Increase Creativity: How To Achieve Your Creative Goals

For many of us, it's all too easy to get stuck and frustrated in many areas of our lives by falling into ways of thinking that are based on "conditional happiness".

For example, we may believe that we'll be completely happy and totally worry free when and ONLY when we have a certain amount of money, or when we meet the right partner, or when we finish a creative masterpiece.

Another variation on this is saying "I'm going to start that project “WHEN I have the right inspiration", "...WHEN I'm in the right mood", or the eternally popular "...WHEN I have enough time".

Are any of these sounding familiar? Well you're not alone!

By believing that these fixed pre-conditions are necessary for our happiness - often things that we don't actually have specific or clear measurements of anyway - and then finding they never quite arrive when and how we expect them to, we set ourselves up for much frustration, procrastination, even anger, and can trigger off spirals of negative inner thoughts and criticism.

The fact is, the idealistic conditions we set out in this way will NEVER arrive, because of the way we're thinking. And even if we get very close to them, by being in this frame of thinking, we inevitably will add other conditions to the list.

"Yes I've got enough money now, and I have the time, but I can't start today because I got out of the wrong side of bed this morning and the planets are in COMPLETELY the wrong alignment..."

So what's the alternative, how can we overcome this?

Consider the words of the Taoist Philosopher Lao Tzu -

"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."

By taking the first step towards what we want to achieve and then taking regular consistent action thereafter, as well as moving towards our goals or dreams, we also gain greater clarity about what they are, and make them more real.

Each time we take action, we can look at how it's moved us towards what we really want and whether it's right for us.

If we feel we're heading in the right direction, that's great, we can keep taking successive action steps in this direction and build momentum and motivation.

If we come to a point of feeling "this isn't quite the right direction for me", that's great too, as eliminating something we know we don't want gives us greater clarity about what we DO want.

So we can re-adjust our focus, try something different and take action in that direction. And soon we find we're back on the right track again.

So how can you incorporate this into YOUR life?

What is YOUR first step towards one of your goals or ambitions going to be?

Maybe it's to write an outline for a book. Maybe it's research a course in something new you want to learn. Maybe it's to make that phonecall to a useful new contact you've been putting off?

Whatever it is, write it down with a date and time you're going to do it and commit to it.

Make that first step TODAY.

You've got nothing to lose. And then, take another step tomorrow. And the day after that and the day after that...

Be bold, be brave, don't wait around for the perfect conditions to arrive, they never will.

You have the power and resources to create your own!

Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin is the author of “Create Create!”, a FREE twice monthly ezine for people who want simple and powerful articles, tips and exercises to help them unleash their creative talents. Sign up right now and get your FREE “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook, at http://www.CoachCreative.com