creative ignition club Archives - Melissa Dinwiddie | Create the Impossible™

December 30, 2012

What REALLY goes on in there? (hint: fangs are involved)

Come Out to Play, Your Soul Is Waiting - calligraphy art by Melissa Dinwiddie Tell me if you can relate:

Erin set out to create something the other day. She decided to draw with pastels, had great fun making a fabulous sketch, and was starting to flesh it out, when all of a sudden a gremlin reared its head.

“You’ll never pull that off!” snarled the gremlin.

Uh, oh…

If the “You’ll Never Pull That Off” Gremlin has ever shown its fangs to you, you’ll know how defeating that can feel.

Because maybe the gremlin is right; maybe you can’t pull that off.

That was exactly the case for Erin: she set out to draw something “realistic,” but she knew that her “realistic drawing” chops weren’t up to the task she had envisioned.

Without an understanding of how to manage the “You’ll Never Pull That Off” Gremlin, she might have quit right then.

Thankfully, Erin has learned some badass ninja gremlin-training techniques!

Instead of letting the gremlin shut her down…

Or trying to shut the gremlin up…

Erin practiced her Super Ninja Gremlin-Trainer skills, and said, very coolly and calmly:

“Ugh, hell yeah, Gremlin, you are right. BUT… what if I stop trying to produce something that looks realistic, and instead just let the creative energy take me in the direction it wants to go?”

While the gremlin was scratching its head (calm logic tends to confuse gremlins), she drew herself up straight and added, “‘Cause I can do that and you can’t stop me!”

And off she went, letting the Creative Stream pull her along.

She asked herself what elements of her drawing felt most important, exaggerating them with swishes and swirls, allowing her picture to become less “realistic,” and more representative of what she was seeing and feeling.

In the end, she was much more pleased and contented with her product, as well as the process!

Meanwhile, the gremlin shriveled up and went crawling in a crack in the wall.

The Moral

The moral of this story (which Erin posted in the Creative Ignition Club clubhouse and has given permission for me to share with you) is that instead of chasing her gremlin away, or letting it cow her into putting down her pastels and going home, she used it to help her move away from what felt wrong, toward what felt really right.

THIS is exactly the kind of thing we practice inside the Creative Ignition Club:

• taming our gremlins (or whatever you choose to call the voice of self-doubt/self-criticism)

and

• bringing them to heel, so that they work for us, rather than against us

We also help each other brainstorm, share our challenges and successes, post our artwork, cheer each other on in our efforts to clear out clutter (physical, mental, digital), and generally have fun. 🙂

Stories like Erin’s abound inside the clubhouse. It’s a lively group, incredibly friendly and supportive — exactly what I was hoping to create when I envisioned building it.

If that sounds like a community you’d like to be a part of, I invite you to join today — I only invite in new members when I launch a new course, so it’s the last time the doors will be open for awhile.

Membership includes a lot more than just the community, too. You get:

Monthly Jam Sessions – Hang out on the phone/in a virtual room with me and other club members every month, get your questions answered, share your wins and challenges.

Creative Ignition Kit – $37 value – The tools you need to get you doing your creative thing every day for a month.

Gremlin Training Lab – $37 value – Learn ninja gremlin-training techniques, like Erin used (Currently only available to club members)

Playshop-In-A-Box – $37 value – Learn all the secret techniques I use to make my ArtSpark artworks.

Members-Only Pricing – Discounts on virtually everything I offer, from 1:1 coachsulting to live retreats.

Exclusive Access to New Courses – As I create new stuff, I’ll add it to the clubhouse for you!

Plus, of course, the private members-only clubhouse (aka, online forum) and chat room, so you can connect and share with the friendliest bunch of creatives you’ll find anywhere.

Let’s make 2013 the year when you finally bring your creative spirit out to play.

Click here to learn more about Creative Ignition Club membership.

xo, Melissa <3

PS — Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!

November 28, 2012

The 3 Biggest Lies That Keep Us From Creating (Part 1)

I had the great pleasure of being interviewed recently as a guest expert for Sue Ann Gleason‘s Well-Nourished Woman Inner Circle. One of the things Sue Ann asked me about was the three complaints she hears from women when she asks them where creativity lives in their well-nourished lives.

For too many of them, that creativity is absent, and for one of the following reasons:

No Talent
No Purpose
No Time

Each of these reasons is a lie. A story we tell ourselves out of fear, or programming, but with no basis in reality.

Let’s address them one at a time, shall we? I’ll devote one post a day to each of the lies above. Today we’ll start with…

Lie #1: No Talent

You believe you have no talent, and that’s why you won’t get creating? Sorry, but that’s not an acceptable excuse.

I believe that the concept of talent itself is a lie.

Oh, sure, we each come into the world with certain inborn facilities, but native “talent” can only get you so far. It takes time, effort, intention, persistence, and lots of hard work to shape a natural facility into excellence.

When I first picked up a calligraphy pen, I was “talented” for a beginning calligrapher, but the best work that I’ve created is miles ahead of what I was capable of creating from raw “talent” alone. If my calligraphy looked the same now as it did seventeen years ago, believe me, nobody would be calling me “talented!” I studied and practiced and worked and worked and worked to develop my skills with a pen.

Talent is a lie, because when we compliment someone for being talented, it feeds a story that you’ve either got it, or you don’t. “You’re so talented!” we say, and the unspoken corollary is, “and I’m not.”

Talent is a lie, because when we believe that your abilities are God-given and fixed, we stop trying. The praise of being “talented” fosters an unspoken fear that any risk we take will disprove those who so labeled us.

Talent is a lie, because our native facilities do not determine what we are capable of. Talent gives you a head start, but effort, determination, focus and persistence will win out over talent every time. (Click to tweet this.)

Talent is a lie, because joy comes not from mastery, but from pursuit of mastery. And more important, you don’t have to be a master to get joy from creating!

If you’re using “no talent” as your reason for not going after a creative desire, sorry, but you’re going to have to find a better excuse!

Click here to read about lie #2, No Purpose.

Meanwhile, to get your creative juices flowing and start deprogramming yourself of the “no talent” lie, sign up for my free (free!) Creative Sandbox 101 mini-course through Kickstart Your Change.

It’s five days of tools and prompts to get you playing in the Creative Sandbox just a teeny-tiny bit every day. (Plus everyone who registers will get a bonus coupon on the last day of Creative Sandbox 101 to get 30% off my 30-day Creative Ignition Kit through Monday, December 10).

PS — Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!

October 27, 2011

In Which Dangerously Delicious Becomes Downright Powerful (Announcing the Creative Ignition Club!)

It started off very innocently.

A simple idea, really. Just a little tool box for creatives, to kick-start them into a daily creative practice. Just for one month.

A kit to get them creatively ignited…

Because if you can hang onto a daily practice for a month, it’s pretty much proof that you can hang onto it for as long as you want.

And my goal is to get everyone with a hunger to create doing their creative thing.

So I dreamed, and tinkered, and started working like mad.

(Thank goodness for circuit-breaker boyfriends!)

But as these things so often do, what started off small and innocent, quickly grew to something much bigger and… well… downright powerful!

Here’s how it happened:

Me the Innocent: “Hmmm… My Creative Ignition Circle members get so much out of the group interaction, on the phone and online… Wouldn’t it be awesome to offer some kind of online forum and maybe a couple of conference calls for the first group of Creative Ignition Kit buyers?”

Me the Manic Dreamer: “Yeah! But you know, a forum is so dry and… linear. So un-aesthetic. What would be really awesomelicious is if we could create some kind of hangout that feels more like the secret Facebook page where Circlers hang out. Where we can post pictures and videos and have them show up right there in the feed, instead of having to dig through a bunch of text to find stuff we want to look at.

Me the Innocent: “Ahh, yes. That would be great! I wonder if there’s anything like that available…”

Mmm… That dangerously delicious question: “I wonder…?” When Me the Manic Dreamer gets hold of a notion, it all-too-often triggers an obsessive-compulsive quest to Figure Stuff Out.

[Read: Manic searching of the Net-that-is-Inter for a Facebook-like platform for my Kit buyers, followed by discovery of said platform, followed by Multiple Unsuccessful Attempts to make platform play nice with blog software, accompanied by much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair.]

Usually followed by a moment of throwing my hands in the air and giving up entirely.

[Read: Firm decision to Just Stick With a Forum, dammit.]

Followed in turn by an upsurge of renewed determination. I Will. Make. This. Work.

And extreme-sport-like climbing of technological learning curves.

[Read: Several manic-obsessive insomniac nights and early mornings putting. Up. A. Brand. New. Website. {creativeignitionclub.com, in case you’re wondering}]

And that’s how the Creative Ignition Club was born!

A week ago, it was a “hmm… wouldn’t that be nice someday?” dream that I didn’t quite believe was possible.

Today, it’s an actual reality.

A home for anyone with a hunger to create and a big heart. (Because it’s about supporting each other, having each others’ backs, lifting each other up so that each one of us rises with the tide.)

A way to spread the deliciousness of my Creative Ignition Circles out to more people.

(Because after all, there’s only one of me, and I only take 4 members in a Circle at a time.)

From Innocent to Powerful

Now, instead of offering an online forum and a couple of conference calls just for the first group of Creative Ignition Kit buyers, I am delighted to announce the Creative Ignition Club, where people can get sparked by the Kit (included with every Club membership), but stay stoked by the community.

After all, my Circlers continue to meet up online, even after their 2-month session is over. A community of passionate, loving, supportive creatives has already started sprouting. Let’s water it!

So what is the Creative Ignition Club, anyway?

Glad you asked!

It’s open-heartedness and sharing. It’s playfulness and experimentation. It’s vulnerability and safety. It’s validation and accountability and empowerment and self-love.

In a nutshell, it’s a vibrant community of creatives. And a lot more.

What happens in the Creative Ignition Club?

Lots of stuff. Here’s a snapshot:

There’s a Forum that’s much richer and juicier than your typical online forum. A digital home where we share what’s going on in our creative lives, help each other brainstorm, work on whatever gets in the way and push each other forward toward our biggest visions for ourselves.
Amazing, brilliant, big-hearted people, who actively support each other. The love and brilliance in this group is a-ma-zing.
Really, really good listeners, with ideas and possibilities to suggest that you may never have imagined in your wildest dreams.
Smaller Groups inside the larger community, where sub-circles of members can interact around specific interests, topics and themes. (Or not. Some people hang out only in the smaller Groups; others stick with the main one. Some people float in between. Up to you.)
Did I mention that YOU can also create your own Groups? Yep. You can. Want a Group just for left-handed German-speaking book artists who also juggle? Go for it!
Every month you get to rendezvous with me in a Club-wide conference call, where I put on my X-ray Vision Goggles and help get people past their Sticking Points, and everybody gets to contribute.
We also do a Playshop every month, where we rendezvous on the phone again, but this time to do our creative thing. I create a bubble of safety for everyone, we kick the Suck Duck out the door, and we all go play in the Creative Sandbox for a set amount of time. Then we re-convene to check in and do it all again. Then we re-convene (again) to check in and say goodbye. (Everyone is pretty high at this point, while being at the same time also totally grounded. It’s really cool.)
You get answers. And insights. And ideas. And epiphanies. And earth-shaking paradigm shifts. Sometimes partnerships spring up. It’s amazing.
You also get a powerful kick-start, in the form of the Creative Ignition Kit – a whole toolbox of goodies and inspiration to keep you doing your creative thing every day for a whole month:

Daily emails to inspire you and keep you on track (very brief, to keep the focus on your creative time!)
A hand-drawn (by me!) downloadable workbook/journal, to chart your journey
A hand-drawn (also by me!) downloadable wall chart, to check off your commitment goal each day
A hand-drawn (by me too!) downloadable Commitment Contract, to concretize your commitment to your creative self
A weekly video to keep you jazzed, and keep the Resistance at bay
A meditation mp3, to get you grounded and clear and ready to work (or play!)
A special “Emergency Pack” to be opened only in case of emergency (ie, if you miss a day of your commitment)

There are also some cool bonuses, like the fact that you get first dibs and super-special pricing on new products and programs, and you even get to help me develop some of them.
Plus a $50 discount on any Inner Circle/Creative Ignition Circle group coaching mastermind as long as you’re an active member.
Oh, and 3-month and 12-month members also get my Playshop-In-A-Box – the recording of the original Playshop I offered in September, including 6 tutorial videos. (Which will soon be on my shop shelves with a price tag of $37, fyi.)
And of course, you get to interact with me and ask me any questions you want whenever I’m hanging out in the Club.

All that (and more) for $54 for 1 month, $72 for 3 months, or $198 for a full year. (And the first three members who sign up or a full year get a 1/2-hour private phone or Skype session with me.)

That’s just a taste. Just words. You really have to experience it to know what it’s like.

And now you can.

Or soon, at least. Monday, to be exact. That’s when I’m opening the doors to new members.

(But if you already know this is for you, sign up here to get on the waiting list, and I might just let you in a day or two early…)

As for me, I’m headed to bed for some much-needed rest…