Creative sampling isn’t often seen as a powerful strategy, but at times it can be even more powerful than mastery. When you are hyper-focused on developing a core area of expertise it’s easy to tune out distractions or pieces of information that aren’t in alignment, but you might also miss important signs or insights about your chosen direction. On the other hand, if you are interested in learning more broad-based skills the discernment process is more complex. You play … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2014
Creativity Kick-Start: Honoring your Creative Timeline
October 28, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Life and business run on a set of standardized and accepted deadlines, yet, your personal creative timeline runs on intuition - a completely different kind of deadline driver. What are you supposed to do in a traditional work environment or as a business owner if you’re a not a morning person, need solitude to do your best work or are a highly sensitive person who needs scheduled breathing space in your work day? Should you fight these tendencies just because you work for … [Read more...]
Walking Tall After Creative Disappointment
October 24, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Creative wins always a desire for celebration, happy dance or a fist pump - maybe even all three, but how do you honor creative disappointment? What steps do you use to process emotions around missing the mark of personal expectation, or to face the possibility that an idea is not as sparkly as you had hoped? Strange as it may feel, it’s OK to celebrate your losses in a way that feels fitting, too. Instead of jumping right into a process of over-analyzing and “shoulding” … [Read more...]
Creativity Kick-Start: Identify your Creative Crutch
October 20, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Sometimes a creative block isn’t really a block as much as a worn out creative crutch. It may seem harmless, just part of your routine, but it can also be the reason you feel too comfortable, unwilling to stretch beyond your comfort zone. A creative crutch serves as a very effective distraction that straddles the line between contentment and limitation. It keeps things moving along in ways you know, in the familiar grooves and patterns. The tricky part is that just beyond … [Read more...]
Share an Insight from your Creative Path to Inspire Someone Else
October 16, 2014 By Leave a Comment
The creative path you walk is part of your unique, natural self-expression and a very powerful ally in the self-discovery process. To create is to grow as a person, and to grow as a person you need to be willing to really explore if what you create feels natural and true. This is how your creativity and inner self continue to evolve, hand-in-hand through self discovery. As you move along in life, dancing the line between deeper creative expression and self-discovery, there … [Read more...]
Creativity Kick-Start: Release Romanticized Versions of your Creative Self
October 13, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Part of growing into a more evolved expression of your creative self is knowing when to release what’s no longer needed from the versions that have come before. While bits and pieces of your creative identity always build on each other to shape who you are now, it’s easy to have a bit of “selective memory” and romanticize what could have been - had you stuck to old dreams and plans. This can keep you stuck in an energetic loop of riding the waves of the past, holding onto … [Read more...]
Creativity, Intuition and What Following your Heart Really Means
October 9, 2014 By 1 Comment
Follow your heart - it’s a common phrase that’s true yet over-used, insightful but also a bit nebulous, until you realize the power of it's simplicity as a reminder to practice listening to your intuition. If you make a regular effort to get quiet and turn inward, even in the smallest of ways, your inner voice starts to slowly emerge from the background with more clarity and vitality. What seemed like a bunch of unclear, out-of-focus background noise begins to shape into a … [Read more...]
Creativity Kick-Start: Switch Up Artwork and Decorations for a Creative Energy Surge
October 6, 2014 By Leave a Comment
The items you choose to decorate your home definitely have an impact on your creative energy and inspiration. Family antiques, mementos from trips, photos, paintings, posters or sculptures draw your eye, each contributing to the creative vibe of your personal space. In many ways, the familiarity of your artwork feels reassuring, like a little bit of beautiful, comfy consistency in the chaos of life. It can also lull your creative spark to sleep. Over time you get used to the layout and flow of … [Read more...]
Creativity Tourist Trap, a Crafty Mind Trick
October 2, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Creative flow leads you towards inspiration through feeling and intuition, but when the mind parks you at the same pit-stop for a while, you may actually be stuck in a creativity tourist-trap. The place looks great and feels fun, but is actually serving as a distraction. The scenery and activities, while familiar in a comforting way, aren't motivating or inspiring you to actually do anything that feeds or expands your creative fire. And yes, a pause is just as … [Read more...]