Tag Archives: creativity coaching

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 6 of 7

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 6 of 7

Pushpin
In the last post, we used different hats to have your inner creator, appreciator, and editor work with you.  Today, it's time to look at the logistics of your project.  Is it an album?  A one-person-show?  We'll take a break from the "inner work" to look at a checklist of possible things you might to do help the world receive your gift more fully. 

Take note that as you come close to fruition, you will be likely to find ways to self-sabotage all the great work you've done so far.  Keep in touch with your daily action partner, and keep posted somewhere the purpose why you're doing this to help stay powerful in the face of obstacles.

The creative part:

  • Is your work "on track?" Have you been spending the right balance of time creating/editing/planning?
  • Have you gotten feedback from people who gave constructive information about your piece without criticism?

The event:

  • Have you sent emails?  Put out a press release?  Sent the info to lists and groups and social networks?
  • Have you created images or video to let people see a preview so they can get exciting about the event?
  • Have you been letting everyone you know and meet how excited you are and how they can participate?
  • Have you asked people to support you by helping at the event?
  • Have you checked on the venue?  Have you checked on the people putting together any external part of your project?
  • Do you have to pay for services?  Let people know about your preferences?  Have someone host or introduce you?  Will other people perform/exhibit/etc at the event?

This is the time to cull all of the work you've done into what feels like a "finished piece".  It's likely that it won't "feel" finished.  Don't worry.  As my friend Brian says, "Better done than good."  You'll always have time to improve upon it or make something even better with all that you've learned from this experience. 

Before you present your material to the public, make sure that you've presented it to a good friend who can give you feedback with enough time to re-vamp anything that needs clarification.

In the final post on actually manifesting your dream, we'll get to the best part: celebration!

"Action that is inspired from aligned thought is joyful action.
Action that is offered from a place of contradicted thought
is hard work that is not satisfying and does not yield good
results. When you really feel like jumping into action, that
is a clear sign that your vibration is pure and you are not
offering contradicting thoughts to your own desire. When you
are having a hard time making yourself do something, or when
the action you offer does not produce the results you are
seeking, it is always because you are offering thoughts in
opposition to your desire."

-Esther Hicks

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 5 of 7

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 5 of 7

Hat
In the last post, you were in the "creation" phase.  Creation is always happening, but it can get blocked, so we did a lot of exercises to make a safe container for the creative part of you to unfold.  As you move into the next phase, keep taking time to be intentionally and spontaneously in creation–free of criticism. 

And now, very gently and clearly, we're going to begin the process of editing.  Many people consider editing to be the most important part of art because this is where we begin to turn toward the idea of our work being received.  Many people consider art incomplete until it is in fact received–that seeing, hearing, or experiencing the work is its last phase of creation, "closing the loop."  I agree with this, but I also feel that for some art works, the maker can also be the best audience.  If we don't please ourselves in our art, we're not doing anyone else any favors!

So here's an exercise to transition yourself temporarily from creator to editor, feeler to thinker: 

Get three actual hats.  Really do this…  Maybe your "creator" hat is big and silly, your "appreciator" hat is beautiful and flowery, and your "editor" hat is like a newspaper editor's? 

Have your "creator" hat on while you're brainstorming, writing, drawing, singing…  After your allotted creating time, take off your creator hat, and put on your "appreciator" hat.  As the appreciator, you will talk to the creator for a few minutes and let her (or him) know how thankful you are to her for being so open and uncensored.  Tell her how it felt (fun? silly? exhilarating?) to be with her, and how happy you are that she has come to play with you.  Tell her that the next step you are going to take is to gather, organize, and edit what she has delivered so you can deliver this gift to the world!  Ask her if she has any requests of how you shape the material.  Ask if she will stay as an observer of the process to help keep the integrity of the work.  When you are done, take your appreciator hat off and put on your editor hat. 

If your creator lives mostly in your second chakra (the pelvis), your appreciator lives mostly in your heart chakra.  Your editor lives in your throat and "third eye" chakras.  Sitting with your back straight so all of your chakras are aligned, begin to look at your work with a warm, clear head.  Look at it as if it's not in fact your work at all, but the work of your best friend.  Begin to sort, clarify, and solidify what's there, seeing the best in it, and looking for places to chip away the extraneous pieces.  Do more cutting than adding.  Finish off your session with a quick flip of the appreciator hat and remind yourself how much great work you've just done and what your purpose in doing this is!

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful
servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has
forgotten the gift."

-Albert Einstein

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 4 of 7

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 4 of 7

Blueheron
In the last post, we discussed having a daily action partner and dealing with the inner critic.  At this point, you're ready to let your creativity soar!  If you're still finding it a challenge to let go, try this exercise, and then return to Part 4.

This is it!  Find your magic creative place, plunk yourself there, and get into it!  You might find you work best at night or during the day, standing or sitting, at home alone or surrounded by lots of people.  If you're writing, instrumental music can help put you in the mood.  A study found that people exercise 25% longer when they listen to music.  I would bet the same principle works for creative work. 

This is the time for you to create and create and create.  Your inner critic is not needed here.  Everything you need to create is in you now.  

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it/ Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

-Goethe

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 3 of 7

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 3 of 7

Friends
Find a daily action partner.  This will be the person who you check in every day with about the plan you made in Part 2. Call them every morning, state what you will do for the day, what might get in your way, and what you will do about it.  Your action partner should be someone you can discuss your logistical issues with as well as emotional issues that may come up in response to the new level you're working on.  Let your action partner know that what you'd like from them is to listen and be supportive and to call you out when you're off-target.  Know that just taking the action to call another person who really gets what you're working toward will bring you strength. 

Each time we move up to a higher level of productivity, creativity, or integrity, the part of us that has been stuck can get scared.  You can address that part of you by actually talking to it, respecting it's concerns, and giving it a voice.  Once you've done that, "mine" what your inner critic has told you.  (Don't bother arguing with it; it's not reasonable!)  Is there anything your critic said that you can use creatively?  Sometimes our greatest treasure is the same thing that holds us back.  If your critic were giving you a gift, what would it be? 

After you've listened to and mined your critic's message, move on.  You can even set a timer for, say, five minutes, to listen to you critic.  When time's up, set it aside and begin your creative work.

"Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief."

-Marcus Tullius Ceicero

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 2 of 7

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 2 of 7

Brainstorm
Sometimes
creativity coaching is not so much about the creative part, but the coaching part. 

The first step to making your vision a reality is to create a timeline.  Maybe you've decided to record an album.  Set a date for the album's release.  Perhaps that's one year from now.  Work backwards, setting each date on a giant calendar that you will post in your workspace.  If you don't know what all the steps are in the process are, this is the time to research it.  Set deadlines for each major component, and then break the major components into minor ones, and set dates for those.  Then, break each minor component into simple, single-action steps that you can do each day. 

Your major deadlines might look like this:

  • release date and party: December 1st
  • send album to press: November 1st
  • send tracks for mastering: October 1st
  • complete studio recording: September 1st
  • find musicians for studio work: June 1st
  • complete songwriting: April 1st
  • find artist to design album cover: March 1st
  • create a list of songs you will write: February 1st
  • decide on concept for album: January 1st

In between the major deadlines under "find musicians for studio work," it might look like this:

  • meet with producer, decide which songs need which instruments
  • make a list of instruments needed
  • make a list of musicians
  • ask musician friends
  • put an ad on "performer" website for musicians
  • put an email out to friends to find musicians
  • put an ad on craigslist to find musicians
  • decide on budget for musicians
  • speak with, meet, and audition possible musicians
  • decide on who you will work with

In between these minor deadlines under "put an ad on craigslist to find musicians," it might look like this:

  • write draft of ad
  • have someone proofread it
  • post
  • respond

You will soon have a comprehensive plan of how to get from here to there.

"All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a
second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a
man had taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance
immensely the value of your first."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Coming up next in Part Three: creating a support network to help you achieve your goal.