CREATIVES, DO YOU NEED TO RETHINK YOUR WISHES?

Creatives, are you wasting time wishing obstacles away, when you already have the creative answers?

Creatives, you already have the answers to the obstacles in your way! Below is a simple exercise to unearth solutions for YOU and your creative journey. I have some great tips for you! It’s true, we have the capacity for better lives when we do what really counts and take action on the things most authentic to us. This is where the creative mind is at its best.

Today, when pondering what to write to helps creatives prosper, this popped into my head, “When creatives play small it helps no one!” Hello I thought, how how many times have I seen myself or other creatives play small when they are so much more than that? You guessed it – too many times! At times, even when we appear to be doing well or achieving a great deal, we can still play smaller than our creative capabilities. I’m talking in all areas – not just our craft. Distracted, we can also be steered away from out authentic calling or the things that make us happy and healthy.

Just for fun I thought I’d share a journal sketch of a day with kid distractions. Here you go ha! They were fighting at the time – again! Do I here all the mummas shout “I here ya!?”

Okay, so what is that thing or things holding YOU back?

I’m wondering, have you ever wondered through your day wishing that thing, that thing, oh and especially THAT thing would finally change – because you know it should!? Perhaps, external frustrations or perhaps internal ones get so distracting you just can’t get going on anything creative! Perhaps is is wishing that weight away, getting healthier, resting more, get more done, being more – whatever!

Although pretty positive, sometimes things seem particularly difficult to change and FRUSTRATE me. But do we give in friends? No, not without a fight!

What are the cries of your heart? These are some that leak out from mine at times. Do any of these speak to you?

• I wish I HAD the strength, focus or willpower to do better at (that thing)!
• I wish someone would STOP doing (that thing) that affects me emotionally!
• I wish the distractions around me would STOP pulling me away from (that thing) I really want to do! I know I am meant to do!
• I wish that nasty opposition, that makes life so yuk at times, STOP already!

In truth, we all have thoughts like this. Perhaps, some more than others. But they can be turned into a positive if we capture them and work them into something helpful. Difficult perhaps, if we are running in survival mode or distraction mode, but I’d like to suggest something I think will be helpful. Let me share some insight about survival and distraction, I’ve learned as a creative person.

Wish less and create more for yourself.

When a tragedy hits, it hits fast and hard and is the biggest distraction there is. not many of us escape it and it can be hard to move past it. This is a tough one and takes time and understanding. Everyone processes tragedy differently too so there is no hard and fast rule. We will put that aside and look at normal day to day for now.

Distraction often comes before survival mode when dealing with life and work generally. How big the distraction is to an individual, depends on the importance to that individual. When we become too distracted, we don’t spend the time meditating on priorities, goals or rest enough, resulting in overwhelm. Overwhelm puts us in an automated survival mode, killing contentment and creativity.

The key to a more peaceful life begins with intentional focus and LESS distraction.
But firstly, we must learn to STOP!

Kayleen West

There are many reason why we are distracted but most are associated to clutter. Clutter of things, people, challenges, information, choices – too much of anything really. Even the good things! Too much o a good things isn’t always a good thing.

Create simplicity

I believe many of us have heard the call to purge and simplify our lives. We need to make room for what matters but it is a process. As our lives change we are continually sifting through the old to make way for the new but that is hard if we are going TOO FAST!

STOP and slow down enough to process my friends. We are not meant to go so fast. It is natural for us to be processing as fast as the Internet lifestyle would have us. It just isn’t healthy.

Note: If you want some interesting reading on healthy minds and all the things that help and affect out mind, intelligence, creativity and health, I recommend the material by Dr Carolyn Leaf. It is mind-opener! If you are time poor do what I do and download audio books.

Good news friends, we all have creative power to flip a lot of our frustrations and turn them into assets. Creativity and action is the key to the solution! YOU and I can make a change for ourselves and in the world around us. when we get results from changing the things we think or feel is unmovable, it empowers us to do more again.

The power of the creative mind

After learning a ton more about the creativity of the mind over the past year, I have finally made the shift on many sticking annoyances in my life. Regardless of what storms are going on around me, this (and answered prayer) has empowered me greatly. The result, more productivity, enhanced creativity (stay tuned!), better connection and relationships, severing of dis-empowering relationships, courage to change vocational goals, stronger faith, better health, weight loss and a firmer future plan. Worth considering?

While wishing and hoping is part of being a creative, all creatives need to STOP and think HOW to transform a wish into an action of growth. Transformation comes with every creative solution WE TAKE THE TIME to manifest. Then we can claim the confidence in our solutions, be empowered, and happy with the success our goals bring. It is a marriage of peace and creativity within everyday actions.

I’ll be the first to admit I have told myself “I’ll never get to – or be” certain things. But much of what I told myself was the voice of others or past failure. It wasn’t true at all. I just wasn’t there yet or blocked in some way. You may be too.

Lies

Locating and calling out the lies in our thinking is the key here. This equips us to rethink and re-create better options for ourselves. Creativity kicks in when we create strategies to act on the things that hold us back. Creatives let’s play LARGE – not small.

What are the things you wish would STOP, START or PROGRESS in your life? What is holding you back right now? Is your creativity or focus stifled as a result?

Here’s a creative exercise that will help you navigate this. (You’ll be surprised how helpful this is!)

1. First, get into a place of seclusion where you won’t be distracted for 20-3- minutes at least.
2. If you are a person of faith, give thanks for this opportunity of breakthrough and pray for wisdom and truth to flow.
3. On the left side of the page write a list of all the things you wish were different. Don’t spellcheck or judge your thoughts -just let it flow. Be as creative as you like and leave all boundaries out – financial, physical, mental, emotional.
4. Spend time looking at what you wrote, asking yourself what stands out to be the most important TO YOU not other people. It is not the time to be a martyr here. This is about truth and YOUR desires. Mark these in a way you can easily set them apart. *
5. On the right side of the paper, write down the excused why those dreams or needs are not being met.
6. Meditate on those and look for the lies and/or solutions that could help propel you forward.
7. Write them down NOW!
8. There! You now have an action list. Anything in there can change the course of your future and steer you in a new direction.

Creatives be clear about YOU!

You may have written solutions like, if I just moved more each day it would help my health or if I started this project on Wednesday and committed for at least an hour each week, it would be out of my hair! Or, if I walked into the other room whenever this looked like it may happen, I’ll take back some of my peace.

Whatever your solutions look like, I’ll bet some of them are simple actions you could start with TODAY. Would they alter your outlook do you think? Perhaps, help you feel more empowered than you do now?

The hardest part, is committing and making these habitual. I have started you off now it is up to you. You can help yourself by finding an accountability partner, comment below (I will read it!) or use any form of accountability that works for you and GO my friend. You’ve got this!

Need a reminder? Print off this creative exercise for later? DOWNLOAD PDF

* For Creatives with faith…

God shapes the desires of our hearts in a helpful way. The bible say that he wants to see those desires fulfilled. They will be healthy and bring delight to the heart. So, we can have confidence in our creative passions, healthy and godly relationships and efforts to bless others when we share parts of ourselves appropriately. If God wants to fulfill the desires of our hearts – yours is included! Be encouraged to know that He give you the desires of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

Helpful scriptures about the desires of the heart:

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart – Psalms 37:4

When anxiety abounds within me, Your comforts delight my soul – Psalms 94:19

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose – Romans 8:28