Journey Juju

Counterintuitive Creativity: Ten Ways to Foster Your Inner Rebel

Sit down, hush up and listen here. When you read this, you’re going to do what you’re told whether you like it or not.

Okay. How’d that impact you? Feel like you and your Muse have just been put behind bars?

If you’re a rebellious type like me, you probably wanted to immediately delete this article. You’re a creative type, and chances are you abhor being told what to do. Yet you want to make your great ideas reality, so you search for guidance on how to best make use of your creativity and talents. And then you rebel against that advice.

I’ve found that the best approach to working with creative people is to help you develop your own creative intelligence. I invite you to view your process as a creative laboratory, where you learn what works for you  - what timing, what pace, what focus, what support systems will help you make your ideas real. No need to rebel against your Muse and what works for you.

And, as a writer I like to give advice. I like to think I have some ideas about what works. Here are ten ways to foster your creativity that run counter to the norm.

The Graceful Return: Relish Your Journey After You've Come Home

Why don’t we ever hear about trips after they’ve happened? It’s like all the excitement of going and being in the world evaporates once the traveler returns home.

You set out on any journey with high expectations, hopes and fears. Your experiences away from home can transform you deeply. But the changes you undergo on a trip are largely invisible, and it can be difficult to understand and express how you’ve changed, let alone make use of those insights.

If you’re like me you don’t want the insights you gained on your journey to slip away. Yet life doesn’t pause when you get home. It’s up to you to make the most of your journey, and with my new e-book The Graceful Return: Relish Your Journey After You've Come Home, it will be easier to understand and enjoy your journey even more.

I used the methods in The Graceful Return to make my own home coming easier. With the art making tools and coaching skills I’ve included for you, I was able to identify which projects took priority, make outlines for presentations to give, and develop new creative products. I am also using insights from my journey to develop my business to its next level.

The Graceful Return is an e-book you can buy and begin to use immediately. Read more about it and pick up your copy today.

And please leave a comment and let me know if you’ve ever experienced returning home being difficult and how you managed it.

The Creative Person’s Hierarchy of Needs

You’ve heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In a nutshell, as humans, our basic needs are: Physiological, Safety, Love/Belonging, Esteem and Self-Actualization. To read more, go here.

Creative people, those who are making things – books, businesses, design, art – have additional needs. Recognizing these needs and making sure they are met are essential to applied creativity.

When we don’t acknowledge our needs, we’re allowing life to dictate our experience. Knowing your needs and being willing to take action to make sure they are met will make the already challenging work of creating much easier.

 

Not on the list but so important: lots of notebooks!

These are Marcus McAllister's notebooks in his Paris studio. I love his art.

Over ten years of coaching and almost twice that time creating things myself, I’ve identified ten needs creative people have. But unlike Maslow, I don’t prioritize them. Each person will have their own hierarchy for these needs and will also have their own needs to add.  Here they are:

Back to School

The chill in the air, the possibility of wearing sweaters again, the thrill of buying school supplies, getting a freshly printed syllabus inherent with the possibility of all I will learn….

It’s time to go back to school. I was that kid that eagerly went back to school. Stacks of books, empty notebooks, new armies of pens all made the curious kid in me happy.

As an adult I became an autodidact, teaching myself through reading and adult education classes. I’m not really me if I’m not taking a class or teaching myself something.

Now my day is punctuated by the bell ringing the kids to class at the middle school across the street. You, too, may be called to go back to school but your life doesn’t include registering for a class and following someone else’s syllabus.

If you’re a writer and want to study what you want to learn this fall, take advantage of my Back to School Special. Here’s the deal:

Buy either my book, Create Your Writer’s Life: A Guide to Writing with Joy and Ease, or my online course, 28 Days to Your Writing Life and I’ll give you a copy of my audio program, Your Best Writing Year Yet. Listen to this audio program to chart a clear path that honors your writing dreams and goals.

With either choice, you get my unique Curriculum Design Worksheet, a nine-page guide that helps you design the specifics of your curriculum. This guidance makes the perfect supplement to the helpful framework I give on how to make time to write, stay on track, and dissuade those voices that try to keep you fearful and away from the keyboard.

And for fun I’m throwing in a packet of my Creative Fortunes.

My Back to School Special ends on September 3^rd, and you'll want to have your course of study charted so you can write what you want this fall - on your own terms.

Find out more and pick up your Back to School gear.

 

Ten Essential Blogs for the Creative Adventurer

Blogging is on my mind more than ever these days, since the Blog Triage class I co-lead with Alyson Stanfield started today.

I'm always looking for blogs that help me excel in my life, art and work. I've not scoured the entire blogosphere, but I do read a few blogs that really make a difference for me.

I've compiled a list of ten blogs you should check out if you want to be more effective in life.

If you subscribed to Impulses, my free newsletter, you'd already have the list, easy peasy, in your e-box. If you don't subscribe, you have to make that extra click to read my best blogs list.

Latest from the Magic Treetop Studio

A few weeks before Labor Day (US), I feel like summer is over. I’ve allowed myself a lot of free time while integrating back to life in the US and now I’m eager to move on to the more focused energy of fall. I’ve been home five months now and while it’s been a pleasant summer, it’s time to drag myself out of my magic treetop studio and into my office. I’ve been developing several new projects that I want to share with you.

Words Heal

Blog for Creativity: Ten Reasons Your Muse Will Love Blogging

Blogging from Lisbon, summer 2008

Blogging is a great way to add zest to your creative life. I love the way it engages me and my Muse.

Here are ten reasons why blogging will bring your Muse around more frequently. Blogging:

1. helps you focus your writing. Finding a good angle on a subject and spouting forth on it in under 500 words offers excellent writing practice.
2. offers a great way to develop your visual intelligence. I've been challenged to find photos that represent the topic and graphics that get my point across visually.
   
3. is great conversation starter.
4. invites your authentic voice out into the public and gives you a forum for your passion.
5. keeps you alert to new ideas and concepts.
6. helps connect you to a creative community of peers.
   
7. allows you to develop content and ideas for products and books.
8. fosters the opportunity to share links and resources that you love.
9. gives you a deadline for posting art and writing.
   
10. is FUN and fun always stimulates your creativity.

If you are considering blogging, I highly recommend it. If you're an artist blogger and need help keeping the pulse of your blog steady, consider my Blog Triage class with Alyson Stanfield. It's an intensive and thorough overhaul for limping blogs.

Financial Juju Is Sexy

 

Sexy Spinach Dumplings, Madrid

Personal finance may not seem like the sexiest topic for a creative person, but I happen to love it. Ever since I embarked on a self-designed personal empowerment program in 2004, I've loved any conversation about money - how to earn it, save it, spend it and invest it.

This week in Impulses, my free bi-weekly newsletter for subscribers, I shared my secrets for how I've been able to build my business, help others, and enjoy a lifestyle where I travel, work according to my own schedule, and have space and time to write and make art.

There are tons of books out there to help empower you financially, and for a few years I was reading every one I could get my hands on. In the end, three books helped me get my financial juju on:

Smart Women Finish Rich by David Bach. This is the step-step approach to dealing with the daunting task of sorting out your money. I had this book for a couple of years before I was able to really use it. While you are gearing up to get a financial grip, read this book:

Secrets of Six-Figure Women by Barbara Stanny. This book inspired me. It helped me believe that I could make six figures. I have referred to the lessons I learned in this book again and again. Stanny has a lot of useful insights, which she shares in her other book:

Overcoming Underearning This book helped me deal with the emotional undercurrents that underpinned my relationship with money. Exercises lead me through a process of gaining clarity on my money issues.

As I mentioned in my Impulses article on creative finance, I’m no expert on personal finance. It’s an ongoing relationship that requires attention and intention. It might not wear sexy lingerie, but in the end financial empowerment is satisfying and feels better than being afraid about money.

Free Write Fling - Last Chance to Register

Want to write more easily, starting tomorrow?

There's nothing like a daily commitment to make it happen. And to make it fun. So fun that by the end of the month you just keep writing on a daily basis.

That's what happens to the people who sign up for my Free Write Fling, who are therafter affectionately known as Flingers. I know, it's a bad name that evokes grade school shenanigans, so if you have an idea for a better name, drop a comment.

It's super easy to join and write daily. No muss, no fuss, just 15 minutes of writing a day. On whatever you want. Use the time to free yourself of gremlins that pounce the minute you misspell something. Use the FWF to write that book you've been avoiding, you know, the one that will take your business to the next level. Use the FWF to get traction on your novel.

The FWF offers just enough structure to help you make writing a regular and enjoyable habit. It's starting tomorrow and runs every day during the month of August. I'm not sure I'll be offering this again this year, so seize the opportunity to write like you mean it. Like every day.

Join your fellow Flingers today. All the details and a path to register here.