How To Beat Procrastination - Overlook This Step And You'll Procrastinate For The Rest Of Your Life

Procrastination is not something creative people have a particularly loving and affectionate relationship with. It’s one of the biggest - if not THE biggest – creativity killers there is.

Think for a moment what your creative life would be like if you were able to simply go and create without delay, without finding a million and one ways to subtly avoid creating the work that’s most important to you.

Whether it’s through checking your favourite internet sites every 10 minutes just in case they’ve added something new that you can’t afford to miss, watching TV shows that you’re not really all that interested in, or continually sorting and rearranging your creative supplies so they’re in the perfect order for you to begin creating, we all have our favourite procrastination habits.

Maybe you just read that paragraph and thought “oh yeh I do that TV one, but what I also do is put on the whole season boxset of my favourite sitcom and get sucked into this “just one more episode, THEN I’ll get down to creating” kind of situation... Before I know it I’ve watched quarter of a season’s worth and created nothing more than a dent in the sofa the shape of my derriere...”

Or maybe you read and recognised the one about rearranging your art supplies. “Except I also have different ways of organising my paints, either by colour, or by mood or by how full the tube is, or alphabetically by the name of the colour. What I then do is make lists of the different ways I can organise my paints, so depending on my mood and the conditions, I can consult my lists and arrange the paints so I’m in the perfect position to start painting... Er, but by then I’ve usually run out of time. Again.”

Congratulations. What you’ve just done is take the crucial first step in overcoming procrastination.

And that is to admit you procrastinate. This step is not about casting judgement, or criticising. It’s not about analysing all the endless reasons WHY you may be procrastinating. It simply saying: “Yes I procrastinate. I have certain habits I use to avoid creating more.”

Once you’ve taken this step – a step that many of us live in complete denial of and wonder why we hardly ever create anything – you’re in a far more powerful position to start to overcome those habits of procrastination that have choked the life out of your creativity for so long.

Ignore this step – by not admitting you procrastinate - and you’re simply dooming yourself to procrastinate for the rest of your life...

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

Don't procrastinate about it - visit now!

http://www.HowToBeatProcrastination.com

Creative Writing Prompts, Creative Writing Exercises And How To Electrify Your Writing!

Lately you’ve felt like you’ve been writing the same words, phrases and paragraphs over and over, without any fresh direction or ideas. So you’re looking for ways to juice up your writing, make it more stimulating, enjoyable and interesting.

Creative writing prompts and exercises are a fantastic way to give your writing that boost you’ve been looking for.

The problem most of us who write have with using writing prompts or writing exercises is we feel it’s somehow cheating or a shortcut.

I’m sure you’ve probably felt this yourself at some time: “If I use someone else’s prompt or exercise, then it’s not my writing. What kind of writer can’t come up with their own words and ideas?!”

Well, it’s not quite so simple as that. Here's why:

Imagine you want to play some music. You have electricity running to your house, and you have a CD. But you don’t just go and hold the CD against the electricity socket on your wall and expect to hear music!

Or you want to make some toast. So you get out a couple of slices of bread, put them on your kitchen worktop near an electrical socket and hope when you return a few minutes later the bread has become toast. It’s never going to happen!

In both of these situations there’s a crucial missing link. You have raw power – the electricity. You have the raw material, in these examples the CD of music, and the slices of bread. But what’s missing is a way to channel the electricity in a meaningful and useable way to allow the raw material to become what you want it to become.

That's what your CD player and your toaster are for.

So how does this apply to your creative writing?

The situation is very similar. You have the raw power in the form of your writing talent and potential. You have the raw material, the words and letters. What you need now is a way to channel that raw power to shape the letters and words into something meaningful, something useful.

Creative writing prompts and exercises are a great way of doing this. They give you that channel, that conduit you need to allow your writing talent to create wonderful formations and sequences of words. If you don’t have that initial prompt or exercise as a way to channel your writing talent, it’s just going to sit there inside you doing nothing. In the same way electricity just sits there waiting in the sockets. It doesn’t start flowing until something is plugged in and switched on.

So plug in and switch on your creative writing today by using prompts and exercises!

And to get started with some creative writing prompts and exercises right away, get your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com

How to Beat Procrastination - The Powerful First Step You Can Take Today

Procrastination, and its deadly twin – Perfectionism – are two of the most fear-loaded words an artist can hear.

When you procrastinate, you avoid doing what you love, you stop yourself from creating what’s important to you.

As well as the obvious effects that procrastinating has, ie you create less, there are all the knock on effects that not creating brings. The less you create, the more your confidence in creating takes a pounding, the more difficult you find it to start anything new, the more you avoid experimenting and eventually, you simply stop creating.

That gushing wellspring inside you called your creative potential has dried up to barely a trickle.

So is there any hope? Is there a way to beat procrastination or should you resign yourself to always being a slave to its creativity sapping clutches?

Thankfully, yes there is a way to overcome procrastination. But there’s a crucial first step you must take. If you ignore it, you will indeed be doomed to a life of minimal creating and endless frustration.

This first step is highly sophisticated, so you may want to get your pen and paper ready to take down the full details...

Ready? The first step to beating procrastination is...

Admit you procrastinate.

That’s it.

Sounds too simple doesn’t it? In fact it doesn’t even sound like a step, it sounds like something you obviously will have done anyway. But that’s very often not the case, and that’s why people get so sucked into procrastination habits – because they don’t recognise or admit they’re procrastinating, so they can’t even begin to conquer it.

How often do you get stuck right in to creating without first “just” checking a few of your favourite websites, “just” making a quick snack, or “just” popping out to get some fresh art supplies?

All these little activities are subtle ways of avoiding creating. In other words they’re all procrastination habits.

For every hour that you tell yourself you’re creating, how much of that are you REALLY creating? 55 minutes? 45 minutes? 30 minutes? 5 minutes?!

This step is not about judging you and criticising how much you procrastinate. It’s about meeting you exactly where you are and getting an honest and accurate picture of how often you procrastinate.

It’s only after you admit that you do procrastinate that you can begin to do something about it.

Until then, you’ll be forever trapped in its stealthy grip, and you’re creative talents will never be fully realised.

So take that first step today.

And, 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

How To Beat Procrastination - A New Approach That Works

How severely do procrastination habits affect your ability to create?

How often do you simply go and start creating, without finding a few “urgent” tasks on the way such as checking your email for the 10th time this morning, or making a snack you don’t really want?

For many of us as creative people, procrastination puts a major dampener on our freedom to create. It’s like we’re trying to get a huge bonfire lit and blazing, but someone keeps drenching it with a hose every time we feel its flames are starting to flicker.

So what can we do? Is there any hope, or should you resign yourself to a lifelong struggle with procrastination, accept it as the gorilla on your back that’ll stop you ever truly soaring in your creative work?

Thankfully, yes, there is an approach to beating procrastination that works.

Before we get to that, let’s take a step back. It’s important to understand why what you’re doing now ISN’T working. This isn’t to judge or criticise you, simply to help you open yourself to the idea that there’s a better way, and an easier way, for you to be more creative.

The first mistake we make with procrastination is not admitting we procrastinate.

Everyone procrastinates to some extent, however creative we are. Pretending you don’t simply gives procrastination the green light to run riot and become even more effective in stifling your creativity. If you don’t admit there’s an issue, and that there are many times you procrastinate when you could be creating, then you’ll ALWAYS procrastinate.

The second mistake we make with procrastination is endlessly analysing WHY we procrastinate.

This is the classic mistake we’ve all made with procrastination. Even if we do admit we procrastinate and that yes it does suck up precious time when we’d rather be creating, we then tend to go too far in the opposite direction.

The analytical mind kicks in and says “Right, I’m determined to know why I procrastinate. What could the reasons behind it be?”

Then, ironically, your creativity takes centre stage, producing an almost endless procession of perfectly valid reasons why you may be procrastinating.

“Maybe I’m afraid of failing”, “Maybe this isn’t the right creative project”, “Maybe I’ll create something amazing and people will demand more from me”...

Given time and a little anxiety to stir into the mix, no doubt you’d be able to come up with dozens of reasons why you procrastinate rather than create.

Great, so now you have all these reasons, you can overcome procrastination, right?

Wrong! All you’ve done is give yourself MORE reasons to procrastinate than you had before! So it’s now many times MORE likely you’ll procrastinate because you have all these very feasible and justifiable reasons in front of you. “No WONDER I don’t create more, look at all these things I’m battling with!”

You end up procrastinating by spending too much time thinking about why you’re procrastinating!!?!

Stop. It’s time for a new approach. An approach that works.

Instead of analysing WHY you procrastinate, focus on WHEN and HOW you procrastinate. It’s only by observing your behaviour – objectively and without judgement – that you can begin to notice when you’re most likely to procrastinate, and the favourite habits you have.

Only then can you start to put new creative habits in their place and overcome the procrastination habits that have held your creativity back for so long.

And if you’re ready to finally beat procrastination and set your creativity free in the next 21 days, I invite you to 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 Prompts - How To Use Prompts To Help Your Creative Writing Flourish

So you want to become a better creative writer? But you feel short of ideas, lacking in inspiration, and just don’t know where to start your next piece of writing. You know deep down that you have a lot of potential as a writer, you enjoy writing and have written pieces in the past that you’ve been proud of.

But lately, the words are just not coming. What can you do?

Creative writing prompts are one of the best ways to get your creative juices flowing and unlock all that untapped potential.

A writing prompt is simply a word, phrase, picture or idea to stimulate your creativity and start you writing. Where you go with your writing after that is entirely up to you, the prompt just gives you that little push, that glimmer of inspiration you’ve had difficulty finding lately.

Many writers feel that using a writing prompt might be cheating or taking a short cut, and means you’re not producing work that’s all yours. Remember, the prompt is just a starting point. YOUR unique creativity does the rest.

Think of using writing prompts like this:

Imagine there’s a huge wonderful garden, every last square inch heaving with the most gorgeous and bountiful blooms. There are many different areas within that garden, each with their own theme and design.

For example, there’s the Victorian English garden, the dense tropical Amazonian rainforests, the Dutch tulip fields of every colour imaginable, and the sweeping majesty of the undiscovered Alaska. If you looked hard enough, you’d probably even find the hanging gardens of Babylon!

It’s a big garden! Infinitely big in fact.

All around this glorious garden is a 20 foot high brick wall, with a gate every few metres or so. You can just about see enough through the gates to know there’s plenty to be explored inside, but they’re all locked and there seems no way of opening them.

Then, you realise, just beside each gate is a little red box. You open the box and inside is a key. The key for the gate, the key to entering this incredible garden. You take the key, open the gate, and you’re in, off on your adventure...

So, how does this relate to writing prompts and being afraid to use them because they’re not all your own, or because you feel you’re cheating?

A creative writing prompt is the key to the garden. It’s not the actual garden.

The garden is already within you. It’s all the amazing, rich and emotive stories, poems, songs and novels you haven’t yet written but are perfectly capable of writing. Use a creative writing prompt, take the key that’s been offered, and start to explore that wonderful creative garden within you... You, and your future audience, deserve to experience that garden in its fullest bloom...

And to get started with some creative writing prompts and exercises right away, get your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com

Creative Writing Prompts - How To Give Your Creative Writing The Time Of Its Life!

Feeling stuck with your creative writing? Struggling to come up with exciting and stimulating new ideas? Are you looking for an easy and effective way to unlock your creative writing potential? Something you can use right away without having to learn sophisticated new techniques?

Creative writing prompts could be just what you’re looking for.

With creative writing prompts, your natural imagination and writing potential is encouraged to come out and play. There’s a wealth of potential and talent right there waiting already, but it just doesn’t get invited out very often.

Have you known people in the past that in a work or everyday situation seem very reserved and quiet?

People you assume would probably not find it very comfortable being in larger group or a more lively or challenging social situation?

Then, one day – maybe it’s at a mutual friend’s birthday party, maybe at charity event, maybe at a local class you attend for dancing or acting – you see this former wallflower having the time of their lives! They’re dancing, singing, chatting, laughing, and generally having more fun than you thought they knew was possible!

All they needed was that invitation to come out and play...

It’s exactly like that with your creative writing too. If you don’t ever expect anything from it, if you never invite it to let its hair down and show you its moves, you’ll never see what it’s truly capable of.

This is where creative writing prompts come in, and are so valuable. They’re the party invitation, the special offer membership to the local dance club.

Some fear that when they use creative writing prompts it’s somehow cheating or taking a shortcut to writing better, because it’s someone else’s words they’re using as a starting point.

While this perception is understandable, it simply isn’t true. Yes you need the party invitation to go to the party, but once you’re there, how much do you use it? You don’t! You just get down to having a great time!

With writing prompts, once you’ve started writing you’re imagination is away and free. Whatever comes out after that initial invitation – that first line or phrase – is all your own work.

Start experimenting with creative writing prompts today, and invite your creative writing potential to the party it’s been dying to be asked to for years...

And you can get started with some creative writing prompts right away in the FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.Com.

How To Beat Procrastination - Try This Effective New Approach To Overcome Procrastination

How often in your creative life do you go straight into creating without hesitation, without delay or distraction?

How frequently do you create WITHOUT saying “I’ll just check my email, then I’ll get on with creating”, “I’ll just make a snack, then I’ll start my new creative project” or “I’ll just finish watching this last programme, then I’ll get on with creating”..?

If you’re like many of us, these kind of “I’ll just... ...then I’ll create” statements are peppered throughout each and every day of your creative life.

Whichever way you look at them, they’re all ways of avoiding creating. They’re all forms of the dreaded procrastination.

So how can you beat procrastination and create more freely, and in a more focused way?

The usual, logical approach to take – and maybe you’ve tried this yourself a few times – is to look at WHY you procrastinate. The thinking is that once you’ve figured out why you procrastinate, you’ll instantly stop doing it.

Why this approach doesn’t work

What happens is you simply gather evidence – and possible evidence – as to why you procrastinate, and it strengthens your case.

Maybe I procrastinate because I’m scared of messing up? Or maybe it’s because I’m not sure this is the right project for me right now? Or it could be that I don’t feel I deserve to have this much time and fun creating?

The list continues... The more time you spend analysing and looking for reasons, the more your creative mind obliges and comes up with a whole pity party full of these reasons why you procrastinate. How creative your mind can be when you ask it. How ironic it’s coming up with the kind of things that are actually not helping you get down to creating!

However many reasons you come up with for why you procrastinate – and many of them will be perfectly valid and reasonable – at the end of it, you’re still sitting there with a lap full of reasons and excuses. You’re not creating any more than you were before. In fact it’s very likely you’re thinking “With all THESE reasons it’s NO WONDER I procrastinate so much”!

So what’s the alternative? Is there a different approach that does work?

Without taking action, you won’t progress. To make progress and reduce the time you lose procrastinating, instead of analysing WHY you procrastinate, look at WHEN you procrastinate and HOW you procrastinate.

We all have our favourite procrastination techniques, and we all have times and circumstances when we’re far more likely to procrastinate. Your aim is to find yours.

It’s only then, once you begin to learn when and how you procrastinate, that you have the knowledge and understanding to start beating procrastination.

So stop analysing the why, and instead observe yourself – objectively and without judgement – and find when and how you procrastinate. Then you’ll be ready to put procrastination in its place...

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

How To Make Peace With Your Inner Critic

Trying to overcome your inner critic is a major struggle for most creative people. Just as you feel you start to make progress, that voice in your head pops up again, belittling your creative efforts and ridiculing your ambitions as an artist.

How many of these inner critic statements are you familiar with?

“Yeh, keep trying, one day you might actually create something GOOD...”

“What right do you think YOU have to be creative?”

“That wasn’t a bad piece of work, but it was a fluke, a one off. You’ll never be able to create consistently at that level... ”

“Why do you bother to create stuff, you know you’ll never be successful...”

“Isn’t it about time you gave up your nice little hobbies and did something more useful?”

Ouch. You know yourself which particular nasty phrases appear in your head. Sometimes they seem so strong and so true that you don’t even begin to create, it just seems too difficult, too painful.

Understandably, what most of us do is resent and dread this inner critic, and live in fear of it appearing with a well aimed cutting remark to destroy our confidence once more.

The inner critic becomes demonized, something we’re intimidated by and feel helpless to ever tame or defeat.

And this is where the real struggle comes. Because we feel so helpless, as if our inner critic will always have the upper hand, and always be one step ahead ready to cut us down. It’s this feeling of powerlessness that does the most damage and causes most frustration and pain.

But there is a different, more effective, approach.

Because we always see our inner critic as the enemy, we always approach it and try to deal with it as an enemy. We strap on our armour and go into battle, trying to beat it down and destroy it so it can never return.

Instead, you can learn to understand and embrace your inner critic. This radical change of tactics works like this:

Understanding: Your inner critic has strong motivations. Why else do you think it appears so regularly and with such force?

Everything your inner critic does is an attempt to protect you. You see, deep down, it’s on your side. It’s trying to prevent you from being disappointed, from being rejected, for having your dreams dashed.

It’s not randomly reeling off comments just to hurt you for the sake of it. All your inner critic does is an effort to wrap you up and protect you.

Embracing: Once you see that actually your inner critic is on your side, you right away have a different attitude and approach.

Instead of hating your inner critic and being locked in a brutal battle where you’re the only one who gets hurt, you can now engage in peaceful negotiations.

Each time that negative voice pops up, say something like this:

“Thank you for your concern, I know you’re trying to protect me and have my wellbeing in mind. But I don’t need your input on this. I’m an adult who’s quite capable of making my own decisions. Creating in this way is important to me and I fully intend to continue, whatever you might say to me...”

The more you do this, the more your inner critic will get the message. It will always be around, you can’t destroy it. But you can take away its power. As long as you remember that deep down its motives are good, then thank it but say you’re going to carry on creating, whatever it may say, you’ll find its influence on you becomes drastically reduced.

This is one effective technique to help you be more creative.

And I invite you to take the next step to being more creative today, by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook. Head over now to http://www.CoachCreative.com

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

How happy are you with your creative writing? Do you feel you’re reaching close to your potential? Do you enjoy writing or has it become a painful struggle to even put together a handful of sentences you’re proud of having written?

There are many reasons why you might not be reaching your creative writing potential.

There’s plenty you can do to overcome each of them and write more freely, more deeply and with more reward and enjoyment.

The first step is to identify what’s holding you back, what’s limiting you.

Here are 5 of the most common reasons why we don’t write near our potential, and some tips on how to move on from them:

1. You don’t write regularly. This is one of the big secrets of writing consistently and feeling you’re progressing your writing. The big mistake we often make is to only write when we’re “in the mood”, or when the circumstances are right. Which becomes less and less often.

Solution: Write at the same time every day for a minimum period of time. Chose a time of day that works best for you, when you find it easier and more natural to write. Then write for 15 minutes at this time each day for 14 days. What you write is not too important. What is important is that you show up and write.

2. You’re not giving yourself permission. Although on the surface you seem to be freely going to write, you’re aware that somehow you hold yourself back. On a deeper level, why might you be doing this?

We don’t give ourselves permission to be creative for a number of possible reasons. Maybe you don’t think you’re really very talented, or you don’t deserve to be successful in writing, or that spending time writing is selfish. Ask yourself some honest questions, and give some honest answers. Once you see why you’re holding yourself back, you can start to take action to move on.

3. You don’t capture your ideas. A lack of ideas is a common complaint amongst creative artists of all kinds. The real issue though is not about not having enough ideas, it’s about not CAPTURING enough ideas.

Get yourself an ideas journal and begin jotting down ideas as soon as they come to you. Keep it with you at all times and get into the habit of using it. The more ideas you note down, the more freely you’ll find more new ideas come to you. Soon ideas will appear everywhere you look.

4. You’re afraid to experiment. If you feel you’ve been writing the same sentences about the same subjects, in that same style for longer than you can remember, you probably would benefit from experimenting a little, giving yourself some fresh motivation and challenge.

Pick a few small but very different writing projects. Choose styles or forms of writing that you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t. It doesn’t matter what the outcome is, you’re writing just to experiment and get some new perspectives. When you go back to more familiar styles, your writing will be enriched and more stimulating.

5. You’re writing for product not process. It’s easy to get caught in writing just to create an end product and be so focused on getting it finished that you forget to actually enjoy your writing along the way.

A great way of combating this is to regularly embark on writing projects just to enjoy the process. Detach completely from the outcome, it doesn’t matter that you don’t have a beautifully packaged end product every time. Get back in touch with your love of writing, and remember why it is you enjoy writing.

Pick just one of these tips and start using it today to help get closer to your true creative writing potential.

Which one are you going to choose?

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

How To Be More Creative - Surely There's An Easier Way?

When we do things a certain way for so long, we forget there may be an easier way. However much we may be struggling, we just assume this is the way it is for now and forever more.

We find set routines and patterns that become so natural and so embedded in our way of doing things, we overlook that there might be a better way, a more efficient way, a more enjoyable way.

Here’s an example:

A friend of mine (let’s call him Jimmy) had a battered old heap of a car that was a little “temperamental” and wilful.

This sweet quirky old car (let’s call her Betty) would only start in the morning in winter if Jimmy went through a certain ritual each time. He’d get in Betty, put the key in the ignition and try to start her. Nothing.

So, out he’d get, armed with a sturdy hammer he kept under his seat, muttering obscenities under his breath at Betty’s unreliability. He’d open Betty’s bonnet, look at the engine, and give the starter motor a swift and precisely aimed whack with the hammer.

Climbing back inside, Jimmy would turn the ignition key and Betty would start up right away and chug along happily.

To many of us, this ritual with the hammer might seem odd and a bit of a hassle. Especially in the snowy depths of mid-Winter!

To Jimmy it was no big deal. It's just what he had to do to get Betty going. In having done the same thing day in day out for so long, he’d closed his mind to even considering if there was an easier way of doing things.

As a present for Jimmy, I got someone to fit a new starter motor in Betty. After that she started first time every time. He couldn’t believe how easy it’s been to fix the problem. “I should've sorted this out years ago!” he cried!

Now think about how this applies in your creative life.

What do you struggle with on a daily basis, that you’ve stopped even questioning whether there was a different way?

For each element of your life and your creative routines, ask yourself these questions:

If there was an easier way to do this, what would it look like?

If there was another approach that could save me time, effort and frustration, what would it be?

What are the first steps I can take to find this new, better way?

Of course it’s likely there is actually more than one other way to do these things. So don’t stop at the first obvious alternative solution. Keep asking the questions above until you have a list of alternative approaches.

Then pick 2 or 3 of the best ones and start putting them into action right away.

You’ll soon see that all you needed was a little rethink and to look at things with a slightly different perspective. And, like Jimmy, you won’t need to whack anything with a hammer each morning to get it going!

Kick-start 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 Beat Procrastination - Are You Ignoring This Crucial First Step?

Procrastination is responsible for more lost creative time than probably any other single issue.

Overcoming procrastination is a huge hurdle for many creative people, despite the great amount of time it would free up for us to create more.

More than just freeing up time, simply KNOWING you’re using your time more productively leads to other knock on benefits.

When you feel short of time, when you go to create knowing already before you’ve even begun that you’re under pressure to finish soon, obviously this adds extra anxiety.

You’re watching the clock, counting the minutes, and never truly letting yourself get lost in creating.

You’re never getting to the point of letting your creativity off the leash to play because you’re afraid it’ll run off to play in the woods, and you really haven’t got time to go chasing it and bring it back to heel again!

Also when you feel short of time, you never attempt any creative projects beyond very small and simple ones. Now these are great to do, and can bring a great amount of pleasure. In fact, always trying new “mini-projects” is an excellent habit to adopt for any creative artist.

But sometimes you want more.

You want to paint that 2m X 3m canvas, write that 50000 word novel, record that 12 track album. If you’re always losing time procrastinating, it’s going to be very difficult to make any significant progress with these larger projects you long to create.

So how DO you beat procrastination?

The first step is the most crucial. Ignore this and you’ll always be a slave to habits of procrastination.

Ready for the revelation of what this vital first step is?

Admit you procrastinate.

Yes, as simple as that. Yet for so many of us, however much we long to overcome procrastination, we don’t embrace this, and continue with heads in the sand wondering why we’re still not being more creative and making better progress.

If you don’t admit you procrastinate, you can’t move on to the next step, which is recognising how and when you procrastinate most.

The aim of admitting you procrastinate is not to blame and shame yourself, not to cast judgment and criticise how much time you spend avoiding creating.

If you approach it in that frame of mind, it’s only going to lead to pain, guilt, and most likely MORE procrastination.

Approach this instead with intention of becoming more aware, of learning how you do stuff. If you have this as your guiding motivation – to find out and learn more so you’re in the best and most informed position to move on – you won’t experience those negative and judgmental feelings.

If a struggling business calls in a consultant to help them, they don’t greet them on the first day saying “No, we’re fine, there’s no problem here. What’s that? We’ve made a loss for 15 months running? It’s only money, I try not to worry about... Sorry? Our staff only stay an average of 5 weeks? Yeah we just haven’t found the right ones yet, it’s their loss. I’ll give you a call when we have real problems...”

It’s the same with you and procrastination.

If you don’t admit there’s an issue there – something you can chose today to take control of and reclaim your creativity – you’ll always procrastinate.

Isn’t it time you took the first step?

And if you’re ready to take control and overcome procrastination in your creative life, I invite you to check out the new ecourse – 7 Steps To Freedom – How To Beat Procrastination and Set Your Creative Free.

Head over now to http://www.HowToBeatProcrastination.com to see the dramatic difference it’s made in the lives of other creative people.

How to Beat Procrastination - Are You Making This Vital Mistake Trying To Overcome Procrastination?

Procrastination is one of the biggest culprits in killing your creativity that there is.

Have you ever stopped to count up how much time you’ve spent avoiding creating, when you could have been creating? Like for most of us, the thought of even attempting to add up the hours, weeks, months and years is probably too depressing and overwhelming to even begin to contemplate.

Imagine for a moment how your life would be if you even just halved the amount of time you procrastinate.

How much extra creative time would that free up? How much more could you could create? How much better would feel about yourself and your creativity?

I think you’ll agree, it’s something well worth striving for.

So, how can you beat procrastination? Or at least reduce it significantly?

Most of us approach it something like this, see of you’ve had a similar conversation with yourself:

“So, I really want to beat procrastination and create more. Therefore I need to work out WHY I procrastinate, then I’ll be able to overcome it and I’ll stop procrastinating!”

This sounds a promising start. And yes of course, knowing why you procrastination can be very useful.

But this approach won’t necessarily stop you procrastinating. In fact, it’s likely to lead to MORE procrastination.

Here’s why:

When you ask your mind to look for solutions and answers, it willing obliges.

So if for example you say to yourself: “I want to think back to some of my favourite birthdays, and why I enjoyed them”, then your mind will immediately begin gathering the evidence and present those memories to you.

It’s what your mind does. It finds the evidence and the answers you’re looking for. So if you ask “What could be the reasons why I procrastinate?”, then guess what will happen? Yep, your mind will get to work and come up with dozens of reasons why you might be procrastinating. And yes most will have a element of truth to them.

But how do you think you’ll feel then? Enlightened and so happy you do a dozen cartwheels in your front room? Unlikely. More probably you’ll feel overwhelmed, despondent and think “No WONDER I procrastinate, look at all these reasons!! It’s a miracle I even create ANYTHING!!”

So here’s a different approach that DOES help you beat procrastination.

Instead of the “Why?”, focus on the “When?” and the “How?”.

What this means is notice WHEN you procrastinate most. What are the details of what’s going on around you at these times?

Then notice HOW you procrastinate. What are your favourite habits? What do you always fall back on to avoid creating?

Here’s a Bonus Tip: Often it’s the little things done many times a day that actually use up more time than doing one thing to procrastinate just once or twice.

If you follow this approach, you’ll get the bare truth about your procrastinating habits. And you’ll be in for some surprises. But then you’re in the best position to move on.

Once you’ve got the reality, you can begin to take the next step in beating procrastination.

So take this first step today.

And if you'd like to beat procrastination and set your creativity free in the next 21 days, I invite you to 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 In Writing Creatively

Having confidence in yourself as a writer can be the difference between writing freely and abundantly, boldly experimenting with many different techniques and styles, and, well, writing absolutely nothing.

So, if confidence in writing is so crucial, what can you do increase yours when you feel it’s less than overflowing?

Here are 5 Top Tips you can use today to boost your creative writing confidence to new levels:

1. Detach from the outcome. By expecting to produce a modern masterpiece of fiction or poetry each time you sit down to write, you place enormous and unrealistic pressure on yourself. The result? Even if you DO write something wonderful, it fails to live up to your expectation and you callously discard it, causing your already fragile confidence to weaken further.

Instead, write with complete detachment from the outcome. Tell yourself your aim is to write to experiment and to progress and develop yourself as a writer. Whether you produce a perfect end product is not important. Think journey not destination.

2. Start small and build. If your confidence is low, the worst thing you can do is take on a major new creative writing project that’s more ambitious than anything you’ve done before. Again, the pressure you put on yourself is huge, and your confidence is likely to take a further battering.

Instead, choose a small and manageable project to work on. It can be as simple as a 3 line haiku or a few paragraphs to describe someone you admire and find fascinating. Completing a number of small projects will enhance your confidence no end, rather than getting overwhelmed and stuck in something larger. Build up to more involved projects as your confidence grows.

3. Count your victories. Because you live with yourself every day, it’s very difficult to be objective about how creative you are. It’s all too easy to complain that you haven’t written ANYTHING in months and then upon looking a little closer realise you’ve written 17 entries in your journal, 5 poems, and 3 articles.

Post a “Writing Victories” page on your wall, or somewhere else prominent. Each time you do some writing or something towards writing, note it down, with the date on your victories chart. It can be a simple as “wrote an idea for a new character” or “spent an hour in local café observing people and making notes”, or “tidied and de-cluttered my writing area so I feel more motivated to write.” You’ll be amazed how much you do that you didn’t count before.

4. Remember to write to enjoy. When your confidence has taken a number of blows, the thought of writing anything starts to bring only negative associations. You feel anxious before you even begin. Obviously this isn’t conducive to writing confidently and freely.

Remind yourself why you write, and what you really enjoy about writing. Imagine you’re coming back to writing like a long lost lover, about to fall in love all over again. What enjoyment does writing give you that nothing else can? Once you’re back in touch with this, your confidence naturally increases because you know you’re writing for reasons very important to you.

5. Show up every day. The only way to write consistently and abundantly is to write regularly. And for this, writing should be a habit in your life on the same kind of essential level as eating, sleeping and breathing.

Set a time to write every day – make it a time of day that you find you’re most productive in writing. Then write for a minimum of 15 minutes at this same time every day. As your confidence builds, extend the amount of time to 20, 30, 60 minutes and beyond.

Use these 5 tips to increase your creative writing confidence today! Which tip will you choose to use first?

And to get your creative writing kick started right away, I invite you to get your FREE 5 part creative writing ecourse at http://www.YouAreACreativeWriter.com

How To Beat Procrastination - A New Approach That Works

How severely do procrastination habits affect your ability to create?

How often do you simply go and start creating, without finding a few “urgent” tasks on the way such as checking your email for the 10th time this morning, or making a snack you don’t really want?

For many of us as creative people, procrastination puts a major dampener on our freedom to create. It’s like we’re trying to get a huge bonfire lit and blazing, but someone keeps drenching it with a hose every time we feel its flames are starting to flicker.

So what can we do? Is there any hope, or should you resign yourself to a lifelong struggle with procrastination, accept it as the gorilla on your back that’ll stop you ever truly soaring in your creative work?

Thankfully, yes, there is an approach to beating procrastination that works.

Before we get to that, let’s take a step back. It’s important to understand why what you’re doing now ISN’T working. This isn’t to judge or criticise you, simply to help you open yourself to the idea that there’s a better way, and an easier way, for you to be more creative.

The first mistake we make with procrastination is not admitting we procrastinate.

Everyone procrastinates to some extent, however creative we are. Pretending you don’t simply gives procrastination the green light to run riot and become even more effective in stifling your creativity. If you don’t admit there’s an issue, and that there are many times you procrastinate when you could be creating, then you’ll ALWAYS procrastinate.

The second mistake we make with procrastination is endlessly analysing WHY we procrastinate.

This is the classic mistake we’ve all made with procrastination. Even if we do admit we procrastinate and that yes it does suck up precious time when we’d rather be creating, we then tend to go too far in the opposite direction.

The analytical mind kicks in and says “Right, I’m determined to know why I procrastinate. What could the reasons behind it be?”

Then, ironically, your creativity takes centre stage, producing an almost endless procession of perfectly valid reasons why you may be procrastinating.

“Maybe I’m afraid of failing”, “Maybe this isn’t the right creative project”, “Maybe I’ll create something amazing and people will demand more from me”...

Given time and a little anxiety to stir into the mix, no doubt you’d be able to come up with dozens of reasons why you procrastinate rather than create.

Great, so now you have all these reasons, you can overcome procrastination, right?

Wrong! All you’ve done is give yourself MORE reasons to procrastinate than you had before! So it’s now many times MORE likely you’ll procrastinate because you have all these very feasible and justifiable reasons in front of you. “No WONDER I don’t create more, look at all these things I’m battling with!”

You end up procrastinating by spending too much time thinking about why you’re procrastinating!!?!

Stop. It’s time for a new approach. An approach that works.

Instead of analysing WHY you procrastinate, focus on WHEN and HOW you procrastinate. It’s only by observing your behaviour – objectively and without judgement – that you can begin to notice when you’re most likely to procrastinate, and the favourite habits you have.

Only then can you start to put new creative habits in their place and overcome the procrastination habits that have held your creativity back for so long.

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

Don't procrastinate about it - visit now!

Creative Communities - There For You When Your Friends And Family Aren't

Do you find much of your time is spent creating alone in isolation?

Do you sometimes wonder if anyone even KNOWS that you create, let alone cares what you’re creating and why?

You may even find yourself thinking: “If I create something wonderful and no one else actually gets to experience it, is it still wonderful? In fact does it even really exist at all?!”

Maybe you’re fortunate to be surrounded by creative influences that encourage and support your creativity, people you trust who you can always turn to and know they’ll understand.

But for most of us who create, unfortunately this isn’t the case.

At best, our creative efforts and lifestyles are greeted by our friends and family with blank expressions that just don’t understand.

At worst, we’re criticised, mocked, or laughed at, our creative work dismissed as a “silly artsy stuff” or a “funny little hobby”.

How does this relate to experiences you’ve had in your creative life?

As you know only too well, it hardly breeds an atmosphere conducive to abundant and joyful creating.

There is an alternative though, you don’t need to continue to suffer silently alone!

In these days of the “global village” of the internet, the selection of supportive creative communities available for all kinds of creative disciplines is deep and wide.

By becoming part of a supportive community of like minded artists, you can see your creativity rocket to new, previously unseen levels. For some of us, the encouragement we find in a group like this is something we’ve never really experienced before.

There’s a common coaching phrase: Encouragement = Rocket Fuel.

With the kind of encouragement and support you can find in a creative community you’ll be flying to the moon and beyond every day!

Wouldn’t you love to experience a group where you know your work is appreciated, taken seriously and encouraged? A place where you can speak openly about the struggles of the creative process and know others will listen and understand, and be there to support you?

Unfortunately, our families and friends aren't always the first people we can go to for support and encouragement in our creative lives. Fortunately though now there are creative communities we can find today that give us that support we lack closer to home.

Now you've seen some of the benefits, isn’t it now a good time to start looking into joining a creative community that can bring these benefits to you?

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

Creative Communities - How To Find A Creative Community That's Right For You

Are you part of a creative community? A group of like minded creative people that meet up – in person or online – to share their artwork and support each other?

If you’re not, you could be missing out on one of the best ways ways available to help you be more creative than you thought possible.

Here are some of the major benefits a creative community can offer:

Sharing of artwork – Get other people’s opinions and feedback on your own work in a safe environment, before you release it into the big wide world. You also get to see the art of others and all the inspiration and community feeling that nurtures.

Discussions of the common struggles of creating – Nearly all creative people have similar kind of struggles, the big issues are all the same: perfectionism, procrastination, lack of focus, finding enough time, fear of failing, to name just a few. Hearing how others are experiencing and overcoming these issues is invaluable.

Widen your audience – By connecting with others in a creative community, your creative network instantly becomes as big as the combined network of everyone in your group. Through joint projects and promotions you can widen your potential audience many times over.

Collaborations and swaps– Find people to collaborate with on new creative projects, or join a swap group where members exchange art, either online or physically.

Increased accountability – Get involved in a group and you instantly feel more accountable in your creating. Rather than creating just for yourself, you now know you have a waiting, supportive group of people who will encourage you to reach your creative potential.

Any valuable creative community will offer the framework for all of these major benefits.

What’s most important though, above all of these, is that you feel the community is supportive, welcoming, and nurturing.

You need to feel safe there in contributing your creative work, your ideas and your thoughts.

If you don’t trust the community, you’re not going to find it helps you be more creative. In fact, a negative experience in an unsupportive community can actually dent your confidence, cause you to close up and create less freely than you did before.

The best way to find a creative community that’s right for you is to try to some out.

In person this means going along to a few meetings and getting a feel for what the community is about and what they offer their members.

Online, this is much easier. You can browse through the existing content of a community, read member’s contributions and get a good idea in a short time whether this is something you’d like to be a part of.

And with this in mind, I’d like to invite you to check out 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. Head over now to:

http://www.CoachCreativeSpace.com

Your Creative Vision - Have You Been Dreaming With The Lid On?

Do you have a clear, strong vision for your creative life?

Do you know exactly where you want to be heading, what you want to achieve in the next month, the next 6 months, the next year, the next 5 years?

What are your creative dreams and goals, and what are your plans for reaching them?

If you’re like most of us creative types, you’re probably now quivering behind the sofa, face locked in an expression of horror at the mere mentioned of words like “goals”, “achieve” and "plans”.

Because of this aversion to thinking about the future and putting steps in place to get there, your creative ambitions are far smaller and more limiting than they could be. In short, you’ve been dreaming with the lid on.

Here then are 5 of the major reasons why you don’t dream big in your creative life:

1. You feel you don’t deserve it. You don’t bother to think about what you could achieve because you feel you don’t deserve to get there and experience all the happy, proud feelings that would come to you. Most likely this comes from a combination of years of programmed thoughts like “I’m not worthy enough”, “Someone else more talented should get a break before me” and “I’ve not been good enough”.

2. You don’t recognise you dreams already around you. Often when we do think of creative dreams that are big and wide reaching, we don’t realise that already we have some of them in place. For example the writer who has written countless poems, stories and articles, but when asked what their creative dream is says “to be a prolific writer.” Recognise those dreams you’ve already achieved!

3. You’re scared of failing. If you dream big then of course there’s the chance – in fact it’s almost a certainty – that you won’t see every last detail of your dream perfectly realised. Because of this “all or nothing” kind of approach, rather than reach the amazing achievement of 75% of your creative dreams, you think it’s better to achieve none at all.

4. You don’t connect your dreams with reality. Your dreams are completely unrealistic. Even dreams have to be based in reality if you want to reach them. For example if you’ve been trying to learn guitar without much success for 10 years but still dream of being spoken of in the same breath of Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, you’re being unrealistic. Find a dream that plays to your unique talents and creative strengths.

5. You simply don’t know how to dream big. Maybe in your life you’ve had no examples or role models of people who’ve dreamed big and achieved them. There’s a saying that we become most like the 5 people we spend most time with. If none of them are creative or have achieved much, that’s going to seriously hold back your own creativity and ability to dream.

These are 5 of the reasons why we don’t dream big in our creative lives, why we keep our dreams small, in a jar, with the lid firmly on.

Which do you most relate to? What steps can you take in the next 24 hours towards taking the lid of that jar, or at least loosening it a little and giving your creative dreams a chance to come out?

Kick-start your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com

Increase Creativity Today - Focus On What's Working In Your Creative Life

Most of us are looking for ways to be more creative. Sometimes though, we’re so busy looking forward with our eyes fixed on the horizon, that we overlook what’s right there in front of us. We miss the many ways we already are being very creative, simply because we’re so familiar with them, and take them for granted.

When you focus on what is working well for you in your creative life it helps you be more creative in two main ways:

1. You realise how creative you already are. Instead of constantly longing to be more creative and always striving for some state of creativity that always seems a couple of steps out of reach, you see what’s real, what’s here and now. Instead of focusing on what always seems just beyond your outstretched arms, you realise what’s already right here in your hands.

This then makes you feel more confident in your creative abilities, as well more thankful. This is a great recipe for going on to become more creative.

2. You realise you already know how to be more creative. You don’t have to keep searching for some magic solution or secret that will unlock your creativity and help you gush forth creatively in an instant. You’ll see that you already have at your disposal techniques and habits that work. Then you can simply turn them up, tweak them a little.

You can very quickly increase your creativity by focusing on what works and doing more of it, and experimenting with slightly different methods, based on those tried and tested ones you’ve been using already.

So you can see the benefits are obvious. But how do you focus on what’s working? What’s the best approach?

Here are 3 great questions you can ask to get you started:

1. What do I do that allows me to create without resistance or distraction? Focus on the times when you’ve been creating and lost track of time and all around you. What were the key details that made these creative periods so effective for you?

2. What creative talents and strengths am I most proud of? What particular things can you do that other people can’t? How and what can you create almost effortlessly in a way that others can only dream about?

3. What frequency and intensity of creating works best for me? Do you create more in short periods of 30 minutes or find it easier getting stuck into a long 4 or 5 hour session at a time? Or maybe you find a combination of the two most effective?

Focusing on what’s already working well for you in your creative life, instead of counting up the things that aren’t, is a great way to instantly boost your creativity.

I encourage you to use the tips above to help you be more creative today.

And for a helping hand in kick-starting your creativity, I invite you to download your free copy of the powerful and practical Explode Your Creativity! Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com