Ahh, the good old creative hustle. The drive to keep creative ideas alive and flowing while making a little side scratch to build a business, or simply keep our personal creativity flowing in the day-to-day. Freelancers especially understand this dance, as we try to choreograph it with available projects and staying creatively engaged in our work. At times it can be exhilarating, like winning a prize at the last minute that you never expected, and offers great experience - plus cash! However, … [Read more...]
How Are You Going To Be More True To Yourself In 2017?
January 9, 2017 By Leave a Comment
Being true to yourself as you transition into the energy of a new year sounds good on paper, but can be a little challenging to put into practice. January can feel packed with demands, expectations and a call to kick-off something, anything new. Hope and excitement energy feels invigorating, and is a nice shift to help inspire your creative heart. The same energy can also scatter your attention, especially when it’s blended with an underlying sense of urgency … [Read more...]
Are you a Creative Dabbler? Why it’s Not a Dirty Word
August 29, 2016 By Leave a Comment
The term creative dabbler sounds a bit slippery. Almost like an anti-definition or non-committal “yes” hanging out in the ether as a potential rather than an action. The idea of being defined as a creative dabbler can also elicit strong emotional reactions within people who see it as a put down or reminder that certain talents are still only living possibilities. In the most general sense, a dabbler is someone who tries lots of things. Sometimes interests and … [Read more...]
Get Down to Basics to Ignite More Meaningful Creative Insights
January 4, 2016 By 6 Comments
As the energy of the new year rolls into our hearts, minds and consciousness, there’s a strong desire to change something, anything, in order to ignite new creative insights. Yet, the date on the calendar does not magically make the experiences and emotions of last year disappear, or enable change to spring into motion. The push and pull between these two distinctly different types of energies is actually happening all the time, despite what the calendar says. The imprint … [Read more...]
Creativity Kick-Start: Get “Meta” to Re-ignite Passion for a Long-Term Goal
April 6, 2015 By 2 Comments
When an idea, experience or person sparks your creativity, it can feel like your whole soul lights up from the inside out. The dots start naturally connecting in your mind and heart. The way you see the world feels alive, colorful and open to possibility, and inspiration leads to creative action. As you walk through your personal creative process you find a natural rhythm and you intuitively find your pace. For small, one-and-done projects, it’s easy to hit all of the … [Read more...]
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...]
Creativity Kick-Start: Release Outdated Goals
September 8, 2014 By Leave a Comment
I chatted with a few very creative, soulful folks recently about gaining traction towards creative desires, and we wandered onto the topic of setting and using goals as a tool to focus energy and efforts. Personally, I have a bit of a challenge with the word goal. It feels a bit restrained and limiting. I prefer terms like objective, vision or task - they feel more open and flexible, even though they are also used to describe something very specific. But alas, the word … [Read more...]
Creativity Kick-Start: Review Old Ideas to Spark New Inspiration
August 4, 2014 By Leave a Comment
Inspiration is a beautiful, mysterious gift. It’s an unpredictable, illuminating and altogether tingly experience that sneaks up on you in interesting ways. While inspiration catches your eye and motivates your heart in the moment, what happens to that insight beyond the moment? Some ideas catch on fire right away and have a mind of their own. Other ideas stall, become frustrating or soon feel sticky or clunky, along with your creative drive. It’s easy to jump to the conclusion that in order … [Read more...]
Turn Waiting into Creative Gold
April 24, 2014 By 4 Comments
I think of creative gold as a state-of-mind rather than a goal to achieve. Even the richest ideas need a bit of simmering, giving them a chance to breathe and evolve. That doesn't mean it’s not frustrating as crap when every tingle of excitement is pushing you to take what’s in your mind and heart and expand it into something that has legs in the “real world”, timing be damned! There may also be situations when you take the leap and put a new idea out into the world, but people … [Read more...]
Weekly Creativity Kick-Start: Pick a Power Theme
February 3, 2014 By 2 Comments
Nothing gets creativity moving like a power theme, helping you focus on a key strength as creative fuel. A power theme acts as a thread that strings together all of your ideas and goals through a common focus. That way, when the mind and attention wander, you have a tool to help reground and focus your attention and efforts in an organized way. A power theme can be as simple as one word or as long as a clear statement. It helps to sit in quiet meditation, go for a walk or do some activity on … [Read more...]