Increase Creative Flow - How To Avoid Gridlock And Give Your Creativity The Green Light

Creative block can feel like sitting stuck at a broken set of traffic lights on a sweltering summer day.

Nothing’s going anywhere, everything's overheating but you feel powerless, there's no way you can move, nowhere to go.

Whichever way you look there’s obstacles to your progress for as far your eyes can see.

Sound familiar to you at all?

There is an answer though, we don’t have to endure this kind of frustration.

Here are 5 top tips to avoid the snarl ups and give your creativity the green light permanently:

1. Be aware of alternative routes. Over time, we find the creative routines and ways that work well for us, and it makes sense to use these all the time they give favourable results.

But don’t get too reliant on just one way. Try alternative routes sometimes, don’t be afraid of tweaking, experimenting, see what ELSE works well. Then when your usual reliable method of creating isn’t working so well, you don’t have to panic and stop completely, just switch to a different lane for a while.

2. Keep your vehicle in prime condition. If your car was leaking water, had virtually no fuel and was in desperate need of a tune up, then when you approach any kind of difficulties on the roads, it’s going to soon breakdown.

It’s the same with your creativity. Keep your creativity topped up and tuned by creating regularly and in different ways, and it’s less likely to ever break down on you.

3. Stay informed of the conditions. On the roads, if you stay tuned in to the latest traffic announcements, you can avoid roadworks and trouble spots before you get caught up in them.

With your creativity, be aware of when you’re starting to feel demotivated, exhausted or uninspired, and make some changes as early as possible to keep your creativity fresh and flowing.

4. Take emergency supplies. If you did get trapped in a traffic jam, you’d appreciate having some fresh water and some snacks to keep you refreshed until you got moving again.

If you’re in full flow with your new painting and run out of aquamarine, or writing out in the country and your pen runs dry, it’s obviously going to disrupt your creative flow. Be prepared to avoid such frustrations by having spare materials ready and close to hand.

5. Support others on the same roads. In a traffic snarl up, if you saw a family sitting in their car in the sweltering sun with no water and you had plenty, you could reach out and offer them some of yours.

Helping others travelling a similar creative journey too can be very rewarding and actually inspire your own creativity. Brainstorm the options you could take to support fellow creative artists around you.

Use these 5 tips to help your creativity keep moving along, even when the conditions become more difficult and obstacles start to appear.

Which of these ideas can you put to use today to help get your creativity ticking over smoothly?

This is one of many ways to be more creative.

And if you’d like to get your creativity kick-started today, I invite you to download your free copy of the powerful and practical Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

Watch Your Language! How The Words You Say Determine How Creative You Are

“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me” goes the familiar rhyme. Hmmm...

Words in fact can do more damage to your creativity, confidence and self-esteem than any physical pain.

So how do we use words to limit our creativity?

First there are the obvious negative words that exist in our minds. These come essentially from two sources – ourselves and other people.

There are the discouraging or barbed comments from another person we’re close to, like “Yeh it’s a good effort for you, but it’s obvious your sister got the lion’s share of creative talent in this family” or “You’ve spent all that time and come up with this?!”. Painful.

Then there are the self-produced negative comments, the voice of the inner critic. “You haven’t got any real creative talent, why do you bother?”, “You’ll only mess up if you try something different” and “No-one’s going to even see your work, what’s the point of creating anything”, are all popular shots down at your local “Beat Yourself Up bar”.

These two sources of negative comments, though they can of course be very damaging, are fairly easy to spot.

And because of this, it’s easier to take action to combat them.

What’s potentially even more destructive and can slowly unravel your creative confidence over time is the less obvious negative language.

Take this example. Say you’re writing your first novel and you’re only a couple of chapters in. A friend asks what you’ve been up to in your creative life lately.

You could say: “I’m working on my first novel. I’ve only written a couple of chapters though, so I’ve got a long way to go. Plus this is only the first draft so it’s going to be a long time until I can even think about finishing...”

Sounds honest enough. But it’s loaded with less than positive language. And if you’re saying this to your friend, it sets up the mindset that you’re going to carry throughout the time you’re writing your novel. It’s not going to help you create more, and over time it’s actually going to eat away at the creative confidence you do have.

So what if instead you said “I’m writing a new novel. I’ve already done a few chapters and it’s going very well. I’m focusing on enjoying my writing and letting the story develop naturally. I’m really pleased with how it’s going, thanks for asking!"

Now you’ve not changed any of the actual facts. But you’ve framed the whole experience in a far more positive light. And, as before, the way you spoke will influence your mindset and attitude towards your writing as you proceed.

As you can see, it’s not only the obvious negative language you use that can limit your creativity.

Be vigilant to ALL less than positive language you use when you speak to people – and to yourself – about your creative work and life.

This simple observation technique can make a huge difference to both how much you create AND how much you enjoy creating.

Ready to kick-start your creativity today? Then I invite you to download your free copy of the Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

Creative Authenticity - Finding The True Creative You

In your creating, do you feel you’re expressing the real you? Have you found the best channels and ways of communicating your unique message through your creative work?

Sometimes we can create for years without really finding our own voice and our own way of creating. But why would you want to find the true creative you?

Why find the true creative you?

When you find the true you in your creating, you’ll find you’re able to:

- Create more easily, with less resistance and fewer creative blocks.

- Create more, increase your overall creative output.

- Be more satisfied and fulfilled in your creative work.

- Feel your confidence riding high – and all the positive knock on effects this brings along with it.

- Enjoy creating more, with less internal conflict or confusion about what to create.

- Connect more with your work, therefore creating at a deeper, more meaningful level.

The benefits are multiple and obvious, so how do you go about getting to the core of your creativity? Here are some of the top ways to try:

How to find the true creative you

Ask yourself these 5 questions to find the ways you’re most authentic to yourself in creating:

1. Which work in the past do you feel was most “you”? Which was the most accurate reflection of who you are and why you create? Spend some time listing some of your previous work and pick out those projects you felt were most authentically you.

2. What have you always wanted to create, but haven’t yet? If you’re burning with longing to create in a particular medium or a specific creative project, then there are strong reasons for this. Most of us find ourselves called to create a certain project time and time again. Follow that calling!

3. Which creative projects have you enjoyed most? Finding these is a great indicator of what kind of creative work you feel most comfortable and most aligned with. Think about different types and forms of creating, as well as different themes and subjects you’ve used.

4. Which creative work have you been most proud of and pleased with? This doesn’t necessarily have to be the work that you feel has been the most polished or accomplished. It could be the first song you wrote, or the first pot you made. Think about why you were proud, what did creating this piece represent?

5. What creative work would you want to be remembered by? Maybe you write stories all day long, but what you really want to be remembered for is a series of paintings you created. Think about the creative legacy you want to leave, by the end of this year, this decade, this lifetime. Then get to work creating it!

When you create authentically as the real creative you, the benefits to yourself and to the people who enjoy your work and multiple and far reaching.

What can you do today to get a little closer to that true creative you?

Kick-start your creativity today! I invite you to download your free copy of the powerful and practical Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com.

Creativity Myths - My Creativity Is Not Unlimited, It Could Run Out Any Day Now

One of the keys to being more creative is BELIEVING you can be more creative.

If you have the belief and the mindset that your creativity is limited, and that someday – maybe today even – it’s going to run out and you’ll never create anything worthwhile or interesting again, what kind of effect will that have on how you create?

Here are some likely ways this will have an negative impact on your creativity:

- You’ll feel you have to make your creativity last, you’ll have the rationing mentality. This means you’ll only allow yourself to create in small bursts, or only work on small projects, just in case you “run out of fuel” half way through.

- You’ll prevent yourself from accepting new ideas. Subconsciously mostly. You won’t allow these ideas to form and develop in your mind, cutting them off before they have a chance to become something you want to invest time and creative energy in.

- You’ll “save up” your creativity for a special occasion, because you’re not sure how much you have left. Then you dismiss each possible new creative project as being not special enough or not the one. This simply adds more and more unrealistic pressure to that time when (if!) you finally do choose something to work on.

- You’ll avoid creating the projects that hold the deepest challenge and reward for you. You’d rather sail from bank to bank on a small shallow lake you’re familiar with than risk setting sail on vast unknown oceans.

- You’ll avoid trying new forms of creativity. What’s the point of wasting energy and creativity on something it may take years to master? Those precious limited creative resources should be used on safer creative projects you know you can finish.

These are some of the main effects this mental attitude of “my creativity is limited, one day it’s going to run out” has on your creative life. And there are other variations on these.

You can see that none of them are exactly supportive of a thriving creative life!

So what can you do to change this around?

The first step is to work on that negative and limiting belief.

The easiest way to do this is to begin gathering ideas and show to yourself that in fact – like each of us – your creativity is as deep a well as you want it to be.

Keep a creative ideas journal with you wherever you go, and jot down ideas that come to as soon as they appear. Don’t judge and dismiss your ideas right away, write them down, give them a chance.

Use an ideas journal for a few weeks, then look back through it and realise how many ideas you have. By this time too, you’ll start to see that the more ideas you have, the more ideas you have! The “unlimited ideas” mindset simply feeds on itself and grows.

This is the easiest way to demonstrate to yourself your creativity is not limited and about to run out at any moment, but in fact as deep and rich as you want it to be.

Working on this belief is one of many ways to be more creative.

I invite you to take the next positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

You CAN Be Creative Again - 5 Steps To Rediscover The Creativity You Thought You'd Lost Forever

Many of us find ourselves in the position of waking up one day and wondering where our creativity went.

It didn’t disappear overnight, but rather over a number of months, years, even decades, as we gradually created less and less, caught up by the demands of day to day life and commitments.

Maybe you now feel like an Ex-Creative yourself, as if that’s something you once were but can never regain?

Don’t give up hope! We are ALL creative, from the day we born to the day we die.

Here’s 5 steps to help you rediscover the creativity within that you feared you’d lost forever...

1. Remember why you create. What is it about creating that’s so special? What does creating give you that nothing else can? How does being creative enhance and enrich all the other areas of your life, how does it make you a better person?

2. Rediscover your senses. Creativity starts with an awareness of your senses and the vibrancy of everything that’s around you. Take time regularly to stop for a few moments and focus on what you’re experiencing through each of your senses.

3. Gather your ideas. You’re capable of unlimited ideas, and the more you have, the more they’ll feed your imagination and produce more ideas. Get into the habit of recording each idea you have in a notebook or journal, right at the moment it happens. Notice how the more you notice, the more you notice. (!)

4. Start small. Don’t overwhelm yourself by taking on the biggest creative project of your life. Choose something small to begin with like a few haikus or photographs or small collages or paintings. Then build up to larger works as your confidence grows.

5. Create a little each day. The only way to be consistently creative. Create at a set time each day for a minimum of 15 minutes. Do this for 30 days and you’ll have a powerful creativity habit that’ll allow you to create absolutely anything you desire.

Follow these 5 steps to rediscover the creativity you thought you’d lost for good.

Each of the steps is very flexible in that you can begin today on a small scale that’s right for you and won’t overwhelm you. Then as your confidence and creativity grows, you’ll find you’ll naturally do more of each.

In a month or so, maybe less, you’ll have in place some of the most powerful pillars and habits possible for a life of thriving creativity.

So, how are you going to start today?

To give your creativity a healthy kick-start I invite you to download your free copy of the powerful and practical Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com.

How To Have And Develop More Creative Writing Ideas Than You Thought Possible

One of the biggest struggles writers of all types have is coming up with enough good ideas.

If ideas are scarce, when a good one does appear it’s leapt upon and devoured like a slab of fresh meat thrown to a pack of ravenous alligators.

This kind of pressure doesn’t exactly create an environment conducive to writing freely and creatively!

So how can you turn it around?

The first part is to have more ideas. This make the second part of developing those ideas so much easier because you have more ideas to work with, and there’s less pressure and expectation to develop every single one into an incredible piece of creative writing.

Here’s the technique I use that enables me to write an article every day before I’ve even taken my last bite of toast and sip of juice at breakfast.

1. Capture ideas. The first step is to develop the habit of capturing all the ideas you have, without judgement. I use a journal for creative writing and for article ideas I have a text file on my computer in which I store the title ideas in a list.

Bonus tip: I start each new idea with a “*” symbol so they’re easy to see. I always have at least 10 extra “*”s at the end of my list of ideas. Just having these blank invitations that suggest they will soon each have an idea beside them helps me fill them more quickly. Very subtle, but it try it, it works!

2. Choose an idea to develop. Each morning when I get up I go to my computer and scan through the ideas file. When I see a title idea that catches my eye for some reason, I copy it, and paste it into a blank document. Don’t go through EVERY idea, you'll overwhelm yourself. Pick the first that appeals and run with that momentum.

Like the bonus “*” tip above, this again works by suggestion. Just having the title of the article in place, it suggests to me that before long the rest will be filled in. A completely blank page is just too intimidating!

3. Play with the idea in your mind. Next step is to let the idea and the title roll around in your head a little. Think about different angles, maybe how you can break it down into a number of points or sections.

I’ll come clean, I do this part in the shower. Because my body is involved in a physical action, my mind is freed up to think more and be more creative. I find a similar effect happens when I’m washing up! Just sitting and sweating at a blank screen or page DOESN’T work.

4. Start writing your piece. Take what you’ve developed in your head and start writing your thoughts down beneath the title of your writing piece or article. Don’t try to arrange it perfectly as you go, just write and get the meat of the idea down on the page.

With experience, I’ve found certain patterns develop naturally. In creative writing, I just know which lines fit together and which need an extra part between or don’t fit at all. With articles, the more you write the easier it is to use a template such as “5 Tips to…” or “7 Steps to…” without even needing the numbers written down beforehand.

5. Editing. Step 4 is all about the flow of the writing, getting down as much as you can and finding the rhythm and structure of the piece. Now you can go back and edit, check for mistakes, make sure the words read well and so on.

This part can be done immediately after you finish the article or piece of writing, though sometimes it works well to do this once, then come back a day later with fresh eyes and make any last little adjustments or amendments you need to.

This is the technique I use to write an article a day before I’ve finished breakfast.

I use a similar technique for creative writing, it’s just the content and structure is different, and I tend to use a paper journal for ideas more than a text file on a computer.

Apply these 5 steps today and notice how you too can have and develop more writing ideas than you thought was possible.

And if you’re ready to get your creative writing kick started again right away, I invite you to sign up for your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com

Are Your Creative Surroundings Seriously Stunting Your Creativity?

The creative environment you work in can have a major impact on your creativity.

We don’t all have the resources to build a custom art studio to serve our every creative need. But there are many things we can do to make our existing creative space more conducive to getting those juices flowing, and minimising creative blocks.

Here then are 5 key areas. Which are holding you back in YOUR creative environment?

1. Décor. How does the general décor inspire your creativity? Do you work best in a pale neutral room with simple decoration and lighting? Or do you prefer to create surrounded by your favourite pictures, books and objects that just by their presence allow you to create more freely and feel more inspired?

2. Sound. What aural environment suits you best? Are you happy to work with the background hum and throb of everyday life? Or do you prefer complete silence? Maybe you create best with particular music on or CDs that recreate natural sounds? Find what works best for you and stick with it.

3. Desk / Worktop. Most of us need a desk of some kind to create on, whether it’s just to write on or it’s custom built and fitted out with various tools and equipment. How effective is your desk in helping you create? Maybe it’s time to fix that wobbly leg or repaint the surface to make creating easier?

4. Equipment. How readily available is your creative equipment and your tools of creativity? Are they well organised and close to hand so you know exactly where everything is? If not, then maybe it’s worth spending some time rearranging your equipment so as to minimise any disruptions to your creative flow?

5. Location. Is your creative workspace somewhere you can go to create without major distraction? Is it located away from the kind of temptations that lead you to procrastinate? Where your creative work space is located can have a significant impact on what and how much you create there.

These are 5 of the key areas of your creative environment.

Which do you feel you could alter a little to make creating easier and more productive for you? Pick one area today and commit to making just one small change. Then do this for each of the other areas you feel could be enhanced.

A few minor but vital changes in your creative environment could make the difference between you creating abundantly or not even creating at all.

And if you're ready to kick-start your creativity today I invite you to download your free copy of the powerful and practical Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com.

Writer's Block - An Effective New Approach To Help You Beat Writer's Block

Typically with writer’s block, it hits when you least expect it, rendering you helpless with no words to say.

It’s almost like some ghost thief swoops in, snatches your last remaining ideas and inspiration and scrapers before you’ve even felt they’re there, leaving you dried up and wordless.

Because writer’s block appears to strike so randomly and unpredictably, it simply makes itself seem more powerful and devious and invincible than it actually is. It builds this enigmatic cloak of deception around itself and claims it can’t be seen, let alone avoided.

But there is a way to better prepare yourself for writer’s block.

Much of the time, our approach to writing can be compared to attempting a trek across the Sahara desert with only a flask of tea and a lunchbox of cucumber sandwiches.

A matter of hours into the adventure, you’ll have eaten the sandwiches, drunk all the tea and be gasping for fresh liquid and starving for sustenance. You simply wouldn’t be able to continue.

What if instead though you were better prepared for the trip?

What if you went along, not just with your tea and sandwiches, but with a convoy of vehicles containing 3 months worth of food and water, a medical team with full mobile field hospital, satellite communications and a karaoke machine and portable dancefloor, just in case you got bored?

It’s pretty likely with preparation and back up support like that, you’d get a whole lot further into your desert adventure!

This may be an exaggerated example to make a point. But the same principle applies to creative writing and to being prepared to overcome writer’s block.

If you attempt to write a new novel armed with two characters, one scene, a few lines of dialogue and no plot, you’re going to struggle, however fantastic a writer you are.

If though, you begin with a strong idea for the story, and 3 journals packed with ideas for characters, scenes, plot twists, relationships and dialogue, you’re likely to get much further, much more easily. And your novel will be so much richer and more rewarding because of it.

So how can you be better prepared like this?

How can you avoid getting caught short and washed up by writer’s block when you’ve only barely started a new creative writing project?

Having an creative ideas journal is the best way. Carry it wherever you go, jot down all the ideas that come you to as soon as they appear. The more ideas you write down, the more you’ll find you’ll have.

Then when you come to write, you’ll be wonderfully prepared. Plus, you won’t find your tea and sandwiches have run out halfway through writing chapter one!

For more great creative writing ideas, I invite you to sign up for your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.com

How To Choose Creativity - Your Beautiful Creative Future Begins Today!

In every part of your life you have a choice. Although it doesn’t feel like it sometimes, and maybe much of the time you feel out of control of your life, this fact remains true.

You can choose whether to get up each morning. You can choose whether to commit more time to creating.

You can choose exactly how creative you’re going to be.

Each choice has its consequences, but the choice is there.

“Hang on a minute,” you might be thinking. “I’d love to create more, but I just don’t have time!”.

What you’re really saying is “I choose not to make more time to create. I choose to prioritise other activities over creating.”

Yep, maybe that’s pushing the ouch button. Maybe that’s not so comfortable to hear. But it’s the reality.

We all have the same number of hours in the day. What you do with them is your choice. How you prioritise your activities and commitments is your choice.

Say this out loud now – “I never have enough time to create”.

How does that make you feel? What comes to mind, what does it trigger off within you? I’m confident it’s not making you feel too great! And it probably also makes you feel pretty powerless, frustrated and angry.

So if that’s how it feels saying it just once, how much more of a negative impact do you think it has on your state of mind and your attitude to creating when you’re saying the same thing in your head many times over each day?

Not a recipe for a future of creative happiness.

So, let’s take the first step to switching it around. Say now instead:

“I choose not to create more often”.

How does that feel different to the previous statement? Yes, it’s not yet exactly the most positive statement that’s going to instantly make your rush off and get creating. But notice how it shifts your thinking. Notice how saying “I CHOOSE to...” gives you back the initiative, hands you back the reins.

Now we can finish the turnaround and pump up the positive element.

Say out loud: “I choose to create as often as I wish. My sparkling creative future begins today. From today, I choose to create for a minimum of 15 minutes at the same time every day. I choose to recognise how important creating is to me, and from today, I’m choosing to make creating a central part of my life.”

How does that feel? Quite a change from “I never have enough time to create” isn’t it?

Yet all you’ve done is recognise the choice you’ve always had.

Now it’s time for action. There’s little point in changing your attitude and outlook if you don’t change your behaviour to be consistent with that new attitude.

So, as someone who is, from today, choosing to make creating a central part of their life, how are you going to put this into practice?

Here’s a tip: The only true way to be consistently creative and to demonstrating to yourself and everyone else how important creating is to you, is to create every day. It’s as simple as that.

Choose a time of day to create, choose a minimum period to create (at least 15 minutes) and choose to begin that new habit today.

Welcome to the new, empowered, in control, creative you... Now don’t hang around here any longer, there’s creating to be done. Your sparkling creative future begins today!

This is one of many ways you can be more creative.

I invite you to take another positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

Be More Creative - How To Get The Creativity Habit

Erratic bursts of creativity followed by lengthy spells of creating very little or nothing at all is a recipe only for frustration and despair. But that’s how most of us try to create, then expect to be creatively fulfilled!

The only true way to create as often, as consistently, and as rewardingly as you desire is to get the creativity habit.

So what’s the creativity habit?

It’s a way of creating regularly, easily, fluently, without endless painful analysis, debate and deliberation.

Here’s the 3 steps you can take to get the creativity habit, starting today:

Step 1. Choose a time each day to create. When have you felt most creative and found it easiest to create in the past? In the early morning? Afternoons? Late at night when everyone’s sleeping?

You know yourself well enough to know when you create best. Choose this time of day as your creativity habit “appointment”.

Step 2. Choose a minimum period to create. Make it at least 15 minutes, preferably 30 minutes. This is the amount time you’ll spend creating each day in your creativity habit appointment.

Don’t worry too much at this stage about setting a precise amount of time. Start with 15 minutes, you can always extend it later. It’s more important to create for 15 minutes every day than for an hour every 3 or 4 days.

Step 3. Prepare your creative space. You want to be able to come to where you create – your room, desk, easel, laptop – and get straight into creating as soon as possible.

Make it easy for yourself to plunge into creating with the minimum of set up, distraction and reasons NOT to create.

Now you’re ready to begin getting the creativity habit.

Commit to a minimum number of days to build the habit. Many experts say it takes around 30 days to form a new habit, others say longer.

If you’re just going to try this for 7 days then give up, save yourself the frustration and don’t bother starting.

You must give the new habit a chance to take hold and to embed itself in your daily routine and in your behaviour.

What you’ll also find happening when you develop the creativity habit is you naturally begin to give yourself more permission to create.

Because you clearly know that it’s always going to be less than 24 hours until your next creative session, you don’t have to stop the flow of ideas.

As you develop the habit, try extending the time you spend creating.

Don’t jump from 15 minutes to 90, that’s likely to end the habit altogether if you can’t make the 90 minutes and undo the work you’ve done up until then.

Get used to 15 minutes, then try 20 minutes for a week or two, then 25 and so on. Each day you’re building the habit and reinforcing it by extending the time.

Stick to this formula for 30 days and you’ll notice a dramatic change in how you create.

The creativity habit is really the only way to be consistently creative.

Isn’t it time your got the habit?

I invite you to kick-start your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the practical and powerful Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook. Get it now at http://www.CoachCreative.com.

How To Beat Procrastination - Focus On The When Not The Why

Procrastination is one of the arch enemies of creativity, and for creative people, an ongoing battle rages between the two.

What are some of your favourite procrastination techniques?

Checking email and favourite websites every few minutes?

Reorganising art supplies, books, CDs, your wardrobe, your furniture?

Making tiny adjustments to a creative project that’s already finished, rather than starting a new project?

Making and eating food that you don’t really need to eat?

Finding things to clean that don’t really need cleaning?

There are many ways to avoid creating and we all procrastinate at different times and different amounts.

So how DO you beat procrastination?

How do you overcome these seemingly innocuous habits that actually devour your precious time with about the same amount of compassion that a ravenous fox devours a coup of chickens?

The approach we most often take seems like the most logical and useful available.

“If I work out WHY I procrastinate then I’ll be able to stop...”

Sounds like a sensible approach, doesn’t it? And maybe one that you’ve tried?

I’m pretty confident though that it didn’t help you much in overcoming procrastination.

What happens when we ask ourselves a question? The instinctive reaction is for your mind to seek answers. It’s just what it does. So when you ask yourself the question “Why do I procrastinate?”, guess what? Yep, your mind goes to work finding all the possible answers to that question it can.

“Maybe it’s because I’m scared of failing so I procrastinate to avoid even starting a project?”

“I’m not sure which creative project to pick, I have so many ideas. Maybe that’s why I procrastinate?”

“I never have much time to create. Maybe I procrastinate because I feel I won’t have enough time to really get my teeth into a creative project in one session, so it saves me being frustrated and disappointed?”

Well, these all sound very likely reasons why you do indeed procrastinate. In fact, if you presented them to ANYONE as reasons why they procrastinate, they’d no doubt agree wholeheartedly.

But where does this approach get you? Does it help you procrastinate less? Does it motivate you to create more?

It’s unlikely.

What’s far more likely is you’ll collect a whole host of reasons why you procrastinate, some which aren’t even that relevant for you, so you end up feeling even more overwhelmed and even less likely to create!

So what’s the alternative? How can you begin to beat procrastination?

The secret is not to focus on the “Why”. We’ve just seen how that doesn’t work. You can’t overcome procrastination unless you begin changing your habits and your behaviour.

If you always do the same thing, you’ve always get the same results.

So instead, focus on the “How”, and focus on the “When”. Once you notice the various ways and techniques you use most often to procrastinate and avoid creating, use this awareness will help you catch yourself earlier and reduce the time you spend avoiding creating. This is the “How” part.

Also notice “When” you procrastinate. This is simply the times you’re most likely to procrastinate. What else is going on around you and in your mind, what kind of circumstances are you in when you procrastinate? Just observe the details without judgement or analysis.

Endlessly analysing WHY you procrastinate just ends up with you having even MORE reasons to avoid creating.

When you focus on the “How” and the “When”, you can really start to take control of those dreaded procrastination habits that choke your creativity.

If you’re ready to beat procrastination and set your creativity free in the next 21 days, check out the powerful ecourse “7 Steps To Freedom: How To Beat Procrastination And Set Your Creativity Free” at http://www.HowToBeatProcrastination.com

Creative Writing - 5 Tips To Increase Your Self Confidence As A Creative Writer

Lack of confidence can be crippling for a writer, and one of the major contributors to writer’s block.

When your confidence is low, you're scared to start a new project because you don’t know what to choose and don’t feel you’ll write well if you did choose something. Plus you fear continuing with an existing writing project because you don’t want to “mess up” and spoil any good work you’ve already done. Which means you don’t write ANYTHING. Not a pleasant place to be in…

So, to give your self confidence in your creative writing the boost it needs, here are 5 tips for you to use:

1. Little and often. Forming creative habits is the only way to consistent, rewarding writing. There are very few (if any) writers who can write for a few days then have a few weeks off and return to write for a while, and maintain consistency. Write for a minimum period EVERY DAY to embed healthy creative writing habits that’ll last a lifetime.

2. Start small and build. If your confidence is low, don’t make starting writing again intimidating by planning to write a new 600 page epic novel. Ease yourself back to writing by choosing small projects you can complete in one or two sittings. As you become more confident, either collect these smaller pieces together to form something larger or start a new larger project from scratch.

3. Think process not product. A common mistake that saps confidence is to always have one eye on the end “product”, whatever you’re writing. This creates unnecessary pressure and expectation. Choose some writing projects with absolutely no expectation of what they can become. Just write, see how it unfolds, see where the writing leads you, and enjoy your writing.

4. Mix it up. Writing in a number of different styles and forms is a good way of expanding your writing toolkit and building confidence. Choose small projects to begin with, but try types of writing you’ve never tried before. Have the attitude that you’re writing to learn and develop your writing. You may even find a new form of writing that feels more natural than any other you’ve tried before.

5. Acknowledge your progress. It’s easy to lose perspective when it comes to monitoring your own progress. It can feel like you’re writing very little and getting nowhere, when in fact you’re writing a significant amount each month. Regularly review what you’ve written – every month or so – and realise how much all those daily sessions actually add up to. You’ll be amazed.

Pick one of these tips to use today to start building up your confidence as a creative writer.

Ready to get your creative writing kick started again right away? Get your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com.

Creative Writing Prompts - Hot Wire Your Creative Writing With New Writing Prompts

Every writer has their own unique creative writing abilities, a way of spinning words together like no-one else. Also, we’re all capable of improving our writing, writing more richly, more deeply, more abundantly.

Often though we simply don’t write.

Our creative writing potential just sits there, desperate to be set free but somehow unable to even start.

It’s like owning a beautiful, elegant and extremely fast sorts car, but it’s just sitting on your front drive and you’ve lost the keys…

So how do you find those keys?

How do you get that sports car that is your creative writing potential started up and out to rip it up on the open road?

Hot wire it!

You need a way of getting it started, something to give that initial ignition spark that fires the engine. The best way of doing this with your creative writing is to use some kind of creative writing prompt.

A writing prompt can just be a few words, a paragraph, a short exercise, an image, something that gives your creativity a starting point to set off in its imaginative journey from.

Many of us fear or avoid creative writing prompts, because we feel it’s taking a short cut somehow, or it’s cheating, we should come up with every tiny part of every idea ourselves.

It’s an understandable concern in principle.

But using creative writing prompts is not copying or plagiarising someone else.

It’s simply using that starting point to challenge and encourage your creative writing talents to get to work and produce something interesting, something that’s all your own creation.

If you wanted to adopt this purist approach of not wanting to use creative writing prompts and be totally 100% original, you could also say – OK you can’t use any SEQUENCE of words that anyone else has ever used. Oh and you can’t use any WORDS that anyone else has ever used either. Actually, you can’t even use the same LETTERS, you must make up your own alphabet, then your own words, then you can write something that’s completely 100% original. Happy?

Seems a little silly doesn’t it?

What would happen then also is no-one would even understand your writing, it would just be symbols on a page.

A huge part of creative writing is to weave the words that connect with people, that touch them, prompt them to recall a memory, an emotion or an experience from their own life.

It’s very hard to do that with a completely new alphabet and language!

If you’ve had these kind of concerns before, maybe it’s time to try out some writing prompts and see where they lead, see how they can hot wire that beautiful sports car of yours.

Why let it just sit there gathering dust on your driveway any longer?

And you can get started right away with some great creative writing prompts and exercises by signing up for your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.com

Creative Writing Journal - The Only Way To The Consistent, Abundant Creative Writing You Deserve

Do you find your writing life is like that saying “It’s either famine or feast”, but you end up feeling forever hungry?

There is a proven reliable way to be more consistent in your writing. It can help you write more often, more richly and more creatively, and will cost you next to nothing.

What is it? Use a creative writing journal.

So what it is that exactly and how can it help you?

A creative writing journal is simply a notebook of some kind that you use to store your writing ideas and fragments, which you can then develop into larger pieces of writing.

It can be a beautiful leather journal, decorated in beads and sequins, or simply a plain school exercise book.

What you use isn’t that important. What is important is HOW you use it. What’s even MORE important is that you do actually use it and not just leave it to look pretty gathering dust on your shelf.

Here are 5 top tips to get the most from your creative journal:

1. Always carry it with you. There’s no point having a writing journal if it’s in a drawer at home. As a writer, it’s your living tool, you should count it amongst your keys, your shoes and your lungs as begin the important objects to never leave home without!

2. Capture every idea. Don’t judge your ideas when they come to you, and dismiss them before they have a chance to evolve. Write down every little seed for a writing idea in your journal, as soon as it comes to you. You then have the choice how to develop them later.

3. Be organised. Many people divide their writing journals into a few sections to make it easier to organise their ideas. For example if you’re a novelist you may use a section for snippets of dialogue, a section for scene descriptions and a section for character ideas. Experiment and find what works for you.

4. Follow the energy. When you come to develop one of the ideas in your writing journal, don’t go through it sequentially feeling obliged to use every idea in the same order you wrote them. Scan through and pick something that feels exciting or interesting at the time, go with the energy of the words that jump out and mean something to you.

5. Review ideas regularly. If you just capture ideas in your writing journal then never look back through it to use them, you may as well have not written down the ideas in the first place. Flip through your latest ideas every few weeks at least, and look through the whole journal periodically too. An idea you jotted down a year ago may now be exactly what you’re ready to expand upon.

Using a creative writing journal is the only way to reach the levels of creative writing you're truly capable of.

Get yourself a journal today and start using these 5 tips to see the impact it can make to your creative writing.

Looking for more creative writing tips and exercises? Get your creative writing kick started again right away with the FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com

Creative Self Belief - Top Techniques To Boost Your Creative Self Belief To New Levels

Sometimes we can be severely restricting our creativity and the ease with which we create, even though we don’t realise it.

Even with the best of intentions to be as creative and free as possible, there are certain elements, which if they’re not in place, will mean your creativity will have a “low ceiling” and you’ll not be able to hit the creative heights you’re actually capable of.

One of the main ways this can happen is through neglecting your self belief.

Self belief isn’t something that’s just either there or it’s not, a mystical element you have no control over.

There are many ways you can actively build your self belief in creating.

Here are 2 of the best techniques:

1. Positive affirmations. Whatever you tell yourself you are, that’s what you become. If the chatter in your head is constantly saying “you’re not good enough”, “you’re no artist”, “who do you think you are trying to be creative?”, then that’s what you’ll believe.

You can turn this around by replacing these negative thoughts with positive ones that will support and nurture your creativity.

Uses phrases that are positive, personal and in the present tense. Here’s a few examples:

a. I am a highly creative person, ideas flow to me freely.

b. I deserve the opportunities to express my creativity and will make the most of them.

c. I am constantly developing and evolving, I become a more experienced artist each day.

Even if you don’t believe them at first, by saying these affirmations regularly (at least 5 times each, 5 times a day) you start to believe them. Then your behaviour begins to match what you believe, and your creativity flourishes.

2. Gathering evidence. Most of us are very quick to dismiss any creative work we’ve done in the past. How often have you found yourself saying or thinking something like – “oh that wasn’t really creative, I was only playing around. Anyone could do the same.”?

The other common way to dismiss your efforts is to conveniently forget you even created them! To show yourself what you have created, and how creative you actually are, take the time to gather the evidence.

Think of everything you’ve created in the last 6 months, year, 3 years, 5 years. Don’t just pick huge projects, note down anything that’s creative, from cooking a special meal to making a greetings card for a friend, writing a daily journal and cultivating a vegetable patch.

These are creative activities, so count them all. Creativity is not simply about carving huge sculptures or writing epic novels. Truly creative people create everyday and in everything they do. You’ll soon realise you’re the same.

These are 2 of the top ways to boost your self belief in your creativity.

Which one will you pick to start working on first?

And if you're ready to kick-start your creativity today, I'd like to invite you to download your free copy of the Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com.

Creative Writing - Top 5 Reasons You're Not Reaching Your Creative Writing Potential

Are you happy with your creative writing right now? Do you write freely and richly, knowing that you’re writing close to your full potential, and enjoying all that you write?

If not, then you’re probably not reaching your creative writing potential. Here are 5 of the most common reasons why this might be, and how to turn them around:

1. You don’t write regularly. Sounds obvious this one, but it still remains the key to reaching your potential as a creative writer. Set aside a minimum amount of time (15 minutes at least, preferably 30 or more) EVERY day to write. Make it the same time every day, so you really embed the habit of writing into your daily routine. The rewards will be invaluable.

2. You don’t try anything new. Do you find yourself writing the same old words, phrases and styles in your creative writing? Then maybe it’s time to shake things up a little and try something new. Find some writing exercises to use, or try writing in a form you’ve never tried before. Whatever you experiment with, it’ll add a richness and depth of experience to your writing.

3. You constantly compare yourself to others. Then when, in your opinion, you don’t live up to their standards, you get despondent and feel like giving up writing altogether. Each of us has a unique voice in writing, a special way of writing that only we can produce. Stay true to finding your creative writing voice, write about what you love to write, in the ways you most enjoy, and put aside any unrealistic and unhelpful comparisons with others.

4. You don’t enjoy your writing. Somewhere along the way, the pure enjoyment of writing got lost amongst your doubts and frustrations. Try writing for a while with absolutely no expectation of an end “product”. Just play, experiment, see what’s fun to write, learn to fall in love with writing creatively again.

5. You don’t believe in yourself. Ask yourself honestly, do you believe you’re a creative writer? If not, it will help you no end to boost your confidence in this area. Use positive affirmations to increase your self belief. Statements like “I am naturally creative” and “New writing ideas flow to me easily”, repeated many times over will help you believe in your writing abilities.

These are 5 of the major reasons why you’re not reaching your creative writing potential.

Which one of the areas can you choose today to spend a little time on and give your creative writing the fresh boost of confidence it needs?

Would you like to get started with some creative writing exercises right away? Then I invite you to sign up for your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com.

Creative Self-Sabotage - How To Prevent The Perfect Murder Of Your Creativity

As we go through our lives creating, there are many obstacles that we come across.

Some of these are external obstacles that we can see a mile off, and take evasive action to prevent them having too great an impact.

Then there are those other barriers to our creativity that are a little harder to see.

Sometimes they even slip under the radar completely and before we realise it, we’ve hit a creative wall. We feel creatively exhausted - out of ideas, lacking in motivation and stuck in what feels like setting concrete.

It’s almost like our creativity got murdered while we slept.

So what happens? Who are these silent assassins of our creativity, and where do they come from?

The reason they’re so dangerous is they come from the place we find it most difficult to watch for and guard against.

They come from within us.

These various forms of creative self-sabotage are able to commit the perfect murder. They kill our creativity from within. There are no witnesses, and barely any evidence.

But if we look hard enough, there’s always something, some clue, some pattern.

So here’s a few of the most common self-sabotage suspects and how to spot them. Take a look at this gruesome line up and see who YOU recognise:

1. “Lucky” Eddie Moreno.

Favourite Saying: “Don’t Push Your Luck Sweetheart”.

Murder Technique: After a great flow of creativity, you feel you’d better slow down as you’re scared your weekly quota or allowance of creativity might suddenly run out.

How to stay alive: There is no weekly quota. The more you create, the more you’re able to create. Your mind, your whole creative being, loves to create. As you create more it gets used to creating and grows and evolves.

2. Macho “Responsibility” Bentez.

Favourite saying: “We all got responsibilities, take care of yours”.

Murder Technique: You tell yourself you can’t spend so much time on your creative projects. There are other people around you to take care of and consider. Your creativity is not a priority.

How to stay alive: We all deserve the time and opportunities to create and develop our creativity. Even if you spent just 15 minutes a day creating, it keeps you evolving. And, when you create, it makes you happier and gives you more energy to take into the other parts of your life.

3. Tony “Heartbreak” Colletti.

Favourite saying: “Doll, save yourself a whole lotta heartbreak”.

Murder Technique: You feel whatever you create there’ll come a point when you’ll be disappointed. Either you’ll feel you could’ve done better, or someone will reject your work. You think you’ll save yourself the heartbreak by not even starting.

How to stay alive: Disappointment is a part of creating. When we find something isn’t what we expected and we carry on anyway, it makes us stronger, wiser and more able to deal with the next unexpected situation.

4. “Car Crash” Kenny Valentine.

Favourite saying: “Sweet cheeks, I’ve seen prettier lookin’ car crashes”.

Murder Technique: You tell yourself you shouldn’t make such a mess when you create. You should be getting it right more easily. If you were truly talented you’d create perfect masterpieces the first time, time after time.

How to stay alive: The fun of creating is in the mess, in the playfulness, in the experimentation. If you never scribble over the lines or blow a few wild notes you’ll never create anything exciting or stimulating or fulfilling.

5. Alfredo “The Duke” Torrentes.

Favourite saying: “Hey who made you the duchess?”.

Murder Technique: You feel you shouldn’t get ideas above your station, you should know your place. Who are you to think you could actually publish your work anyway?

How to stay alive: You have as much right to create, and to offer what you create to the world as anyone. There are people waiting to experience your art, your vision, your way of seeing the world. Who are you to deny them that pleasure and inspiration?

Which of these shady suspects do you recognise? What steps can you take to spot the more easily in the future and reduce the damage they inflict on your creativity?

I invite you to take another positive step to being more creative by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

5 Killer Creativity Tips to Make Yourself Happy

Being creative is closely connected with being happy. Think about the times when you've been most creative. The times when hours have passed in the blink of an eye, when you've been completely lost in your creativity, highly focused and flowing freely. Happy times, yes?

So how can you reach this kind of creativity more often? Here are 5 killer tips to help you be more creative, and therefore make yourself happy:

1. Create what you want to create right now. When you choose a new project to start on, do you go through a list of possibilities that you started years ago, and feel obliged to work through them all one by one? Creativity thrives on energy and flow and your current waves of inspiration. If you can't get motivated about a project you thought of years ago, but a new idea you had yesterday fills you with excitement, then GO with the natural flow, follow that new idea, and create what makes you happy.

2. Acknowledge your creative achievements. It's so easy to overlook all you create because you're with yourself all the time and lose objectivity. Keep a notebook or chart of all your creative achievements. They don't have to be huge things like writing a novel or recording an album. Record all creative acts, from writing a few lines of poetry, to cooking a delicious meal, to taking a new series of photos. Then when you look back at the end of each month you'll be amazed at how creative you've been without realising.

3. Support others in being more creative. If you're struggling to be creative, the tendency is to want to preserve all the energy you have for yourself. But ironically, it will actually work against you. If however you freely encourage and support others in being more creative, you'll find you're naturally more creative yourself, and your energy, ideas and enthusiasm is rejuvenated by seeing how others have progressed with your kind encouragement. Everyone's happier, everyone's more creative!

4. Develop creativity habits. Many of us feel we can't be tied down by anything so restrictive as a daily habit or routine. We're creative artists, we must be free! The truth is, the key to being your most creative is to find the patterns and habits of creating that work best for you. We each have a unique formula for creativity. Experiment, find what works best for you, the ways you're most happy creating, and stick with it for as long as it continues to work.

5. Shake off the "shoulds". Do you feel all you ever create is what everyone else thinks you should create? Your family, friends, teachers, role models, peers? This is always going to end in disappointment as your motive for creating is based on someone else's dream and desire. Shake of the shoulds, listen to your own creative dreams, and create what you know you need to create. Creating what makes you happy is the best thing you can do for yourself and for everyone else.

Which of these tips do you feel would be most effective for you to put into action first? Do it today, increase your creativity and make yourself happy!

Take a step towards making yourself more happy and more creative today by downloading your free copy of the practical and powerful Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook. Get it now at http://www.CoachCreative.com

How To Find The Creative Support Your Creativity Needs And Deserves

One of the major reasons why many of us don’t create more – and don’t find it easy to create – is because we feel completely isolated.

How often do you wish someone would at least acknowledge that your creative work is valid and worthwhile? How often do you long to just be appreciated for being creative and for regularly stepping up and creating what matters, despite the waves of indifference your efforts are greeted with?

All of us deserve to be supported in our creative work. With the backing and encouragement of others who create, you too can see your creativity soar to previously unseen levels.

The main problem is often that you’re not even giving anyone a chance to help you.

Remember Superman? How by day he lived as mild mannered Clark Kent, and managed to keep his amazing secret from everyone around him. How much are you being a Clark Kent with your creativity?

How often do you keep your creative work hidden and secretive from everyone around you? What kind of message does this send to everyone. More importantly, what kind of message does it send to YOU?

If you’re not willing to be openly creative, what is that telling your subconscious about how important creating is to you?

Your subconscious is not exactly hearing: “Say it long and say it loud, I’m creative and I’m proud!”

Once you start to get a little support, you’ll realise how many other creative people are in a similar position, and feel equally isolated and alone in their creative efforts.

Once you begin to open up to these kind of supportive creative colleagues – people who are travelling the same kind of journey as you are – you’ll rapidly become more open in your creating, and more confident.

So how can you find other creative people that will support you?

Locally, you can check out your library and community notices to find out what kind of creative and artists groups are running. Sometimes it might mean travelling a little way, but the benefits of being amongst other creative people, especially if you’ve not really experienced it much before, can be huge.

Alternatively, there are the almost infinite number of groups, clubs and forums available on the internet.

The fact that you’re reading this article now means your relatively comfortable using the internet, so it would be easy for you to look for creative communities that are right for you.

Try typing in your type of creativity into a search engine, “Writer’s group” for example, or “Scrapbooking Forum” and see what comes up. Spend some times delving into some of these groups, getting to know how it works and what people are sharing.

Then, take the plunge and get involved!

You’ll find as well as the many benefits this kind of creative community can bring your own creativity, supporting others in creating gives a wonderful reward in itself.

And with this in mind, I’d like to invite you to CoachCreativeSpace, a thriving interactive creative community space for you to learn how to be as creative as you've always known you can be.

You'll find Creative Forums, Groups, Artwork and Blogs to share in and contribute to, and supportive like minded creative people who are experiencing some of the same challenges and triumphs you are. Check it out now, at:

http://www.CoachCreativeSpace.com

Time To Create - How To Make More Time To Create What Matters

Not having enough time is one of the biggest reasons we say we don’t create more.

However talented you may be, however much you say you want to create, if you’re not actually spending time creating what matters to you, your creative life simply won’t go anywhere. Which leads to major frustration, resentment, self-doubt and a host of other unpleasant consequences.

So what’s the answer?

How can you make more time for yourself to create? And why does it feel such a struggle?

Here’s what typically happens and why it doesn’t work:

You have in the back of your mind a desire to create: “Hopefully I can get a bit of creative time later today at some point.”

This sets your mind off in a constant quest for that window of opportunity to create.

How do you decide when to create though? By continually comparing the importance of what you’re doing and about to do, with the importance of the creative work you’d like to do.

You get sucked into a battle of priorities, trying to analyse in your mind how important each task you have to do is – creative time included.

This simply adds more pressure on yourself. You never quite engage in ANYTHING you’re doing because part of your mind is always trying to perform this balancing act, judging what’s most important, and whether the next task on your list has a higher priority rating than creating.

This just doesn’t work and is a recipe for even more frustration and resentment – and even less creating.

As well as meaning your mind is never fully on the task in hand, by trying to give your creative time a “priority level”, you instantly add more pressure when you DO come to create.

You feel “I’ve given up A, B and C, and chosen to create instead. Well, whatever I create, it had better be amazing, otherwise how can I justify spending the time creating when I could’ve done something else?”

No wonder you find it so difficult to create freely!

So what’s the alternative? Is there a better approach that actually works?

Yes! It’s actually very simple in concept and the key to being able to create freely and regularly.

Set a minimum time period at the same time every day to create. And stick to it.

Make it the same time every day so you get used to knowing when you’re creating. This completely eliminates all that wasted mental energy and time trying to weigh up whether you can squeeze in a few minutes of creating in between tasks all the time.

Make it a minimum amount of time – 15 minutes is the absolute minimum. This again gives a clear structure and stops you thinking “hmm, can I create just a few minutes more before I have to go and do X..?”.

Use this technique to find more time to create, and more importantly to eliminate all that unnecessary mental conflict in trying to measure the importance of your creative time against everything else demanding your time and attention.

How can you start to implement this technique into your creative life from day?

Are you ready to kick-start your creativity today? Then I’d like to invite you to download your free copy of the Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com.

5 Ways You're Choking Your Creativity - And How To Loosen Your Grip!

However well meaning our intentions to be more creative, there are often many things we’re doing – or not doing – that severely limit our creativity.

You might be desperate to create more deeply, widely, and abundantly, but if there are certain behaviours or actions you’re taking that choke your creativity, you’ll never get close to your creative potential.

It’s like keeping a puppy on a metre long leash in your back garden when he just wants to and explore the rest of the garden, the rest of the neighbourhood, the rest of the world!

Here then are 5 ways you choke your creativity – very possibly without realising – and how to loosen your grip:

1. You don’t capture your creative ideas. You seem to have quite a few good ideas, then always think you’ll remember them and work on them at a later date. But then days or weeks later you suddenly remember having the idea, but have no clue what it was!

Solution: Always capture your ideas the moment they happen. Use a creative journal or a voice recorder. If you need to, phone your own answerphone and leave a message! The more ideas you capture, the more new ideas you’ll find you have too.

2. You only create “when you have time”. This approach rarely works for creative people because as soon as you have this attitude, you’re constantly trying to analyse and juggle priorities in your mind, judging how important your creativity is against whatever other task are demanding your attention. This adds more pressure, and actually reduces the amount of time spent creating even more.

Solution: Set a specific time and period to create everyday. Even if it’s just 15 minutes creating every morning, once you start to embed that habit into your daily life, creating will come much more freely and you won’t feel locked in an endless battle with yourself, scrapping around for a few moments here and there to try to create.

3. You don’t believe you’re creative. Whatever you create, and however often, you manage to dismiss it somehow – “Oh I’m not a real artist, I’m juts messing around”, or “I’ve been lucky that a few pieces have come out ok but anyone could’ve done the same, I’m not especially talented.”

Solution: Take the time to build your self-belief. A useful way of doing this is to use affirmations. Phrases such as “I am a highly creative and unique person” and “My creative work is valuable and worthwhile”, repeated many times a day help to strengthen your self belief and make creating easier and more enjoyable.

4. You try to go it alone. You have few creative colleagues – in fact most of your creating is done in secret while no-one’s around. You haven’t reached out to find groups, clubs, forums and communities that you can share your creative triumphs and struggles with and you feel isolated and alone.

Solution: Explore some groups you might like join. Locally you could visit your library and find out what’s on in your area. Online you can find hundreds and thousands of different creative groups and communities. Just type “writer’s group” for example into a search engine and investigate what comes up. The benefits can be tremendous – both for you and the group you’re in.

5. You don’t acknowledge your creative achievements. You’re always saying you never create anything, but if you took a closer look you’d probably realise you create so much more than you give yourself credit for. It’s easy to lose track of what we create and how often, and forget all that we do achieve.

Solution: A useful way of acknowledging your progress is to keep a Creative Landmarks chart or diary. Every time you hit a creative landmark – say you write a poem, finish the vocal track on your new song or have a breakthrough painting session – note it down. At the end of each month, review your creative landmarks and you’ll be amazed how much you’ve got done.

These are 5 possible ways you’ve been limiting your creativity – maybe without even knowing it.

Which tip can you choose today to begin to help yourself be more creative?

These are just a few of many ways you can be more creative.

For more, I invite you to take the positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

Stop Choking Your Creativity! How To Have More Great Creative Ideas Than You Thought You Could

However good our intentions are to be more creative, there are often ways that we limit our creativity, sometimes without even realising it.

Becoming aware of the ways you choke your creativity is the first step in changing the behaviour, so you can be free to create to the heights and depths you’re truly capable of.

One of the ways you may be choking your creativity is through not capturing your ideas.

Many creative people claim that the reason they’re not more creative is they don’t have enough ideas, or enough good ideas: “If I had some good ideas to start with, I’d REALLY be able to get my creative teeth into the project and create something worthwhile. But I’ve got nothing to start with.”

There are two crucial elements that contribute to you feeling you don’t have enough good creative ideas. Here’s what they are, and how to turn them around:

1. You don’t capture enough ideas. The real issue here is not that you don’t have enough ideas come to you, though that’s certainly how it feels. The problem stems from not capturing them.

How many times have you found a great idea has come to you at a random time like when you’re in the shower or cooking a meal or reading a magazine? Usually, we think something like “that’s an interesting idea, I could work with that. I’ll remember it and play around with it later.”

Later comes and goes, and you’ve completely forgotten the great idea you had! Sometimes this whole process of having an idea and thinking you’ll remember it, then forgetting it again happens in a matter of seconds.

What’s the alternative? Capture those ideas, all of your ideas. Use a creative journal or a voice recorder of some kind. Just record that idea, then you know it’s there for you to come back to and work on when you need it.

2. You dismiss your ideas too quickly. The other part of why you feel you don’t have enough good ideas is that you dismiss them too soon, judge them as not good enough or not worth keeping, before they’ve had a chance to properly form.

Maybe you’ve become so used to doing this, you actually cut most ideas off so early in their evolution that you barely realise you’re doing it.

It’s a common (and unrealistic) expectation that a new idea will pop out perfectly formed with no need to do any shaping or tweaking. That rarely happens, if it all.

Most ideas appear like rough diamonds and need a good polish before they become something truly beautiful. If you write down all of your ideas, it gives them a chance to incubate a little. Often, the ideas you thought were great straight away don’t really go anywhere, whereas others you would’ve previously dismissed, turn into some of your best creative work.

These are the two major elements in having an endless supply of creative ideas to develop.

Start to apply both of them today, and you’ll notice a dramatic change in your perception of how many great ideas you have.

And after all, without ideas, your creativity is nothing...

This is one of many ways to be more creative.

I invite you to take the next positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

How To Rediscover The Creativity You Thought You'd Lost Forever

How long has it been since you were creating on a regular basis, feeling that your creative work was challenging yet rewarding, exciting and fulfilling, getting so absorbed you forgot what time it was, even what day it was?

It’s probably more long ago than you dare to think about.

Maybe too – though you might not openly admit it – you feel your creativity is past its best, those heady long summer creative days of your life are over, and the most you can hope for is an occasionally sunny autumn afternoon?

If you haven’t created for a while, whether it’s weeks, months or years, these kind of feelings are perfectly understandable.

But don’t write yourself off just yet!

Here are 3 simple steps to help you rediscover the creative you that you feared you’d lost for good:

Start small: If you haven’t created for a while, it’s ambitious to say the least to throw yourself into a 17 piece series of 3m X 2m canvas paintings. Instead start small with a creative project you can finish in an hour or two. Don’t be afraid of starting with something very simple – it’s better to do this and build your confidence with each new project, rather than try something complex, get stuck and lose confidence in your creativity completely.

Create a little each day: The only way to be consistently creative and to continue to develop and grow, is to create regularly. And since we arrange our lives around a daily calendar, the easiest way to achieve this creative habit is to create everyday. Choose a time when you feel most creative and each day at that time create for at least 15 minutes. It doesn’t matter what you create, what’s most important is that you create a minimum amount at this same time each day and start to rediscover the creativity habit.

Acknowledge your progress: Because we live with ourselves and what we do everyday, it’s often hard to be able to objectively recognise how we’re progressing. A great way of doing this is to use a creative landmarks diary or poster. Each time you achieve a creative landmark – however small you might think it is – note it down. It can be “Wrote my first poem in a year” or “Got my easel out for the 7th day running” or “Finished new abstract collage”. At the end of each month, look back at your progress. You’ll be amazed at how creative you can be in just 30 days.

These are 3 steps to help you rediscover the creativity you feared you might have lost forever.

Start today, commit to making them work and see where you are in 30 days.

You owe it to yourself – and to the world – to get that unique creativity of yours flowing again...

Need a helping hand to get your creativity flowing again?

Then I invite you to take a positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

Writer's Block RIP - Is It Possible To Banish Writer's Block For Good?

Writer’s block affects all writers. It doesn’t matter who you are, what your experience is, how many books, poems, scripts or articles you’ve written, sometimes the words just don’t want to come.

Trying to write whilst in the midst of writer’s block is as difficult, frustrating and messy as trying to eat a huge bowl of ice cream without a spoon and without using your hands!

So what should you do, keep pushing your face into that bowl, trying to eat as much ice cream as you can until you’re exhausted? It’s up to you. But wouldn’t it be better to go and find a spoon?

If you’re someone who eats a lot of ice cream, wouldn’t it make sense to always have a spoon handy, so you can enjoy eating your ice cream and make it as easy as possible?

The same applies for you creative writing. Have your spoons ready!

What does this mean in practice?

Here are 3 “spoons” you can have ready to drastically reduce the frustration of writer’s block:

1. Creative writing ideas. One of the biggest complaints writers have when they feel blocked is that they don’t have any ideas. So each time they come to the page empty handed (and empty headed) and just expect the words to flow on demand.

Help yourself out, get an ideas journal or a writing journal. Keep it with you at all times and capture new ideas as you have them. The more ideas you jot down, the more you begin to see all around you and from the most unlikely sources.

2. A regular place to write. Although anyone creative needs a stream of new ideas and new stimulation to keep them inspired, when it comes to actually creating – in this case writing – then the familiar, tried and tested is better.

Having a desk or table or an area set up where you can go to write without delay or complications is essential to keep writer’s block to a minimum. Maybe you can create a space at home, or maybe you’d work better at a local café, park or library. Find somewhere you’re comfortable with and that helps you get into writing as quickly and hassle free as possible.

3. Writing every day. There is no substitute for writing every day. It’s the bedrock of your whole creative writing kingdom. How do you become a better writer? Write more. How do you make it easy to write more? Write a minimum amount every day.

To make this more effective, stick to a regular time and just write. You need to avoid even asking questions like “I’ve got a few minutes spare, should I write now or squeeze a bit in later after dinner but before I watch that film?”. Pick a set time every day, pick a minimum period to write for (at least 15 minutes) and stick to it. It’ll do more for banishing writer’s block and improving your writing than any other single thing you can do.

It’s not possible to completely eliminate writer’s block for good.

But using these 3 tips you can vastly reduce it and make sure your writing is as regular, rich and rewarding as possible.

Looking for a helping hand to get going? You can get your creative writing kick started again right now with the FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com.

Personal Creative Writing - The Value Of Writing Just For Yourself

When was the last time you wrote creatively just for yourself?

Without any brief or pre-requirements from anyone else, without any word count you had to meet or structure and form you had to adhere to?

Without any restrictions on how you wrote, what you wrote about, why you wrote it and where it lead to?

When was the last time you just wrote for the pure enjoyment of writing?

The reasons you don’t write just for yourself more often are varied. Here are 3 of the most common, and the benefits that show these reasons just don’t stand up:

1. Writing for myself is self-indulgent. This is a common concern, we don’t write just for ourselves because we’re told it’s selfish or self-indulgent. What’s easy to forget, is that time we invest in ourselves reaps benefits far and wide. We not only become more at peace with ourselves, more calm and understand ourselves better, this then radiates out to the people we’re close to and spend most time with. Put simply, if you’re a happier bunny, it’s going to be more enjoyable and pleasurable for all your bunny friends to be around you as well.

2. I don’t have time, I’ve got other writing I need to be doing. You need more articles for your business, more content for your website, and you were supposed to finish your new book weeks ago. By taking the time to write just for yourself, to flow freely and explore whatever comes, it actually unlocks your ability to write. Which makes you a more fluent, prolific writer. Then all those other things you feel you need to be writing will become all the more easy to write and all the more enriched and full in content.

3. What’s the point if there’s no end product I can use? You always feel you need some measurable or tangible product to show for the time you spend writing. Sometimes you can’t measure the benefits of writing by the number of words or pages. In terms of creative writing, it’s often the time you spend trying out new voices, new styles, new structures and new techniques that enhance your writing the most in the long term. Even if you have nothing “concrete” to show for it at the end of that session of writing, the experience gained is invaluable.

Personal creative writing – writing just for yourself – has many benefits, 3 of the main ones you can see above.

So just try something new today. Put aside your concerns about personal creative writing being selfish, or you not having time, or not allowing yourself to write unless you have a strictly defined outcome in mind. And just write...

Want to find out more about how to unlock your creative writing potential? Get your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com.

How To Write Better, Faster, More By Focusing Your Creative Writing

Sometimes, we need to write freely and creatively with no limitations, no restrictions, no barriers.

This kind of explorative and experimental writing is invaluable for enriching your creative writing and helping you diversify into new styles and forms.

This is an approach which we can all benefit from taking from time to time.

More often though, we have more of an outline and a framework in place for writing.

For example, maybe you’re writing a thriller novel set in Berlin in the 1960s, a series of articles on the nutritional needs of a woman during pregnancy, or a collection of haiku's inspired by your favourite lake in Canada. Maybe you’re writing all of these!

In which case you need focus.

You can’t settle down to work on your novel with a head full of ideas about pregnancy. It’s not very useful to try to write your lakeside haiku's with Berlin’s industrial landscape looming large in your thoughts.

Focus is not just about subject matter though. Here are the 3 main areas of focus, and how you can be more attuned in each of them to make your creative writing easier, richer and more abundant:

Focus your writing time: Don’t try to snatch ten minutes here, quarter of an hour there and force yourself to throw down some words on the page. Give yourself time to write, to unfold and relax into what you’re writing.

One of the best approaches is to combine writing regularly with longer, more in depth sessions. So for example, set aside 30 minutes each morning to write just on the one writing project you’re currently focusing on, as well as another longer session of 2 hours or more every week.

Focus your writing energy: You can have a whole day free to write and get very little done if your energy is not focused. The main enemies of focus here are distractions and unnecessary reasons to get sidetracked.

Find a space where you can go to write undisturbed, preferably in a room in your home, or in a local library or park. Make it somewhere as free from distraction as possible. Turn off your email, put your phone on answerphone, put up a “Do Not Disturb” sign if necessary. Do what you need to give yourself the best chance to focus your creative writing energy.

Focus your writing style: This is about getting into the voices and the style of the writing you’re working on. Think about the kind of approach you want to use, the style you want to use that will best convey the subject of your writing.

Put yourself in the mind of your potential reader. What will they like to hear, what kind of voice and tone will best convey the content of your creative writing? Also consider the characters you’re writing about and the viewpoint you’re writing from. See the world through their eyes, walk in their shoes. This focus of style will mean your writing will be more authentic and more convincing.

These are 3 major areas you can work on to become more focused in your creative writing and therefore help you to write better, write more and write faster.

Which one are you going to start with today?

Discover more creative writing prompts, ideas and exercises right away. Get your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com.

Writer's Block - The Curse Of Perfectionism And How To Overcome It In Your Creative Writing

As a creative writer, you know all about writer’s block. Sat at the blank page or screen, trying to come up with the right paragraph, the right sentence, even the right WORD.

And it feels about as easy as juggling custard. Blindfold. With both hands tied behind your back.

One of the biggest causes of writer’s block is perfectionism – not being happy with your creative writing until every sentence, every word, ever syllable is utterly perfect.

There’s a fine line between wanting to write the best work you can write and getting dragged down in a never ending quest for perfectionism.

Here then is how perfectionism takes hold and causes writer’s block, and how you can overcome it:

How perfectionism causes Writer’s Block:

You can’t write a sentence without there being one word not quite right in it. Rather than change the word, or leave it to come back to and change later, you discard the whole sentence.

You write a page of 20 sentences, then dismiss and delete each and every one because a certain word wasn’t quite the perfect choice, in your opinion.

This is the smallest scale example of this kind of habit and behaviour. It only gets worse when you junk whole paragraphs, pages or chapters just because a few parts weren’t perfect.

This then leads to the attitude of “If I can’t write a complete sentence well, what’s the point of me even trying.” Hence, exasperation, writer’s block, no new writing and an anguished time for you the writer.

How to beat it:

A tiny shift in perspective is actually all that’s needed. Say you write your page of 20 sentences. Each has a word that’s not quite right, in your view. Rather than say “This is a page full of imperfect and therefore unusable sentences” you could look it at this way:

“This is a page that’s 90% brilliant. There’s some great writing here, I just need to change the odd word here and there.”

It sounds almost too simple but sometimes the best techniques are. Try it, leave the page, come back to it a day or week later with fresh eyes and make any extra tweaks and changes then if you feel they’re necessary.

Your approach now becomes: “I can right a near perfect page without much effort. It flows easily and I write freely this way. I can then come back and make any fine adjustments later. I might not even need to.”

The curse of perfectionism is a major cause of writer’s block – if you let it be.

Try this small change in your approach from today and notice the difference it makes to your creative writing.

Want to find more ways to become a better creative writer and unlock your creative writing potential? Get your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com.

Overcoming Procrastination - The Fatal Flaw In Your Approach To Beating Procrastination

Procrastination is a deadly curse and one that wreaks havoc on your creativity.

Imagine for a moment what your creative life would be like if you didn’t ever procrastinate...

How much more would you get done if you just went to create, got straight into the flow and didn’t keep distracting yourself with minor, non-urgent tasks like checking your email, re-organising your stationary or making food you don’t really want anyway?

What kind of difference would that make to your creativity?

Something worth striving for, isn’t it...

Procrastination can not ever be completely and utterly eliminated. But there are many ways to reduce it drastically so that it has a negligible affect on your creative flow and what you create.

Unless though, you overcome the one major flaw that we all make in trying to overcome procrastination, you’ll always be a slave to it’s tactics and influence.

What usually happens when you try to beat procrastination? If you’re like me and millions of other creative people, you probably start to think: “Why do I procrastinate so much?”

This seems the natural logical approach to overcoming procrastination.

Once you know why, that little gem of information will mean procrastination is banished forever! Won’t it?

Nope. It doesn’t work like that.

Because once you start to ask WHY you procrastinate, the self-analysis begins.

And the floodgates burst wide open.

I bet you could write down off the top of head a list of 10 reasons why you might procrastinate straight away, hardly thinking. You could probably, with a little more thought and time, come with 20, 50 or 100 reasons!

But all this analysis just adds to the likelihood of you procrastinating MORE.

“No WONDER I procrastinate! Look at all these reasons I’ve got!! I’d would be weird if I DIDN’T procrastinate!”

See, it doesn’t get you anywhere, and actually it makes the problem worse.

And that’s the fatal flaw. You’re focusing on the WHY.

So what’s the alternative? Is there a way to overcome this fatal flaw and begin to beat procrastination?

Yes!

Instead of focusing on the WHY of your procrastination, you need to look at the WHEN and the HOW.

What does this mean in practice? It means notice the times you’re most likely to procrastinate, the times when you’re most susceptible.

And it means notice the ways in which you procrastinate, your favourite habits for avoiding creating.

Only then, once you have this knowledge, can you begin to actually change your behaviour and overcome procrastination.

Only then can you start to move closer to that glorious creative life that you pictured a few minutes ago...

If you’re ready to beat procrastination and set your creativity free in the next 21 days, check out the powerful ecourse “7 Steps To Freedom: How To Beat Procrastination And Set Your Creativity Free” at http://www.HowToBeatProcrastination.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

Creative Writing Journal - Why A Writing Journal Doesn't Work For Some Creative Writers

A journal which you carry with you wherever you go, so you can note down those creative writing ideas that come to you at the most unexpected times? So you can capture those amazing concepts and snatches of poetry and prose that hit you when you least expect them?

If not, you’re missing out.

The biggest reason why a writer doesn’t think he or she has enough ideas is not about HAVING the ideas at all.

It’s about capturing them. We all have dozens of great ideas every day, it’s just that most of them drift by as casually as they arrived.

What happens typically when you have an idea? You think “Oh I like that idea, I’ll remember it and work on it when I get home.”

But do you remember it when you get home? No! Do you ever remember it again? NO! That wonderful idea – one of a handful of great ideas you’ve had today and also let drift by – will now be gone forever.

Using a creative writing journal is the best way to overcome this issue, and make sure you capture all these ideas as soon as they come to you.

But a writing journal doesn’t work for all writers.

Here’s one of the biggest reasons why, see if you recognise yourself at all:

So you decided to try using a writing journal.

You shopped around to find something really special, something you’d cherish and look after. And you found it! A gorgeous brown Italian leather journal, hand made from the paper to the stitching to the unique embossed number inside the cover. Wow...

But you haven’t used it!!

So in awe are you of your new journal that you’re terrified of actually writing anything in it, in case you mess up or have to cross something out, or – heaven forbid – you write something that isn’t exquisitely perfect.

That’s the POINT of a creative writing journal.

You use it to gather all the ideas, phrases, characters and fragments of creative writing you have. It’s not there to contain only your greatest work hand written with the care and attention worthy of the finest watchmaker.

If you’re scared or intimidated by using your journal, then get another journal.

It doesn’t matter if it’s a cheap ruled school exercise book, or a spiral reporter's notebook or your handmade Italian work of beauty.

What’s important is you feel comfortable using it, and don't just gaze adoringly at it on your bookshelf, along with the 17 other, equally beautiful journals you’ve bought this year.

Don’t fall into this same trap. Buy a journal that you will use at a moment’s notice, that you’ll happily jot down all your ideas in without worrying about being too neat or perfect.

It’s only then you’ll start to see the true benefits of using a writing journal.

Want to discover more great creative writing ideas right away? Then I invite you to sign up for your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com.

Creativity Coach and keen creative writer Dan Goodwin helps people who are frustrated they're not making the best of their unique creative abilities. See more at his website: http://www.CoachCreative.com

The Mistake You're Making That Means You'll Always Procrastinate

Procrastination affects everyone from time to time, there’s no way to completely eliminate it from our lives.

There are, however, ways to drastically reduce the limiting effect it has on your creativity. Unless you learn how to avoid one major mistake though – a mistake that we all make – you’ll be forever in the grip of procrastination.

What commonly happens with procrastination is one of two things:

1. Denial. This is where you just carry on creating – or not creating – and pretend that procrastination doesn’t exist.

You turn a blind eye to that ten minutes you spent earlier cleaning your kitchen worktop again. That hour taking all your clothes out of your wardrobe, off their hangers and back on again because they weren’t quite straight. And the 3 minutes out if every 10 minutes you spend checking your email or favourite websites in case something crucially important has just come in.

The problem with denial is that usually you’re in denial of being in denial. Translating that into something easier to understand, it means you don’t notice you’re procrastinating because the whole concept of denial is about not noticing – or choosing not to notice.

2. Over Analysis. This is, in some ways, a step on from denial. But it doesn’t help reduce procrastination. In fact it usually makes the symptoms worse.

Because you spend so much time and mental energy trying to work out WHY you’re procrastinating, this just adds even more to the time you’re not creating. It’s just another trick that wily old fox procrastination uses.

“Maybe I’m procrastinating because I’m afraid of failing. Or maybe this just isn’t the right project so I’m not motivated enough? Or it could be that I’m not confident I have enough knowledge and experience to attempt this kind of creative project yet?”

BOTH of these two situations – denial and over analysis – end in the same result: More procrastinating and less creating!

And that’s the mistake you’re making.

The outcome is the same – or worse – however much you deny that you procrastinate, however much you try to analyse WHY you procrastinate, you’re always going to get the same outcome: More procrastinating!

So what’s the alternative? Is there a way to avoid this deadly mistake?

Thankfully, yes.

The first thing you need to do is shift your focus and energy from the WHY to the WHEN and the HOW.

Read that sentence again, and let it sink in, it's absolutely crucial.

What does this mean in practice? It means admit you do procrastinate – as everyone else in the world does – and stop trying to work out why.

Instead, notice WHEN you procrastinate. And notice HOW you procrastinate.

It’s only then that you have the awareness you need to take action, to take the next step to overcoming procrastination habits that have blighted your creativity for so long.

For more on recognising and overcoming the kind of things that stop you being more creative, I invite you to download your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

If you’re ready to beat procrastination and set your creativity free in the next 21 days, check out the powerful ecourse “7 Steps To Freedom: How To Beat Procrastination And Set Your Creativity Free” at http://www.HowToBeatProcrastination.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

Beat Procrastination - Why Just Because You Procrastinate It DOESN'T Mean You're Lazy Or A Failure

Procrastination is one of the biggest reasons why we don’t create more often, more deeply and more abundantly.

It’s also one of the strongest limitations and restrictions on us each reaching our natural creative potential.

So why does it have such a powerful negative effect on creativity?

One of the crucial factors is that we confuse procrastination with laziness, inadequacy and failure.

These feelings quickly feed on themselves and escalate, none of which helps you be more creative.

Let’s look at exactly what happens in the negative cycle in more detail.

It’s important to state that we’re just observing here from a neutral standpoint, we’re not placing any blame, criticism or judgement. Just observing:

1. You procrastinate. Whatever your favourite procrastination habits are – rearranging your art supplies into the perfect order, checking your email every 2 minutes, preparing and eating food when you’re not even hungry – there’s no getting away from the fact you do procrastinate. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be reading this article.

2. You realise you procrastinate. And that it’s affecting your creativity. You’re not creating as much as you’d like to be.

3. You feel lazy and inadequate, a failure. It’s a natural reaction, it’s understandable you feel like this. Because you feel a failure, and feel lazy, these kind of negative thoughts churn around in your head, gradually gathering momentum and getting louder and more convincing. These thoughts then have a further negative reaction on your creativity.

4. You start to believe you actually ARE lazy and inadequate. Even though you’re not. Then of course your behaviour and the actions you take start to reflect these beliefs.

5. The cycle continues. Now you’re acting as if you ARE lazy and inadequate because that’s what you’ve come to believe about yourself. And we act in alignment with what we believe about ourselves. Procrastination now takes hold even more, and you begin to use procrastination more heavily – and ironically more CREATIVELY – than you did before, all to live up to this image you have of yourself as lazy and a creative failure.

Ouch. Sound at all familiar? I know I’ve been caught in this cycle before.

So what next, is there any hope, any solution? Well, yes there is. The secret is to break the cycle, or better still not even let it begin.

You can do this by first of all accepting that you do procrastinate. Then noticing the times and situations when you’re most likely to procrastinate. And noticing the ways in which you most procrastinate.

It’s only then, once you know the “when” and the “how” of your procrastination habits that you can start to break the cycle.

What’s the first positive action you can take towards this before you go to sleep tonight?

For more tips and techniques for recognising and overcoming the kind of things that stop you being more creative, I invite you to download your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

If you’re ready to beat procrastination and set your creativity free in the next 21 days, check out the powerful ecourse “7 Steps To Freedom: How To Beat Procrastination And Set Your Creativity Free” at http://www.HowToBeatProcrastination.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

Procrastination vs Creativity-Why The Battle Of Procrastination & Creativity Needn't Be A Bloodbath

Procrastination is a curse that strikes all of us who create. It works in all kinds of devious ways, and most of the time we’ve already wasted time we wanted to spend creating before we’ve even realised that we HAVEN’T been creating.

How often have you found yourself saying “I’ll just check my email”, “I’ll just make a drink” or “I’ll just reorganise my set of 248 tubes of oil paint” as a way of avoiding creating?

So, procrastination and creativity, can they ever co-exist?

Or are they forever to be locked in a bloody battle inside you, each fighting to the death for your very soul?

Fortunately, yes there is hope.

Here are 3 steps to use to ensure that creativity and procrastination live side by side as harmoniously as possible in your creative life:

Step 1. Admit that you procrastinate. And that it takes time and energy and focus away from you creating. Accept that procrastinating is not a hangable offence or a deadly sin, and that everyone – yes everyone – who creates also falls prey to habits of procrastination from time to time.

Once you admit this, much of its power and influence is already reduced. A huge spotlight is shone into the shadowy corners and edges that procrastination likes to lurk in. It can’t hide anymore, it knows you’re on to it!

Step 2. Accept that procrastination is not invincible or unconquerable. If you treat something with too much awe and reverence, it’s easy to get sucked into a kind of myth situation. Then the myth of the power of procrastination actually becomes stronger and more intimidating than the procrastination habits themselves.

Don’t get sucked into this way of thinking. Procrastination is only as powerful as you let it be. It can only do serious damage to your creativity if you let it get out of hand and become a bigger issue than it needs to be.

Step 3. The power and the choice lie with you. Put simply - You can choose to procrastinate or to not procrastinate. “Hang on” I hear you cry, “I don’t CHOOSE to procrastinate, why would I do that? Sometimes I don’t even know I’m doing it!”.

Break the statement down a little further: You can CHOOSE whether to accept you procrastinate or not. You can CHOOSE whether you pledge to become more aware of the times and situations you’re most likely to procrastinate. You can CHOOSE whether to take action to overcome procrastination habits and replace them with some that are more supportive and useful for the creative work that matters to you.

These 3 steps will help you start to overcome procrastination and realise that a harmonious relationship between it and your creativity can exist.

What's the next positive action you can take towards this today?

For more on recognising and overcoming the kind of things that stop you being more creative, I invite you to download your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

If you’re ready to beat procrastination and set your creativity free in the next 21 days, check out the powerful ecourse “7 Steps To Freedom: How To Beat Procrastination And Set Your Creativity Free” at http://www.HowToBeatProcrastination.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

How To Resurrect Your Creativity This Weekend

How long have you been frustrated with your level of creativity?

Maybe you’ve virtually written off your creative life as a thing of the past, something you now only look back on with the fondness and nostalgia of a child remembering their favourite TV shows when they were growing up?

Well it doesn’t have to be this way... Whatever you may think, you haven’t forgotten how to be creative.

Maybe you’re out of practice a little, but that’s all. We’re all born creative and we’ll all die just as capable of being creative. It’s whether we put those creative talents to use that’s the crucial part in between.

So, to show you that it’s NOT too late to unleash your creativity once more, here’s a 3 step technique to help your resurrect your creativity this weekend:

Step 1. You know how to be creative.

The first step is about getting you in touch with the belief that you are creative. Put at least 15 minutes aside for this, preferably 30 or more.

Find somewhere quiet where you’re going to be undisturbed and a pen and some paper.

Write at the top of a sheet: “Yes I am creative. Here’s the evidence:”

Then underneath list all the things you can think of that show your creativity. And before you complain that you haven’t been creative since, oh around 1857, stop and think. Break it down into different areas. Here’s some examples:

10 ways I’m creative at home are ____________________________________

I’m creative at work in how I ________________________________________

My proudest creative achievement is __________________________________

My next 5 favourite creative achievements are __________________________

People say I’m creative in the way I __________________________________

And so on. Keep writing ALL the things you can think of, how ever insignificant you think they are. The more you write, the more you’ll think of.

Step 2. From small beginnings...

Now you have a great list of evidence that you CAN be creative. It’s time to put that into action once more. Set aside 15 minutes for this step.

Every major creative achievement began with a tiny twinkle of an idea in someone’s eye. Your favourite books, music, designs, paintings, all began in the same way.

So, again take your pen and paper and jot down some ideas you’d like to explore in your favourite creative format over the next few weeks. Just sketches, just outlines. You might write a few ideas that you’ve had for a long time, and you might add others that come to you as you’re writing. Whatever’s presented to you in your mind, write it down, and keep writing it down for the period of 15 minutes.

Step 3. Developing the creativity habit.

Now you have a boost in confidence for realising actually you’ve created far more- and therefore you’re far more creative - than you realised.

And in step 2, guess what? Yep, you got creative again! You now have a list of ideas you’d like to explore over the coming weeks.

For step 3, you’re going to put the framework in place for creative habits that’ll enable you to create whatever you want.

Pick a small creative project from your ideas list, don’t spend ages deliberating, just go with the first that excites you. Put the rest of the list away somewhere safe.

Now, write this down and place it somewhere prominent:

I commit to spending at least 15 minutes a day at (state a time of day) on (write your new creative project here) for the next 7 days.

Decide NOW when you’re going to spend the 15 minutes, and make it the same time each day, don’t go through every day trying to work out when you can “squeeze it in”, that doesn’t work!

Congratulations! Your creativity is back in business!

Forming creative habits is the only way to be consistently creative and reach your creative potential. Follow the plan above in step 3 and in just a week’s time your new creative habit will be well on the way to becoming engrained, and creating will become as natural as sleeping and walking...

Want to learn more about how to increase YOUR creativity?

I invite you take the next step by getting your FREE copy of my “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook. With it you also get a free subscription to “Create Create!” – my twice monthly ezine with articles, tips and exercises to help you be more creative.

Head on over now to http://www.CoachCreative.com

Procrastination - 7 Favourite Disguises Of The Silent Assassin Called Procrastination

It slowly slips inside you, takes you over and kills your creativity before you even realise it’s struck, disappearing again with as little commotion as when it arrived.

It’s because of this ability to do so much damage silently that procrastination is so dangerous.

Here are 7 of the favourite disguises of procrastination and how they manifest themselves inside you:

1. Housemaid: Suddenly you feel compelled to hoover, dust, polish and wipe down anything that needs it in your home. And a few things that don’t, just for good measure. Even though you did the same thing when you came to create yesterday.

2. Librarian: Many creative people have a great love of books. Procrastination Librarian says that this week they must be reorganised into the order you purchased them. Next week they’ll need to be reorganised by colour and the week after that by publisher. Just so you know they’re in order.

3. Champion Research Assistant: The internet is amazing, there’s so much information it’s mindblowing. That perfect article/ book/ website on how to be more creative – that secret you’ve been looking for for so long – could be the next website you visit. So keep researching!

4. TV Addict: Your favourite soap opera is on tonight. There’s only another 17 episodes this season though, then you’ll spend that time creating. Oh once that OTHER home improvement show had finished. And after you’ve watched your 42 DVD box set of your all time favourite comedy drama again. Then you can create.

5. Gardener: Ooh that front lawn hasn’t been cut for at least 3 days. And there are all those leaves to pick up that are strewn across the paths. Some of your tomato plants aren’t quite growing around their canes properly either. None of this can wait another moment!

6. Record Collector Nerd: Those CDs of yours won’t organise themselves you know. You’ve got to get them in order so you can go straight to the one you need in an instant. Hmmm, but should you organise by artist, album title, genre or year of release? Maybe alternate through each way over the next few weeks and see what works best.

7. Personal Shopper: Your wardrobe’s looking a bit tired and there’s a new season coming up. Maybe it’s time you bought another pair of those comfy trousers you like so much? Oh and that new shoe shop in the mall has an opening sale today, you can’t miss that. Creating can wait!

Ok, so some of these are a little bit tongue in cheek.

But the point is a very serious one. That is, procrastination uses all its devious means and ways to convince us that something else – anything else – is suddenly more important than the creative work we courageously showed up to do.

Just recognising this, and how often it happens in your life, is the first step on your way to overcoming procrastination.

For more on recognising and overcoming the kind of things that stop you being more creative, I invite you to download your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

If you’re ready to beat procrastination and set your creativity free in the next 21 days, check out the powerful ecourse “7 Steps To Freedom: How To Beat Procrastination And Set Your Creativity Free” at http://www.HowToBeatProcrastination.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

Creativity in Crisis? 5 Gentle Ways to Get Your Creativity Flowing Again

All of us who create go through phases of feeling blocked, stuck or uninspired. If we don’t create for a while, whether it’s 10 hours or 10 years, it’s easy to soon get caught up in negative mental cycles and paralyse our creativity further.

We’ve no doubt all experienced the paradox of knowing that the solution is just to create and yet creating is also the problem!

So here are 5 gentle steps you could take to get your creativity flowing again:

1. Write spontaneously for an hour. Whether writing is your major creative outlet or not, sit down somewhere you won’t be disturbed for at least an hour with a pen and paper and just write.

“I couldn’t think what to write” I can hear you cry! Just write and ideas will flow, even if you start by writing a page of lines saying “I can’t think what to write!”, the process will at some level unlock your creativity and give you permission to be more creative and imaginative. Write without stopping for an hour if you can. Make it 30 minutes as an absolute minimum.

2. Visit somewhere completely different. Somewhere you’ve never been to before. It could be somewhere connected with the arts and creativity like a gallery or exhibition. It could be a building or monument you’ve always wanted to go to. It could be somewhere deep in nature, such as in a forest or up in the mountains, or simply your local park or nature reserve.

Wherever you choose, make it somewhere that will give you a major change of scenery from where you are right now. Somewhere that will stimulate and energise you and give you, even for a few moments, a completely fresh outlook on the world.

3. List all your positive achievements. It can be easy to forget and overlook all that we achieve in our lives, or dismiss them saying “ah it’s nothing, anyone could’ve done that.” Yet each of us are unique and have our own combination of creative abilities.

Make a list of every possible thing you can think of that you’ve done that’s creative. Start with the bigger events that instantly come to mind, or alternatively start by listing everything you did yesterday that was creative, from the simplest things - like making a meal, the way you dressed or an idea you had - upwards.

4. Be a camera. Go somewhere where there’s plenty to see and use your eyes as if you were a camera taking pictures all around you. Adopt the attitude that inspiration is in the tiny details. Imagine you have to document a scene in pictures as thoroughly as possible, catching every last subtle feature and element.

Spend at least an hour gathering pictures in your mind. Then, remove yourself from the scene and write and/or draw as much as you can remember.

5. Create a powerful future vision. Either through writing, drawing, painting or any other medium you choose, create a vision of how your creative life is going to be in your wildest dreams in 3, 5 or 10 years time.

Pick a future date and write from then in the present tense as if you’re there already. Be bold, daring and imaginative, cram in as much detail as you can. Describe where you’ll live, who you’ll be with, what you’re days will be spent doing, what you’re creative achievements have been and connect yourself with it as fully as you can.

Any of these techniques can help to get your creativity flowing again, try them all and see which works best for you. The one thing they all have in common is they’re about taking action and doing something different. So next time you’re feeling your creativity is in crisis, be brave, take a positive new action and see how soon your creativity flows again..

How To Eliminate Writer's Block In 3 Simple Steps

Writer’s block is widely known as the main reason why creative writers don’t write more.

It’s accepted as an inevitable part of the writer’s life and something that every writer should expect to suffer from.

In fact, some writers may even go so far as to suggest that writing is supposed to be difficult and unless you do suffer regularly from writer’s block, that in some way you’re not a real writer.

This is ridiculous.

Whilst there are times when it feels more difficult to write, and times when our writing seems to flow far more easily and abundantly, it’s simply not true that we are powerless to the effects of writer’s block whenever it strikes.

There are many things we can do to reduce the effects writer’s block has on our creativity.

Here’s a simple 3 step plan to deal with it:

1. Strengthen your creative beliefs. What is it you believe about yourself as a creative writer? Do you believe that you have the ability to generate endless good ideas? Do you believe you can become a better writer through more practice, through experimenting with different writing styles, through having an attitude of writing to enjoy yourself?

Or do you instead feel you haven’t really got any talent, you’ll never have more than one or two decent ideas, and you’re stuck at the level you’re at, there’s no way to develop and improve as a writer?

If your beliefs are more like the second set above, you’re far more vulnerable to writer’s block. Take regular time to work on strengthening your beliefs about yourself as a writer and it’ll pay off no end in the long term.

2. Develop indestructible creative writing habits. The only way to write consistently is to write often. In fact let’s be more specific, to write EVERY DAY.

By developing the habit of writing at the same kind of time each and every day you’ll very soon find it comes as naturally as breathing, sleeping and eating.

Find the time of day that works best for you, then commit to at least 15 minutes every day to writing. The more you develop this habit, the stronger it becomes, and the more resistant you become to any effects of writer’s block.

3. Notice what works and make adjustments. Be aware and vigilant of how you write, of what works for you and what doesn’t. Notice when you’re most creative and when you find it easiest to create. Then try to replicate these conditions as much and as often as possible.

Equally important, if not MORE important, is to notice what doesn’t work. Be aware of the signs that your version of writer’s block may be approaching. Learn to recognise the things that limit and drain your creativity and reduce them as much as possible.

By using the simple method of noticing what works and doing more of it, and noticing what doesn’t work and doing less of it, you’ll find it more and more easy to write and less likely to experience writer’s block.

Follow these 3 steps and repeat and fine tune them to reduce your susceptibility to writer’s block.

Want to find out how more about how to unlock your creative writing potential? Get your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com.

Creativity Myths Exposed - Only A Special Chosen Few Can Be Creative

There are many myths around creativity. These are general beliefs that are thrown around by people often enough that others start to believe them, just because they’ve become familiar and heard often, not because there’s actually any truth in them.

One of the most powerful, widespread and damaging is the creativity myth that there are only a chosen special few who can be creative.

The rest of us just have to look on in a state of frustrated envy.

It’s a myth that’s rife in society, from schools upwards.

But it simply isn’t true!

Everyone has creative abilities, everyone has their only unique set of creative talents that no-one else in the world has. It’s up to us what we do with them.

Where the myth is so damaging is that it causes us to completely overlook the talents that we have.

Even if we do create often and abundantly, if we believe this myth that there are only a chosen few that can create, we dismiss our own creative work.

We say things like:

“Oh yes I do create, but it’s not proper art, I’m only dabbling, I’m only messing around really.”

“I can create some things pretty well. But you’re only a true artist if you can paint like Michaelangelo, dance like Nureyev, write like Shakespeare and sing like Aretha Franklin. All at the same time. ”

“I admit I’m a prolific artist. But I make very little money from it. I have to have a day job too so I can’t consider myself a real artist.”

All of these limiting, damaging beliefs stem from a preconception of what a “real” or “genuine” artist is and that’s it’s only the very few that live up to this ideal that we can consider truly creative. Everyone else is completely discounted.

How much does this Creativity Myth effect YOUR life?

How often have you said things like those above, disregarded and dismissed the wonderful art you create because it – or you – don’t meet some impossible ideal about what a real artist is?

It’s crippling to your creativity to believe these kind of myths.

There are millions of people who show up and create everyday. It’s highly likely you’re one of them.

Just browse the internet for terms like “Creative Blog” or “Creative Artist” and see literally how millions of people – no more or less creative than you – are creating, finding their best ways to create.

You can join them in dismissing this destructive myth and realising your own unique, valuable creative talents.

And, I'd like to invite you to take the next positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

Writer's Block - Why You'll Only Have Writer's Block If You BELIEVE You'll Have Writer's Block

Writer’s block is commonly regarded as the main reason why creative writers don’t write as often, as deeply and as abundantly as they’re truly capable of.

It’s a phrase that for writers is greeted with the same dread as a 9 year old boy feels when told “Your Great Aunt Mabel’s coming to stay this weekend, and you know she’ll want to give you a big kiss and a cuddle.”

But whilst young Jimmy has to pretty much grin and bear that wet smacker from his Aunty, there’s plenty we can do as creative writers to avoid and severely reduce the effects of writer’s block.

The biggest step in this – and the most powerful reason why we have writer’s block in the first place – is all about what we believe.

The way our minds work is to give energy and importance to what we focus on, what’s most in our thoughts.

If you’re anxious before an exam, an interview, or a visit to the doctor, and some well meaning friend says: “Whatever you do, don’t worry...”, what effect does this have?

Yep, it causes you to worry MORE. Our mind can’t really focus on the “don’t”, all it hears is the key word in the sentence – “worry”. So that’s what it focuses on.

Much like if I say to you now: “Try not to think of blue dog on a bicycle”, what is it your mind will immediately focus on? That’s right, Fido the blue two wheeled wonder dog...

So naturally this exact same principle applies to your creative writing and your attitude towards writer’s block.

If you’re always thinking “I’m not going to get writer’s block, I’m not going to find it difficult to write, I’m not going to struggle to have ideas...” then the message getting through is: “writer’s block... difficult to write... struggle to have ideas...”

So what’s the solution? How can you NOT think of suffering writer’s block, without thinking of suffering from writer’s block?

The answer is to REPLACE the negative words with more positive and helpful alternatives. So instead of thinking “I’ll run out of creative ideas”, as soon as you notice this thought appear, replace it with something like “I find it easy to have all the creative ideas I ever need.”

When you catch yourself thinking “I’m determined not to get writer’s block”, instead turn it around to “I write freely and easily”...

Try this from today, stick to it, and within a week you’ll notice the difference in your attitude to creative writing and (I’ll whisper so you don’t hear this and start thinking about it again) writer’s block...

Get your creative writing kick started again right away with the FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com

Creativity Coach and keen creative writer Dan Goodwin helps people who are struggling to be as creative as they know they can be. See more at his website: http://www.CoachCreative.com

How To Increase Creativity By Finding Your Creative Groove

Finding your creative groove is another way of saying finding your creative voice, expressing yourself in a way that’s purely and honestly you, sharing the things you’re compelled to share with the world through your art and creative work.

Another, equally important, part of your creative groove is creating in a style and a rhythm that works well for you and allows you to create as freely as possible. This includes having (take a deep breath here) habits and systems in place that allow you to be as creative as possible.

You know when you’ve found your creative groove because you create without thinking, completely lose track of time when you’re creating and have a head absolutely bursting with ideas that you can’t bring to life quickly enough.

You feel happy, often ecstatic, that this is what you’re supposed to be doing, it’s what you’re here for, your raison d’etre.

How do you get into the groove then?

Here are 7 top tips for getting into – and staying in – your creative groove:

1. Create at a regular time. Whether it’s morning, midday, evening or late at night, find the time that works best for you and that you find it easiest to create, and stick to it. Every day.

2. Listen to yourself. You know when you’re creating something that feels special, that feels like this is the truest expression of your creativity that you’re capable of. Listen to yourself, find the tiny details that make creating at these times so enjoyable and replicate them as often as you can.

3. Try new and different creative projects. If you only ever create in one tightly focused discipline, then you may be missing out on other ways of creating that bring a huge amount of enjoyment. Sometimes trying different ways of creating also makes us appreciate and hone what we’re best at.

4. Have a great “set up”. Define a place to create that’s yours just for creating. Set it up so creating there is as easy as possible, have all your creative tools and equipment ready and to hand so you can go to your creative space and get straight into your creative groove without delay or distraction.

5. Have a ready supply of ideas to develop. If you’re trying to pull ideas from thin air each time you create it’s a recipe for frustration and a lot of wasted time. Keep an ideas journal with you at all times and jot down your ideas as soon as they come to you. Then you’ll have a ready supply to draw from and develop.

6. Keep your supplies topped up. Especially if your creative medium relies on physical materials like paint, cloth, clay or beads. Running out of basic supplies is a sure-fire way of throwing you out of your creative groove.

7. Review and acknowledge your progress. It’s easy to overlook and take for granted when you are in a creative groove and creating freely and abundantly. Take the time to regularly acknowledge your progress and congratulate yourself for having the courage and discipline to lead the creative life you do lead.

These are 7 great tips for finding and staying in your creative groove.

Which can you take steps towards using in your creative life today?

Want to learn more about how to increase your creativity and find your creative groove? 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!”.

Head over now to: http://www.CoachCreative.com

Is Your Creativity Being Held Hostage By Procrastination?

Procrastination is one of the few words that strike terror into the heart and mind of anyone creative.

That feeling of wanting to create more than anything but at the same time somehow you keep finding other more important things to do.

Like cutting the lawn, washing those 3 items of laundry that were forming a huge pile in your bedroom or rearranging your CD or book collection into chronological order.

If you find you do these kind of activities regularly rather than just sit down and create, then you're in the grip of some serious procrastination habits.

You’re not in control of your creativity anymore.

Procrastination is holding your creativity hostage, dictating WHEN you create and HOW MUCH you create.

And making sure this is as close to ”hardly ever” and “hardly anything” as possible...

So what can you do about it?

First of all, accept that you don’t mean to procrastinate. But you do do it.

Sometimes, in fact maybe MOST of the time, you don’t even realise you’re doing it.

For example, you sit down at your desk or work space with the best intentions to create freely for an hour.

“Right, I’ll just make a cup of tea then I’ll start.” You make the tea.

“Oh actually, I quite fancy a piece of cake with that.” So you go and cut a slice of cake.

“Hmm, I need to visit the loo now. Then I’ll get straight into creating.” Off you go to the loo.

“This sink is filthy. I can’t stand it being like that. And the floor needs a clean too. I’d better do it now or it’ll just play on my mind until it’s done.” Out come the pink rubber gloves...

And so it goes on...

An hour later, which you'd hoped to have spent creating, you’ve actually created nothing at all.

That blank canvas, screen or page is still there waiting.

So, accept that you DO procrastinate. Without judgement. And that it’s not a sin, we all do it.

The example above is something I’ve actually found myself doing more than once. Well, except for the pink rubber gloves. Mine are yellow.

Once you’ve accepted that you do procrastinate and started to identify some of the ways you procrastinate, you’re in a far stronger position to take the next step to reduce how often you procrastinate.

Your creativity doesn’t need to be held hostage by procrastination.

There are ways to overcome it. And they begin with admitting you do it, and noticing when and how.

For more on how to be more creative, I invite you to download your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

If you’re ready to beat procrastination and set your creativity free in the next 21 days, check out the powerful ecourse “7 Steps To Freedom: How To Beat Procrastination And Set Your Creativity Free” at http://www.HowToBeatProcrastination.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

How To Identify And Eliminate The Lethal Loops That Destroy Your Creativity

What stops you creating more?

What’s prevents you from realising your creative potential, today and every day?

Is it lack of time? Lack of resources? Procrastination? Creative Block? Shortage of ideas?

You may be nodding furiously “Yes! Yes ! Yes!” to all of these.

But the truth is none of these are actually the core reasons that stop you creating.

They are only the ways you stop yourself creating, the techniques and the weapons you use to make creating as difficult and painful as possible.

So, let’s ask the question again. What REALLY stops you creating more?

The answer is “Lethal Loops”. Lethal Loops?! What on earth are they?

Lethal Loops are simply the negative messages that you play in your head. The things you tell yourself about yourself, what you are, what your limitations are, what you can’t possible do, and why. They go round and round, grind you down and slowly but surely destroy your creativity.

Here’s some examples of Lethal Loops you might be familiar with:

“I’m not talented enough.”

“I don’t have any good ideas to develop.”

“I can’t create like I used to anymore, I’m too old, too tired.”

“I’m not a proper artist, I’m just messing around.”

“I don’t deserve time to create and enjoy creating.”

“My creative work will never be appreciated and seen by anyone so what’s the point of creating anything in the first place?”

“Creating is a luxury, there are other far more important things that need doing.”

“I can’t create consistently.”

“I only have maybe one or two good creative ideas and I used them up years ago.”

“I’m not allowed to be too creative.”

“There are others with far more talent who deserve a chance to get their creative work known before me.”

“If I create too much too soon I’ll use up my limited store of creativity.”

How many of these Lethal Loops do you recognise? Be honest, how many of them appear in your head on a regular basis?

Lethal Loops - like an annoying novelty record that you hear once and gets stuck in your head for days – repeat over and over, each time engraining themselves a little more deeply. So inevitably, you start to believe them, even if you didn’t before.

So what’s the answer, is there any way to eliminate these Lethal Loops and their incredibly destructive impact on your creative life?

Yes! There is hope. But you can’t just stop them, turn them off. This is where most people struggle most. They think they can just remove the negative loops. But what happens? New Lethal Loops just take their place.

What happens if I say to you: “Try not to think of a purple elephant in a lime green tutu.”

Yep, that image fills yours head, it’s all you CAN think about.

The same applies to the negative thoughts in your head. You can’t just stop thinking them. The only way to overcome these Lethal Loops is to REPLACE them with positive, empowering messages that support and nurture your creativity.

The first step is to recognise the negative thought. Then, each time you notice one, turn it around, replace it with a positive equivalent.

So “I don’t have any good ideas to develop” becomes “I’m capable of having a stream of great ideas. The more ideas I have, the more flow into me.”

“I’m not allowed to be too creative” becomes “I have as much right to create as anyone, my work is valid and important”. And so on.

Start recognising your Lethal Loops today and replacing them with positive equivalents.

Very soon you’ll notice the shift in your thinking and your overall attitude to creating.

The more you do it, the easier it becomes, and in time you’ll find Lethal Loops are few and far between.

This is one of many ways to be more creative.

I invite you to take the next positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

Creativity Myths Exposed - I Shouldn't Ever Repeat Myself In My Creative Work

One of the biggest fears of many of us who create is repeating ourselves.

We’re scared we’ll just keep producing the same pieces of art over and over again, never really progressing, always saying the same thing in the same way.

How often have you felt this kind of fear in your creative life?

In reality, it’s not quite the terrible situation it seems. There are actually many valuable reasons why it’s necessary to repeat yourself to some extent.

Here are 3 of the most important:

1. To get ever closer to the true creative you. Each time you create a piece of work that seems similar to something you’ve created before, there’s a reason. It’s because this is something that’s important to you, something you’re drawn to keep creating, something that’s a part of the core make up of your creative personality.

You don’t just create random and unconnected work, no-one does. The reason that you keep return to similar themes is that they’re the ones that interest, inspire and actually MEAN something to you. So keep exploring, keep getting closer to the essence of who you really are.

2. You enjoy your creative work on a deeper level. If you switch to a different kind of creative medium every week then yes you’ll keep yourself stimulated but it’s not likely you’ll ever get to the real heart of what each creative project is about – and what creativity for you is all about.

It’s like going to restaurant, and rushing table to table taking a couple of bites here, a quick mouthful there, and never settling down. Pretty soon you’ll feel nauseous, exhausted and pretty unfulfilled. Sometimes it’s better to sit down with one delicious meal and take your time to enjoy and savour the experience it as fully as you can. Same with your creative work.

3. You hone your creative talents and skills. Creating in a number of different media is a way to keep yourself fresh and interested. But even if the forms in which you create widely differ, you’ll still notice common themes running through in both WHAT you create and HOW you create.

The more you create around these themes - and develop these techniques and habits that work for you - the more practiced you become and the more clearly you’re able to express your true creativity – the message in you that you’re trying to communicate to the world.

These are 3 major reasons why it’s valuable and completely necessary to continue to create in ways that may feel like you’re repeating yourself.

Yes, variety is important too, to keep you inspired and learning. But it’s only by listening to yourself and creating what you’re repeatedly drawn to create that you’ll feel more fulfilled, enjoy creating more and become ever closer to expressing the true creative you.

After all, isn’t that what creating is all about?

There are many ways to be more creative, and to create what really matters to you.

I invite you to take a positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

Creative Communities - 7 Ways A Creative Community Can Boost Your Creativity Today

Do you often feel you’re creating alone in a silent abyss?

Do you sometimes wonder if your creative work is like that riddle of the tree in the forest – "If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no-one around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

Applied this to your creative life and you may wonder - if I’m creating beautiful work but no-one’s experiencing it and able to appreciate it, have I actually been creating at all??

There’s no need to continue to feel this isolated. These days there are many opportunities to become a part of a thriving creative community and end these kind of doubts and fears.

Here are 7 of the top ways a creative community can support and boost your creativity to new levels:

1. You get to collaborate with others. Whatever amazing work you produce alone, there’s something special about being part of a group project. Making your unique contribution to larger creative projects is a great way to bond with other creative people AND feel your work is making a difference.

2. You share the struggles of creating. There are times when we all find it hard to create. Knowing that other people are going through similar blocks and struggles, and learning how they get through them, gives a great boost and comfort.

3. You can share resources. Maybe there’s a particular book, course or website that’s helped you or someone else be more creative, or been the catalyst for a major creative breakthrough. In a creative community you can share these resources for the greater benefit of everyone.

4. You share and celebrate the joys of creating. Finishing a creative project then having no-one to share it with can put a serious dampener on your celebrations. Having a community where everyone can share and praise each other’s creative achievements is a major incentive for all to be more creative.

5. You get to support others and make a difference to their creativity. A part of the creative life that’s often overlooked is supporting other people in reaching their creative ambitions. Knowing you’ve made a real difference to someone’s creativity is a unique and highly rewarding feeling.

6. You can challenge and motivate each other. Once you’ve been in a group a little while, people get to know you and what you’re capable of. Gentle challenging and encouragement within a supportive environment leads you to raising your creative game to new levels.

7. You become inspired by other people’s work. There’s an almost infinite number of talented creative people out there. Seeing how others create and what they create day in day out can be tremendously inspiring in increasing your own creativity.

These are 7 of the best reasons why joining a creative group or creative community can enhance your creativity.

I’d like to invite you to CoachCreativeSpace, a thriving interactive creative community space for you to learn how to be as creative as you've always known you can be.

You'll find Creative Forums, Groups, Artwork and Blogs to share in and contribute to, and supportive like minded creative people who are experiencing some of the same challenges and triumphs you are. Check it out now, at:

http://www.CoachCreativeSpace.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin - http://www.CoachCreative.com

Screaming At The Silent Wall - Does Anyone Really Care What I Create?

It can be incredibly frustrating and isolating when you’re creating on your own for days, weeks, months on end, without seeing any real impact that your creative efforts are having.

Have you felt sometimes that no-one in the world even KNOWS you create, let alone cares?

These kind of feelings can be very demotivating, as expressing ourselves and connecting with others are major reasons why we create.

Take heart though, your creating is not in vain. Here’s a story to give you some hope:

Each morning, Ellen followed a similar routine. She’d haul herself out of bed at 7am, shower, dress and grab her writing journal on the way out.

Three streets away was Cindy’s, Ellen’s favourite coffee shop. Each morning, she’d arrive at Cindy’s to be greeted by a steaming cup of coffee and a cheerful greeting like: “Morning! How’s our future J. K. Rowling today? What’ll you have today?”

Ellen would coyly smile, answer “It’s going ok. Thank you. I’ll have scrambled eggs and two toast, thanks”, before settling down in her favourite seat near the window.

Taking out her journal, Ellen flicked through the most recent few pages, to reacquaint herself with where she’d got to the day before. Then she’d pause for a moment’s thought, before setting off once more on the writing of her latest book.

Every day, for the last 12 months or more, as predictable as the sunrise, a young man walked past Ellen on his way to work. She’d often catch his gaze for a split second, before he hurried along on his way and she returned to her writing.

This morning, the man didn’t walk by with the same haste. As he approached, Ellen noticed him heading for the door of Cindy’s. He was coming inside!

Ellen dropped her gaze and busied herself in her writing, trying to pretend she hadn’t noticed the man entering, and at the same time keeping half an eye on his movements. He was heading over to Ellen’s table!

“Excuse me? Hi.” The man offered. “I’m sorry to disturb you, I know you’re busy writing.”

“Oh, er, that’s ok. Hi.” Ellen managed to reply.

The man held out a small colourful printed flyer. Ellen could see it was for a painting exhibition at a gallery in the next town, she recognised their name.

“I’d like to invite you to something.”The man said, obviously shy. “It’s my first exhibition of my paintings.”

“Oh, wow! Thank you.” Ellen didn’t really know what to say.

“I owe you so much” continued the man.

“Each day I’ve walked past here for more than a year, each day you’re writing. ‘That’s a true artist’, I’d say to myself, ‘dedicated to her art’. One day I decided I couldn’t ignore my desire to paint anymore. I figured if you were brave enough to sit here in a public place and freely create, the least I could do set up some canvases at home and see what happened. Once I started painting again I realised how much I’d missed it. Anyway, here I am a couple months later with my first exhibition! I’d be so honoured if you’d come...”

Ellen went along to the exhibition. She was amazed by his work, a collection of paintings of the city streets around where they both lived. The centrepiece in the whole exhibition? A beautiful painting of Ellen sitting in the coffee shop, entitled simply, “Saviour Girl”.

We often don’t know just what an influence we have on other people’s creativity.

Just by showing up to create each day, you can not only increase your creativity, but have a positive influence on others who just need that extra little push or spark of inspiration to create what matters most to them in their lives.

There are many ways you can be more creative. I invite you to take a positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin

Create First, Think Later! How Over Thinking Your Creative Projects Leads To Procrastination

Procrastination is common amongst all of us who create. But then that’s no great shock to you, is it?

How often does procrastination effect your creativity?

Be honest, in a typical day of creating, how much of that day would be taken up using procrastination techniques to avoiding creating?

There are many ways to overcome procrastination. Ultimately, they all involve thinking less and creating more.

Here’s why that is:

What happens when you think before you create:

You spend ages trying to find the perfect place to begin creating.

The longer you spend thinking, the more you feel your motivation to create draining (or gushing!) away.

The more you think, the more you open up the possible options. Hold on, isn’t creativity about new ways of thinking and doing things? Yes, but spending time considering EVERY possible option isn’t so good.

It means you get confused and overwhelmed with too much choice.

For example, if you went to buy a new car and they had blue cars, red cars and green cars, making a choice would be much easier and quicker then if the car dealer said: “Here’s our colour palette for this model, we have 27 different solid colours and 14 metallics, 7 of those being pearlescent. And for a small extra fee we can have our paint technicians mix the exact colour you’d like. The choice is yours...”

Decision overload!

You then start to also question whether this is the right medium for the idea you have, and the choices that were already overwhelming have now been opened 100-fold to encompass every other possible form of creative expression that exists.

Overall, your confidence, your faith in making a good decision, and your desire and ability to create gradually slips away with every moment you spend THINKING about creating rather than just creating.

So what’s the alternative? Is there a better approach?

What happens when you create first, think later:

You start with a high level of enthusiasm and get creating right away. This creative energy carries forward and quickly builds momentum. Creating comes far more easily as a result.

You learn as you go what works and what doesn’t. Rather than pondering and speculating over what might work and what might not, you simple find out by getting stuck in and experimenting. The best way to learn is in the doing.

Also, when you get creating, you teach yourself to be more creative and to trust your creative instinct more.

In time, this makes it even easier to create, you need less time to think and ponder which might be the best step to take, you just trust yourself, listen to what your creative instinct is telling you and create!

Your confidence builds as you create more, as well as your enjoyment and desire to create more and more. Plus, you know that you’re learning and developing all the time.

As you can see, the advantages of “create first, think later” are multiple.

How can you start to take on this behaviour today to help yourself be more creative?

Pick a project, get creating.

Create first, think later.

And procrastinate later! You’ll find it’ll increase your creativity – and your enjoyment of creating – many times over.

This is one of many ways to be more creative.

To learn more I invite you to take the next positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook. Just head over to http://www.CoachCreative.com

From Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin