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Creative Abundance Requires Courage | Weekly Review #57

So how’m I doing in my quest to re-invent my life, follow my evolving Blisses and create the life I really, really want?

Scene: A dark restaurant. New Orleans. Heart of the French Quarter.

The food was outstanding (accompanied by the lazy ritual of watching filtered water drip through a sugar cube to opalesce a glass of absinthe). The ambiance romantic (we sat side by side and gazed down the bar from inside the three walls of a private booth). The waiter was the right blend of friendly and discreet (and even sported a classic New Orleans accent).

The Bombay Club was a find, but the real reason we ended up there was because in my sweetie’s cursory search on his iPhone for a good dinner spot, it was the first to advertise live jazz.

Last Tuesday night this turned out to be the stylings of vocalist/pianist Amanda Walker, the jewel in the Bombay Club’s ambiance crown.

We tipped her on the way out, but as the door closed behind me I paused.

Creative abundance requires courage

If I didn’t want to live with regret, it was time to screw my courage to the sticking point.

“Just a minute,” I said to my sweetie, and went back inside, heart pounding.

“I’m a singer too,” I told Amanda, who had just finished a song. “We’re visiting from California, and I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your music.”

Thus began a little friendly conversation. A simple thing, but a challenge for this still-sometimes-shy native-introvert.

Creative abundance requires courage.

CDs were exchanged (jazz singers, I’ve found, tend to be a friendly and generous tribe). “Too bad you didn’t tell me earlier,” Amanda said, “I’d have let you sit in.”

Then: “Actually, you can sit in right now if you want.”

90 seconds later I made my New Orleans debut.

To an audience of about six people – plus waitstaff and my sweetie – but hell, I still played New Orleans. And those few minutes are one of my best memories of my first visit there.

All because I took a risk.

Creative abundance requires courage

Every time I post a blog I run the risk of people not liking it, unsubscribing, or worst of all, deciding I’m boring.

Every time I put a piece up for sale or show, or send out my not-quite daily ArtFix newsletter, I run the risk of a negative response, or worse, no response at all.

Every time I get up in front of an audience to sing and make them laugh, I wonder if all the other times were flukes, and this time I’ll fall on my face. Or hear the sound of crickets.

It’s scary shit, this putting-yourself-out-there thing.

But consider the alternative. Do I really want a small life, keeping my gifts entirely to myself? Do you?

The only way to grow, to vibrate at the creative abundance I desire, is to take the risk.

Jump.

When I look back on my life so far, I have no regrets about the times I jumped; only about the times I didn’t.

Creative abundance requires courage

So tell me, what step are you taking today to live your own creative abundance?

Don’t Knock 15 Minutes a Day (or How to Rock Your Creativity YOUR Way)

"Breathe Flow Create Grow" - daily calligraphy art by Melissa Dinwiddie ©2011 | Living A Creative Life

I love what’s happening over at Alison Gresik’s blog. She’s upping her game with a beautifully-redesigned site, focusing her content and her message, and even has a telethon going on right now, in which, instead of money, readers are asked to pledge their time – the amount of time they’ll spend on their art.

It’s a brilliant idea. (And honestly, I wish I’d thought of it!)

“15 minutes a day isn’t enough anymore,” blares the headline of the post announcing the telethon, “You want Hours For Art.”

It’s a bold challenge to creatives to up their own game, and I love it!

And yet.

I’d like to take a moment to quietly defend the concept of 15 Minutes a Day.

First, let me be clear that I am in no way dissing what Alison is doing, which I think is awesome. I am 100% behind getting more artists to put their art at the center of their lives. I’m all about Creative Abundance, after all, and putting your art at the center is what Creative Abundance is all about!

My goal is to see you, me, and ALL creatives really rockin’ our creativity. Hard. Right at the center. Thriving in every possible way from and with our art. ALL DAY doing my creative things is the kind of vision I’m talkin’ about. All day, every day.

But.

What about the sweet and wonderful peeps for whom hours for art feels not just out of reach, but impossible?

Are your goals SMART?

In order to be effective, goals need to be SMART(ER). Here’s a chart from Wikipedia on what that handy acronym stands for, including more commonly accepted terms (“Major Term”) and additional (and sometimes duplicative) “Minor Terms”:

Letter…….
Major Term…….
Minor Terms
S = 


Specific 


Significant, Stretching, Simple 

 

M = 


Measurable 


Meaningful, Motivational, Manageable 

 

A = 


Attainable 


Appropriate, Achievable, Agreed, Assignable, Actionable, Action-oriented, Ambitious, Aligned, Aspirational 

 

R = 


Relevant 


Realistic, Results/Results-focused/Results-oriented, Resourced, Rewarding 

 

T = 


Time-bound 


Time-oriented, Time framed, Timed, Time-based, Timeboxed, Timely, Time-Specific, Timetabled, Time limited, Trackable, Tangible 

 

E = 


Evaluate 


Ethical, Excitable, Enjoyable, Engaging, Ecological 

 

R = 


Reevaluate 


Rewarded, Reassess, Revisit, Recordable, Rewarding, Reaching 

 

In a nutshell, when you set a goal, you want to make sure it’s specific, measurable, ATTAINABLE, relevant and time-bound. And to ensure success, you want to evaluate and re-evaluate your goal over time.

Let’s look at how this applies to committing time to your art/creativity. If you pledge an hour a day, say, before you are truly ready to live up to that commitment – if an hour a day isn’t truly attainable – you’re doomed to fail. And nothing feels suckier or contributes more to stuckness than that.

What’s SMART for me may not be SMART for you

So what about the sweet lovelies who are just plain stuck to begin with? Those who are unable to get themselves to lift their pen, or guitar, or knitting needles, or what-have-you, because they haven’t yet been able to unclog the cloggage in their way?

Gentle, loving treatment is required. Sleuthing to uncover the keys to unblocking, hand-holding, and ideally a partner who will help untangle the knots is what’s needed. Stuck creatives need a challenge that’s just the right level to push them… but not too much… so they can remember and reconnect with their creativity.

A delicate re-introduction is sometimes in order, to give a blocked creative the safety to play with her creativity, without the kind of pressure that might scare it back into hiding.

For the tender creative who is maybe just ready to shyly get re-acquainted with her creative self, 15 minutes a day might be just right.

After a routine, a regular practice, has been solidly established, then a larger commitment may indeed be the next step.

Or not.

The thing about systems (Alison calls them labyrinths, and constructs a really lovely metaphor around the term that I just love) is that in order to work, they must be your systems. One-size-fits-all is never the solution for a creative.

Although I believe a daily practice is foundational, and it’s certainly key for me, you may not be a daily kind of person. And that’s okay.

You may be a one-hour-and-45-minutes-once-a-week person (which, btw, is what 7 days of 15 minutes a day adds up to). And if that works for you, and you’re able to maintain your practice and feel nourished by it and connected to your creativity – great! Go you!

My dirty, little secret

Here’s the thing about my personal 15 Minutes a Day practice:

It’s a lie.

I’ve committed only to 15 minutes a day, but in fact, I spend more more time that that, more often than not.

The way I’m currently working playing in the Creative Sandbox – painting and calligraphing multiple layers on a large, stretched sheet of paper, which I later tear down into several smaller finished pieces – suits my “soft” schedule really well. I may work play for ten or fifteen minutes, putting down a layer, then let the paint or ink dry while I turn to writing, or go to yoga, or do some bookkeeping or data entry, or check email.

An hour later I may take a break from the computer and add another layer. And when that dries, yet another.

In actual fact my art is truly at the centre of my day – interspersed in the middle of everything I do – and yet I only require of myself 15 minutes.

It’s a way of tricking myself. Of taking the pressure off.

If I were to keep track of my weekly Creative Sandbox time, add it up, and commit to that amount of time every week, I guarantee it would put me into a panic. It might even backfire, as nothing chokes me up like the fear of failure.

What works for you?

Now, I’m not in any way telling you that this is how you should work. Not at all. I have a unique situation: working at home, making art that’s easy to do in the same room where I do my other work (ie, I don’t need a steel forge or potter’s wheel or trampoline to do my art). Working on my art in spurts throughout the day is a system I’ve stumbled upon that works quite well for me.

You, my dear, will have to discover or create the systems that work for you.

It may be that you’re ready to commit to great chunks of time, and that a pledge of hours for your art is exactly what you need right now to take you to the next level. To that I say, “Go you!”

But if that’s not where you are, if you need a softer entry or re-entry into this whole Creative Abundance thing, let me assure you with a loving voice that it’s okay. Your way is okay.

Whatever gets you to actually do your art is brilliant and good and right.

So don’t ever sign up for anything that makes you feel pressured.

Pushed, yes, like having hands on your back pushing you up a steep hill kind of pushed.

Encouraged, yes.

Believed in, yes.

And a little nervousness is normal, and not necessarily a bad thing at all. What we’re aiming for here is to get you out of your comfort zone a bit – enough to stretch and grow and build a home for your creativity that’s really awesome – but without even a molecule of the kind of anxiety that would push you in the other direction.

Make sense?

You can do this. You must do this – the Universe is waiting. You don’t have to do it in a way that doesn’t fit, nor should you. And if you’d like a partner to help get you down this path, I’d love to help.

Whether you pledge 15 minutes a day or 15 hours a week, I’m cheering you on all the way.

—

What’s your system? Does it work better for you to officially commit to a smaller goal – even a tiny one – and then over-perform? Or do you rock it out most when you challenge yourself with a really big commitment? Share your reactions in the comments below.

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Creative Abundance (and 15 Minutes a Day Art Check-In! #10)

Spiral - work in progress by Melissa DinwiddieHint: there’s a prize at the bottom of this post. I hope you’ll read to the bottom, rather than skipping the whole thing, but hey, it’s a free country. You’re on your own with that one.

—

Can I just say that I love Catherine Caine*?

If you haven’t been fortunate enough to encounter the Queen of Awesome Sauce yourself, I highly recommend a visit to her delightful site, Cash and Joy*. If you poke around a bit, you’ll find a sign up page, with an option to get a half hour consult with Catherine – gratis!

That’s exactly what I did today. I’d interviewed Catherine for the Thriving Artists Project some months back, and edited and posted the interview on the TAP site just this week. The great thing about editing interviews is that I get to remember the cool stuff I learned, and just how damn fun they were.

And Catherine’s was one of the most fun ever.

Since I already knew how smart and savvy and fun she is, it was a no-brainer to sign up for her gratis consulting. A half hour with someone I really enjoy, who will probably have some very insightful things to say about how to improve my marketing? I mean, come on!

The call with Catherine did not disappoint. After a year of what has often felt like flailing about, trying to get a clear bead on my direction (and which Catherine assured me didn’t look like that from the outside), I feel like the spiral I’ve been treading has finally narrowed enough to be able to see the core. But the Queen of Awesome Sauce honed it even further.

“What are your goals for your business?” she asked.

Three main prongs, I replied:

1. To make my art/creative things and share them with the world

2. To inspire, empower and help people directly with my services (coaching, consulting, mentoring, tutorials)

3. To create and sell “information products” that will also inspire, empower and help people

“And who are those people?” she asked.

Two general types, I replied:

1. People who’ve gotten disconnected from their creativity, who want to find/re-discover or deepen that connection. This includes artist types who’ve gotten blocked, as well as folks who feel like they’re not creative/artistic, but wish they were.

2. Creatives who want to share their gifts with the world, but are blocked around the business end of things. This includes artists and creatives who might be rockin’ their creativity, but are blocked around marketing themselves and earning real money.

“Hmmm…” she said. “It sounds like everything you’re doing really boils down to Creative Abundance.”

Bingo!

Is this woman good, or is she good? I spent five minutes trying to explain my purpose (that spiel would require one loooooong elevator ride), and she hones it down to two words.

Thriving – creative abundance – is more than just making money. But it’s also more than just creating your thing. It’s finding the intersection for you of tapping into your creative source, and sharing that flow with the world so the world can nourish you in return. It’s knowing who you are so deeply that you can vibrate at all times in total alignment with your true source.

It’s expressing your authentic creative self, and it’s allowing the world to receive it, and allowing your authentic creative self to receive right back.

I can feel myself getting pulled into a lengthy verbal investigation of exactly what creative abundance is, but I respect your time, dear reader, so let’s get back to the Skype call.

“Well,” Catherine went on, “you’ve clearly got a plan and are moving things forward. The one thing I would suggest is to make sure you talk about why you do what you do on a regular basis: the reason it’s important, the reason it matters.”

[Pause. Sound of eyelashes blinking. Twice.]

Heh. I started this blog to chart my journey to follow my evolving Blisses toward the life I really, really want, and somehow I’ve lost track of sharing why. It seems rather obvious coming from Catherine’s lips, but sometimes the most obvious things are the most overlooked.

So let’s start with this post.

Why do I want creative abundance for myself and others?

Because creative abundance is your right, your destiny. If you crave it, you can have it, and it’s important to me – it’s important for the world – that you do have it if you crave it.

Nobody, no thing, no idea or ideology or misguided notion should ever stop you from having total creative abundance!

But of course, we all get stopped. By people. By systems. By cultures. By ideas.

And if I were a superhero, I’d have the power to neutralize all of those stopping things. To unblock all blocks on creative abundance.

I’d have wings and armor and fiery swords to protect you from forces that seek to block you, and a magical ability to turn on taps and keep them on.

I’d also have a really cool costume (with a modicum of sex appeal, but not too much). Must ruminate on the details of that…

But I digress.

The point is, creative abundance is your birthright, and my purpose is to help you claim it. Period.

Which brings me to…

15 Minutes a Day Art Check-In!

Here’s a truth: since I committed to spending at least 15 minutes a day making art in the Creative Sandbox, my entire energy has shifted.

Where once I longed desperately to be prolific, now I simply am.

Where once I’d look at other people’s work and wish I were creating stuff too, stuff as cool as theirs, now I simply am.

Where once I felt disconnected from my creative source – and rather cranky and complainy about it too – now I’m living in flow.

All from 15 minutes a day.

Okay, I grant you sometimes – frequently – it goes over 15 minutes. But that’s not the point. I’ve also had days (or late-late nights) when putting in a full 15 minutes felt like pulling teeth. A couple of times I woke up realizing that the previous day’s 15 minutes never happened at all.

And I’ll freely admit that the creative process is not always smooth and flowy. Much of the time I wonder what the hell I’m doing. I doubt myself. I honestly believe that nothing worth showing will come from my time in the Creative Sandbox.

The beautiful thing is that as long as I continue to show up, eventually the pieces always fall into place.

More on the Check-In part

Now that I’m finally building the growing body of work I’ve craved for so many years, I finally felt ready to share my work with the world. And not just the new stuff.

For years I’ve had art hiding on my hard disk, where nobody could see it and appreciate it. “Get a shopping cart. Make a way for people to see and buy your stuff” has been on my to-do list since an ill-fated site hack over at Ketubahworks liquidated dozens of pages of my work over two years ago. I spent hours researching carts, and looked into a plethora of other ways to just get my work online.

I mean, I’ve built several websites all by myself – this ain’t rocket science!

Somehow, though, it took a reconnection with my own creative abundance – powered in large part by my 15 minutes-a-day commitment – to get past my own blocks here. And let me tell you, dear reader, that something shifts when you put your stuff out there.

I could wax on about what that shift is, what it feels like, and perhaps I will in another post sometime. But this one’s already gotten longer than I wanted, so instead of telling you about it, I’m issuing a challenge to you to find out for yourself.

Have you put your work out there? Have you shared your gifts with the world? Have you noticed a shift yourself?

If you’re not giving yourself daily creative time yet, I dare you to take the 15 Minutes-a-Day creative challenge. Try it. See what happens. It may surprise you.

And let me know! I’d love to see what you create! Post it to the Living A Creative Life Facebook page. Let’s inspire each other! Let’s create a mass movement toward creative abundance!

Which brings me to…

The Prize

So here’s the actual Art Check-In part of this post. The art at the top is a work in progress. I want to add some words to it, but nothing I’ve come up with has felt entirely right. So…. I thought it would be fun to open it up to you for suggestions.

What does that piece say to you? What feelings does it evoke? If it were hanging on your wall, what words would you want it to say?

I don’t promise to use anything that’s suggested here – it’s my piece, after all – but if I do choose to use your words, I’ll send you a copy of the finished art. And I’ll give you a 30-minute Creative Abundance consulting session to boot. Just ’cause I can.

How’s that for creative abundance?

Leave your suggestions in the comments. And make sure include a real email address, so I can get in touch about getting you your prize!

And be sure to sign up for a session with the Queen of Awesome Sauce* while you’re at it. You can never get too much gratis coachsulting, after all.

*Note: I signed up for Catherine’s affiliate program, and the links to her site in this post are affiliate links, which means that if you click through them and end up buying something from her, like her super-cool DIY Magnificence, I’ll make a commission and will be eternally grateful. Of course, you can always find Catherine by looking her up on Google and I’ll never be the wiser. But I’m all about transparency so consider this your full disclosure notice.

I should also take this opportunity to tell you that if you’ve been wanting to put up your own WordPress website, but haven’t known where to start, Catherine has an amazing (FREE) tutorial called Website In A Weekend that will get you up and running right quick. For free. (And that’s not even an affiliate link either!)

Spend 5 Days Creating with Me, and Walk Away Transformed - Come to Creative Sandbox Retreat

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