Creativity- How To Finish Your Creative Projects - Accept, Adapt Or Abandon?

How many creative projects have you started in the last year or two and not finished? How many are still lying around cluttering and blocking your creativity, mentally if not physically?

If you’re like most of us who create, your answer is probably: “Nearly all of them!”

Here are 3 approaches to take when you “hit the wall” and get stuck with a creative project, that’ll help you make the right decisions for each unique project:

Before we get to those, firstly the fact is, whether we like it or not, sometimes our ideas don’t turn out as good as we expect. That’s just the way it is. It doesn't mean we've failed or we're not creative or we've forgotten how to create.

When this happens, you have 3 choices.

Choice A: Accept. Carry on to with the project to a natural conclusion, accepting it’s not what you thought it’d be but making the best of it you can. You’ve already invested an amount of energy and time in this project so it makes sense to follow through and get something from it if you can.

Choice B: Adapt. Take the project in a different direction by introducing new ideas or elements. Maybe the original idea wasn’t as strong as you’d hoped, or the project went in a different way to what you expected. Keep the project alive and let it evolve as it wants, even if this means a radical change from your original expectation.

Choice C: Abandon. Choose not to invest any more time on this project as it seems to be at a dead end. Take what you can from it in terms of experience and learning, then work on something you’re more interested in and excited about right now.

Any of these are reasonable course of action to take, depending on the circumstances.

Don’t be afraid of doing any one of them – Accept, Adapt or Abandon - whichever you feel is best for that project at that time.

Not all projects will get finished, and many more will turn out very differently to you planned them. Both of these outcomes are OK!

It’s that difference between what we expect a project to be and what it actually becomes that causes us most pain and anguish. So if we can detach a little from that, it becomes easier to let each project run to its natural conclusion, whatever that may be.

The alarm bells should start to ring though if you pick “Choice C: Abandon” every time.

If you become a “Serial Abandoner” of your creative projects – much like an errant father with 17 children by 14 different mothers - you might want to look at a deeper issue.

How can you apply this to your creative life right now?

How can you take on board these 3 choices and select one to continue with a project you recently stopped working on?

Want to learn more about how to be more creative? Get your FREE copy of Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin’s powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook when you sign up to the FREE twice monthly ezine “Create Create!”. Visit the website now: http://www.CoachCreative.com