It’s easy to get caught up in the story of where you’ve been, mulling over all the creative footsteps that carried you to the present moment. In hindsight those steps may slightly resemble the path of a toddler hopped up on caffeine, but so what? No great stories I’ve read start with the words “everything went perfectly and according to plan…”
A review of your life and creative choices is always more informative and hilarious than living through it, the sting muted and the hurdles long gone so you feel ready to live, love and try again.
Yet, each time you hit a roadblock it can feel like you are a caffeine-addled toddler all over again, swaying, dodging, wandering scared or simply sitting in a puddle of tears. It’s all human and it’s more than OK. Wandering haphazardly through what you fear and don’t know is as powerful as fist-pumping over creative wins. It all keeps you moving forward in a way that’s creative instead of stale, inspiring instead of a flat pre-determined line.
The creative footsteps you take are a learning tool as much as they are the richest seeds of your stories, the beautiful fairy in your tales of how you become…you. It’s also how you find the right tools call on as a dance partner.
Creating your Story
I often use the word creative in my blog posts to remind you that you’re living a creative life right now without always knowing or truly feeling it. You create every day – when you take time to appreciate someone else, enjoy a piece of chocolate or tend to your plants. All of these creative footsteps lead you closer to or farther away from your heart, from what feels like a life worth living because you are creating forward. You want to see what happens, how the actions, desires, fears and creative follies mush together into a story worth mulling over and maybe even telling someday.
I don’t know one person in life that ended up exactly where they thought they would, even if they choreographed every creative footstep to perfection. Yet, as humans, we still have the expectation that life will be different for us, easier, faster more fulfilling. It’s what sends us on a forever search for a magical way to outsmart life instead of creating it in a way that already feels like you are winning a little at a time by actively pursuing creative acts that bring you joy.
It’s easy to shift focus back to the steps you’ve already danced, skipped or raced through, and it’s super enticing to keep doing it. They are a tangible thing to be dissected, analyzed, and judged as much as they are cherished. How often do you catch yourself doing it, looking at the past instead of listening, looking and feeling into the creative footsteps that are calling you to dance right now?
Simplify your Choices, Find your Creative Tools
I know how easy it is to get caught up in the mind and completely forget each creative step is equally important, whether someone sees it, pays for it or gives a crap. That means you have to give a crap and appreciate you own efforts and results – whatever they may be. Care about what you are building and do it despite how hard or easy it is. Take that next creative step because you want to and the timing feels right, or because the fear is sucking up all the air in the room and you simply can’t breathe. Choose yourself and the truth you want to live, not what will win you favor in the eyes of others. You have to spend your whole life with yourself, after all.
While all this sounds great as a concept, really listening to these words, letting them sink in is just the beginning. Now you need to choose tools that help you find your real creative footsteps, that enable you to discern using your mind, body and spirit as a complete package.
I need a combination of tools – and I’ve tried many! I find that yoga, meditation, energy clearing techniques, writing and most of all – nature – provide a way for me to reconnect and get back into step. I don’t have a set way I use them, but I do commit to doing at least one of these things every day because it helps me to move past the limitations of my mind.
So how are you feeling about your own creative toolset in 2015? Do you have diverse ways to dive into yourself more deeply, to tune out the noise and find your true groove? If not, don’t you think you are worth it?
When you take creative footsteps that resonate and practice them regularly something really interesting starts to happen – complications fall away. The confusion, frustration and other stuff still shows up, but you can tell the difference between what you’ve created and own it, while letting the other noise stay where it belongs – in the hands of other people creating it in the first place.
This week take time to think about and feel into the types of habits and tools that work for you, which ones help you feel lighter, brighter and more tuned in. Then actually commit to using one of them regularly, even if it’s only once a week. It’s the small creative footsteps in the beginning that are most fragile and also the most powerful fuel towards creative change.
If you would like a little help or insight on how to connect with the right tools for you, look over my support services. I would love to help you have your most creative year yet!
Photo credit: Sergio Pili, Catherine Mommsen Scott, Lauren Macdonald