Archive for the ‘creativity’ Category

The approach of the New Year is a time of being on the cusp, of having that rare opportunity to be looking backwards and forwards at the same time. Truly, it’s one of the few times in our modern American culture where we can feel what it means to “be in the present”. Everything – past & future – hangs in the balance. We take a deep breath and pause, albeit briefly, to examine ourselves.

Inspired by a fellow coach’s practice of creating Vision Boards each year, I created my own Vision Board for 2009. (If you don’t know, a Vision Board is a homemade collage on poster-board with words and images that are inspiring to you and your vision for yourself.) My theme for 2009 has been “Being in Flow”. It hangs on the wall to the left of my desk, and each time I look at it, I am reminded to “cherish the moment”, “ creative a life you love”, “follow your path” and “choose a positive thought”. The images I chose reflect water in a variety of locales, such as a waterfall in a garden, the ocean, water flowing around rocks, a bridge over water, etc. Throughout the year, I’ve found myself glancing at these images and remembering to be in flow with myself and what life presents.

A Vision Board is an excellent way to stay inspired throughout the year. Of course, you can make a Vision Board for any occasion – mainly it’s a visual cue or reminder of your goals and dreams for yourself – how you envision your life. Whether you make one to help you envision a new home, a new (or improved) romantic relationship or a new job, a Vision Board is a fun, creative and meaningful picture of where you want to be.

So, what will your Vision Board look like for 2010? Grab a bunch of old catalogs, magazines, greeting cards, etc. and go to work collecting those words and images that inspire you. You don’t have to know ahead of time what your theme is. Sometimes the theme becomes apparent as you find yourself drawn to certain images.

My theme for my Vision Board this year is “Receive & Allow”. Like many of you I can find myself giving – till it hurts. I want to consciously practice receiving – with grace and gratitude. Also, I want to “allow” – to let things happen as they may, rather than constantly struggling to “make” things go the way I want. While I am a firm believer in taking action to achieve your goals and aspirations, I know I can fall prey to the desire to grip my goals by the throat in a vain attempt to control the outcome. Which, then, leads me to feel let down when things don’t go the way I want. Which, subsequently leads to me beating myself up for not “doing it right” – whatever that’s supposed to be.

So, in 2010, I consciously Receive & Allow. My Vision Board will be a supportive reminder to me, helping me to not only remember what my theme is, but to feel inspired to return to the theme when I get off track.

Have fun creating your Vision Board for 2010 and I wish you a very Happy, Healthy and Creative New Year!

Many of us in the alternative/creative/helping professions find ourselves constantly bumping up against some old myths:

“You can’t make a living doing what you love.”

“If you’re an artist/helper you have to take a vow of poverty.”

I’ve believed these myths myself for a long time. But that’s starting to change.

For many of us, our creativity is something we cherish, that’s precious to us. And “work” or our “job” is something we have to do in order to get to pursue our creative endeavors. This bargain works for a lot of people. However, for those of us who take the risk to birth our creative endeavors into the world as entrepreneurs, the challenge to make what we LOVE into our WORK can be paralyzing.

To bridge the gap between Work and Creativity, we must be willing to let our creativity come out and play more. Invite your creativity to sit down at the computer with you when you’re working on your business – whether it’s working on marketing materials or business taxes! When you sit down to do “work”, ask yourself: “What’s my motivation? What is the goal of this business task?” It’s likely, if you follow your own line of thinking long enough, that you will come to an answer that brings you back to your creativity, your joy, your raison d’etre. “I’m doing this to attract clients, because I love coaching clients!” or “I’m working on this spreadsheet to understand how many pieces of jewelry I need to make in order to earn a living, so that I can MAKE MORE jewelry – cause that’s what I LOVE to do!”

Inviting our creativity into our business can also show us new ways of tackling things we love to hate. For example, I get anxious when I look at my “To Do” list. Sometimes, I can get so paralyzed by how much is on the list that I end up doing nothing. So recently I came up with a new way of making a To Do list that doesn’t paralyze me. I call it my “Menu of Choices”. I actually took a template for a restaurant menu and simply replaced the categories of “Appetizers, Entrees and Desserts” with things like “Reading & Research”, “Creativity Corner” and “Fun Stuff”. In each category I have a few things listed – some of which I am obliged to do, some of which I simply like to do. When I look at the Menu, I see a variety of things to choose from, rather than a long list of tasks looming in front of me.

The key to keeping our creativity and joy present in our business lies in how we are placing our attention to our intentions. We set intentions all of the time – but we must remember that to set an intention is not like making a New Year’s resolution. If we “fall off the wagon” of our intentions, rather than focusing our attention on what we did “wrong” or berating ourselves, we must cultivate the self-discipline to bring our focus back to the original intention. We can even creatively modify or change our intentions, to meet the needs of the moment.

When setting an intention for ourselves, it’s important to keep it in the present. Rather than saying, “I intend to start practicing Yoga every day,” say “I practice Yoga every day.” The former is easy to put off doing…the latter is more present and more powerful.

One attendee at a recent workshop I held was struggling with what happens when she “falls off the wagon” of her intention. “What if I don’t follow my intention?” she asked. I said, “Then you forgive yourself for falling off the wagon, and start up again.” In response to this, she set a new intention:

“I build a wagon.”

Which was a very creative answer. We can each build the wagons of our creative intentions and hitch them up to our business intentions, in order to break the stranglehold of those negative myths of success in creative entrepreneurship.

Our capacity to achieve our goals and manifest our intentions lies not solely in our skill with a paintbrush, a pen or our training in a specific practice. Our capacity to achieve lies within our hearts.