melissa!
-Karim Benyagoub, @SuperSimpleGuy