POWER QUESTIONS (Formerly Reminder Questions)
1) What is your favorite fun way to journal?
2) How did you contribute to your creative process today?
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SUCCESS BREAK - November 30, 2006
SURPRISE!!
Today is the day to take your success break!
Take five minutes to focus on one of your current successes. Focus on each detail, sense, word and thought involved in this successful situation. When you are finished share this success with one other person!
Enjoy!
HELPING YOU VENT: Unique emotional expression can reveal itself in physical movement, conversations with God, self or others and writing about dreams and disappointments. As you let go of your emotions, you will also let go of a lot of energy, which you’ve been carrying around inside of you for a long time. As this happens, you will be creating room for more creativity, laughter and stability in your life. If even the idea of talking about your emotions scares you, then relax. You can start very slowly, so that you won’t scare yourself. For example, pick up any available pen and some paper. Write the first word that comes into your head when I say “feeling.” Did you do that? Now, put your pen down and put that paper in your pocket. I don’t want you to read it until you are ready to write again tomorrow. What did I just have you do? I asked you to write one word down and put your paper away. How did that feel? Was it scary? Alternatively, was it easy? If it was easy then you can repeat the same exercise tomorrow and the day after tomorrow until you start writing a sentence, then a paragraph then, well, you will know what to do after that. Everyone journal person started in the same place. They may have had more words to use than you did, but they all had to choose to write at least one word down, before they could grow any further in their writing skills. It’s your choice to continue writing one word until you are quite comfortable writing more.
CELEBRATING YOUR SUCCESSES: I firmly believe that you should celebrate your successes. We seem to spend so much more time hashing over the negatives, to the point where we forget to look for and acknowledge the positives. What is a success? Any activity that you have done to motivate yourself or others to move in a more positive direction. For example, you might have smiled at someone who was feeling sad this morning. You might have agreed to see an old friend after a long period of silence. Finally, you might have received an amazing work review, one that even exceeded your expectations. It’s very important that you tell yourself the positive truth as well as the negative truth. Our emotional muscles need to be exercised as often as our physical muscles. So go workout!!
PERCOLATING AND DEVELOPING IDEAS: Ideas take time to develop. Your journal is a perfect place to chronicle the whole process of a creative idea, from birth to completion. Some creative people use one journal for each of their projects. It makes it that much easier, for them to focus on different parts of the project, as needed. They also can be sure to saving any extra material or new ideas that occur to them in the shower or wherever. You can use all of the tools I”ve mentioned in this article, plus others. Create enough room in your journal so that it can hold everything that you need to have around you, while you are working on a specific project. If you need more than one journal or a journal of a different size then purchase it. It will be a great place to turn to later on down the line when your project is coming closer to completion.
EXPRESSING YOUR GRATITUDE: Giving thanks for blessings or abundance in your life will restore your energy and balance your perspective. It will also lighten your load and teach you how to focus more on the positive, rather than the negative in life. Many spiritual disciplines, including those in the recovery movement recognize the power of gratitude to heal and restore individuals and communities. One way to practice gratitude is to write one gratitude sentence each day. Just as you described your successes earlier, now focus on one incident, character trait or person that you are grateful for and write about it. This is an especially powerful tool to use when you are experiencing struggles. It is a statement of hope for you. You are saying to the world and to yourself, that you won’t be overcome by your struggles. Instead you will walk through your struggles with deep and abiding hope that change is coming just around the corner, it’s just a matter of time.
DECLUTTERING THE REST OF YOUR SPACE: In reality, decluttering your space(s) will overlap in most areas. It’s hard not to take a trash bag out to the bin, both from the kitchen and the living room, because it’s on your way to do so. I mention these areas separately just to remind you to be aware of where clutter might suddenly appear again. Recently, in my personal writing, I discovered that my procrastination list had grown extremely long. It caught me by surprise. Prior to writing that entry, I was sure, at least for a few moments, that I was finally putting some of my procrastination behind me. Guess what? I have more to learn about this area in the future.
EXPRESSING YOUR CREATIVITY: Your journal is a perfect place to express your creativity. It’s also a great place to keep a record of your progress, by project or in some other order. I’ve mentioned before that some creative people choose one notebook for each project. This really comes in handy when you are working on multiple projects. For example, I have a file in my book folder for extra information. I use this file to store words, phrases, and ideas that I deleted from earlier chapters. I don’t want to throw this information away yet, as it might come in handy in the process later or might spark several new writing ideas for me. A journal is a great place to that store that extra information until you find a use for it later on. While acknowledging and practicing your creative skills, you can also try on different personalities, try new and challenging steps that you might not be ready to present to an audience. You can step out of your comfort zone and look at a situation from several different angles. Your journal is a great place to surprise yourself and enjoy cultivating your creativity…
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REMINDER QUESTIONS:
1) What is the most cluttered part of your work or living space?
2) What types of stress do you experience during your creative process?
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Gratitude Break - Surprise -
SURPRISE!!
Today is the day to take your gratitude break!
Take five minutes to focus on a person, place or object that you are thankful for. If you choose a person, please try to express your gratitude in person. If not, send them a card or silly gift, if they are far away.
Enjoy!
Since December is about holidays, I’m going to post an article that became the basis for an e-course about journaling and life changes. Holidays are a time when I look both forward and backward at changes I’ve made and at situations that have stayed relatively the same. Going through this reflective exercise helps me prepare and plan for the new year. Have a wonderful week of reflection and planning!
TEN WAYS THAT JOURNALING WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE
“By wisdom is a house is built, and by understanding it is established.”
Proverbs 24:3
“Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst;but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
John 4:10
Creative preparation is not a skill that you can develop overnight. You will develop parts of it during each creative session. Your focus may or may not change several times during a session or season of sessions, because preparation and productivity are constantly interacting with each other. Your preparation also may change because your priorities or schedule(s) change.
Your preparation will be unique to your skillset and production goals. You will need to become more aware of your:
(a) preparation strengths
(b) preparation weaknesses
(c) various combinations of both of the above
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MENTAL:
Cultivating a clear mind is the foundation for mental preparation. If your mind isn’t clear, your message, your work and your motivation won’t be clear. Your message won’t be as focused, unless you deliberately creating an ambivalent piece. If you are producing a piece highlighting a new technique then you need to pay attention to how you present that technique. Determine what your reasons are for choosing that technique. Education? Pleasure? Shock Value? Specific customers? These are just a few of the reasons behind your production session. I just want you establish and maintain as much clarity as you can throughout the process. I also want you to remember that that clarity will need to be refreshed. You will need to take breaks, to plan, set deadlines, write lists, consult with customers, mentors, etc. Planning covers a lot of small decisions. Each decision fits into the equation of creating a high-quality piece. If you discover that you are leaving some of those decisions out, it will show up in the finished product. As you continue to read this article, please give some thought to your strengths and weaknesses in this area. The clearer you are about your skills, the more efficient and creative you can become.
PHYSICAL:
Self-care is the foundation for physical preparation. You know what works for you regarding: meal planning, exercise, sleep and other basic needs. It’s up to you to take care of yourself in these areas. No more starving artists! For example, it’s difficult for me to concentrate when I’m creating my jewelry, if my stomach is empty or I’m thirsty. I need to remember to stop for meals and snacks. I nearly always keep some tea or water nearby, so that I don’t dry out. If I don’t do these basic activities, my productivity goes down and my irritability increases. Not taking breaks is one of my weaknesses, which is why I stress self-care so much. When I don’t take care of myself, I fall into another old pattern of setting myself up for struggle during my creative work. I don’t need to put excess pressure on myself when I’m working, but if I don’t take care of myself while I am creating, guess what happens? It sounds simple but it’s not that easy to change. In every area of preparation, you really need to become more aware of what your responses, basic needs are, what your creative goals are and how they all interact with each other in your creative process. Is self-care a vulnerable area for you?
SPIRITUAL:
Spiritual clarity involves more than having just a clear mind. It also involves having a clear heart, conscience and soul. Each person’s perception and practice is unique. I am going to discuss spiritual paths here, just make sure that you take care of this area. From experience, I can tell you that making changes to achieve clarity here, sometimes takes hard work and extra time. When I’m unclear here, I engage in procrastination, perfectionism and other old habits that I’ve discussed before. For example, when I am learning a new skill, I really have to be cognizant of my tendency, to run away from or rush through the learning process. I don’t like admitting that I’m a beginner all over again. I don’t like feeling the range of feelings I go through when I am in a newlearning situation. I immediately set unrealistic production expectations for myself, setting myself up to fail before I’ve even started to learn the new skill. However, when I’m clear, I can see the roadblocks ahead and plan a detour, such as scheduling shorter learning sessions, etc. I can take time to pray or journal through what I recognize to be some strong fears, before and after my creative session. I can jot some notes down about the same issues, while I’m working so that I can return to them later. When I’m unclear I tend to throw my hands up in despair, declaring “Oh, I can’t create today…”, I can gently guide myself into a place of lower but positive expectation and production. I can follow those sessions up with some extra time to journal and pray through my fears and other issues. When I hit a roadblock, I am often tempted to either give up too easily or create extra challenges for myself. Remember that this is a discipline, a habit, that you can learn, through whatever spiritual work you do. So, even if you spend just a few minutes becoming more clear, before you start producing, it will give you that much more of an edge in your daily sessions. If you don’t, for whatever reason, be prepared to face some discomfort, creative resistance and confusion.
ENVIRONMENTAL:
Before you start your session, it’s important to have everything that you need in place and organized so that you are ready to create. Again, this preparation is unique to each creative person. I find it highly disruptive when in the middle of making a piece, and I discover that I’ve run out of cord or specific type of clasp. I really hate it when my printer runs out of ink, just when I need to print some flyers for an event or a final draft of an article. I’ve allowed both events to happen, one too many times. Experiment and establish a system that works for you. Don’t be afraid to adjust and adapt your system. Don’t be afraid to have tough days either, when no matter how prepared you are, your session just doesn’t go well. One of my mentors reminded me early in my coaching training that I’m not a robot. Sure, I need to produce and meet production goals, but I also need to produce in balance, which means that some days I will be very productive and other days I will not be. Mind you, I am not giving you carte blanche to not create regularly. But, for those of you, who become caught unrealistic production expectations. Just stop. Recognize what you are doing. Take a deep breath and start over. You will finish everything, when you bring some balance back into your creative sessions,but if you continue to work in a robotic way, be prepared to experience some roadblocks.
REMINDER QUESTIONS: November 21, 2006
1) What is one of the strengths of your preparation process?
2) How do you think you could improve your preparation process?
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Gratitude Break - Surprise -
SURPRISE!!
Today is the day to take your gratitude break!
Take five minutes to focus on a person, place or object that you are thankful for. If you choose a person, please try to express your gratitude in person. If not, send them a card or silly gift, if they are far away.
Enjoy!
I was selling jewelry at an event on Saturday night. I was very tired. Not because of the event, but because I rushed my preparation for the event, leaving several “to-do” lists to the last minute. Yes, if you read my business blog, you will find that I discuss procrastination quite a bit. It’s one of the worst habits a creative person can have, unless they are in a brainstorming mode. So, I found myself tired when I was standing up. I didn’t stand easily, while others looked fine. Sometimes it was noticeable. No, I don’t drink for many reasons, so that wasn’t the cause, but I’m sure that a few people thought otherwise. As I said, I was very tired. I’d tried a new approach to packing my set-up, finding that it was a bit heavier than I liked and used a lot of energy packing and unpacking before the event began. Well, I won’t be doing that again. I wrote some lists of what “not to do” and what “to do” the next time I participate in a similar venue. Some of my solutions will become second-nature immediately, and others I may need to remind myself to use at my last event of the year. I’m happy to declare, that the rest of the event went smoothly. I was able to meet some new vendors and greet a few familiar faces.
Yellow Pages for Culver City, CA