So the creativity coaching work that I do is largely based on the work I’ve done to get through the blocks to being a comedian, solo performer, and artist. Here’s a little sample of what I’ve been up to in my creative life. I’ll be performing this show Eat, Pray, Laugh! in San Francisco January 20th, 2010 to February 24th each week with kirtan singer Mirabai. You can get tickets here.
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:
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
So, you’ve got a clear vision and a CPR (a statement of the results you want from your work , what your purpose is, and the context you’d like to pursue your results in.) Now, what, Ms. Creativity Coach? If you’re at all like me and like to create big visions for yourself, you can get awfully excited and awfully overwhelmed by it all. Questions arise, like, "Where do I start?" and "Which is the best, most effective task to perform at this moment?" The intensity of the wonderful vision you have created for yourself can become another block to having what you want if you let it overwhelm you! (It’s easy in moments of overwhelm to lose sight of goals and get lost in distractions like over-checking email…)
So, take some time to brainstorm the steps that will bring you from where you are now to where you want to be breaks everything up into manageable chunks. And if you are someone with a lot of different goals and a lot of different projects all in play, drawing a tree of possible courses of action can be really helpful in visualizing what steps you need to take to arrive at your aims. Then, you can choose which "branch" you want to focus some time on, take specific actions, and see measurable results. And whenever necessary, you can re-assess. Perhaps you’re a violinist, and you know you want to get more work playing the violin. One possibility branch for getting more work would involve networking with other musicians at parties or at the symphony… Another possibility branch would involve building a website, posting examples of your work online, and attracting customers through internet searches. Yet another possibility branch could be learning new pieces of music and auditioning in different cities. Of course, the knowledge of your tree branches will evolve as you grow, but you will create a great picture of how to achieve your goals. And then you can build a treehouse.
"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars." -Les Brown