How To Beat Procrastination - Why Procrastination Is More Addictive Than Chocolate

Out doing the grocery shopping while hungry (always a fatal mistake), you couldn't resist picking up a huge bar of your favourite chocolate.

"I deserve it" you think to yourself, "I'll just have a couple of chunks each night as a treat, it'll last me weeks..."

So, later that evening, after you're home and unpacked, and everyone's eaten and gone off to do their own thing, you remember that bar of chocolate. In fact, more than just remember it, you swear it's whispering your name seductively from the top shelf of that cupboard you think no-one else goes to.

"Ok, just a couple of chunks..."

So you take the bar of chocolate down from the top shelf (needing to balance precariously on one leg on a chair to do so), open the wrapping and break off two perfectly formed chunks.

Still as delicious as the first time you ever tasted it...

Those first two chunks disappear quicker than an ice cube on a sweltering summer's day.

"I'll just have another couple of chunks" you say to yourself, already feeling a little guilty and double checking to make sure no-one is around.

Half an hour, half the bar, and a whole load of "just one more"s later, you're not feeling so good.

Not only do you feel a little unwell from all that chocolate, more painful are the feelings it's brought up again. Guilty feelings, and you know you shouldn't but it's become such a habit you can't stop yourself kind of feelings. That whole "OK the diet starts as soon as this bar is finished" conversation you've had with yourself a thousand times.

Sounding familiar?

Exactly the same process occurs when we procrastinate. Except procrastination can be even more addictive - and bring up even worse feelings within you - than eating chocolate.

You set out to create with the best of intentions. You're almost ready, in fact after you "just check your email", you can start creating.

5 minutes later, email checked and dealt with. After you've "just" sorted these materials into colour order, you'll be ready to begin creating!

15 minutes later, materials sorted. Now, you'll "just" go and make a drink, then it's on with creating!

5 minutes later, drink made. It did look a bit messy in the kitchen though. You're not sure you can work knowing there's all that clutter out there. You better "just" go and tidy up then you'll have a clear head to get down to creating.

15 minutes later, your kitchen is tidied and the worktops so sparklingly clean you could eat your dinner right off them. Let's create! Right after you "just" check your email to make sure nothing important has come in since you last checked.

5 minutes later, email checked. And then you realise that three quarters of an hour has passed, seemingly even more quickly that that half bar of chocolate passed between your lips... And you've created nothing on the project you sat down to start.

Enter all those oh so familiar feelings of frustration, guilt and oh-no-I've-done-it-again-why-do-I-even-bother-trying-to-create...

Procrastination you see is even more addictive than chocolate.

But there's a way to beat procrastination. The crucial first step is to admit and recognise that you do procrastinate. You can't do anything to overcome it, until you admit it's an issue you're struggling with, and one you're ready to start beating.

The next step is not to analyse WHY you procrastinate - that simply gives you a stack of excuses to procrastinate even more. Instead look at WHEN you procrastinate and HOW you procrastinate. Armed with this knowledge, this snapshot of the true reality of where you're at, you're then in a strong and empowered position to start overcoming those addictive procrastinating habits that have stifled you creativity for so long...

And 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

For your free 7 article series on the first steps to beating procrastination, head over to http://www.CoachCreative.com/procrastinationarticles.html

How To Beat Procrastination - Why "Why?" Is Not The Answer To Overcoming Procrastination

We all struggle from the effects of procrastination to some degree, whoever we are and however creative we are.

Even if we take the brave and honest step of admitting that we do procrastinate, and declare we're determined to overcome it's debilitating grip on our creativity, we nearly always fall at the next hurdle.

The most logical thought process is:

"OK, I admit, yes I do procrastinate.

Procrastinating drastically limits how much I create and the quality of what I create.

So I need a way to beat procrastination and free up my creativity more.

The best way to do this is look at WHY I procrastinate. Once I get the answer to that, my problems are solved, no more procrastination!"

Sounds like a good plan, doesn't it?

Except it doesn't work. Here's what tends to happen next:

"So maybe I procrastinate because I lack confidence in creating? Or maybe it's because I'm not really sure this is the right creative project to be working on right now? Or maybe I don't want to mess up so I avoid getting too involved with the project. Or could it be I feel I don't deserve to have the time and opportunity to create when there are others far more deserving and talented? So I sabotage my time by procrastinating."

For most of us, ALL of these are perfectly valid questions and have some truth and relevance to us. And, given a little time, I'm sure your creative mind could come up with many more reasons.

So, having the knowledge that yes there are probably about 35+ equally likely reasons WHY we procrastinate gives us the answer we need to beat procrastination! Right?

Er, no, unfortunately.

All that happens is we procrastinate MORE. We start to think: "Look at all these reasons stacked up against me! No WONDER I procrastinate! It's amazing I've ever created anything in my life!"

Here's the alternative approach that works:

Instead of endlessly analysing WHY you procrastinate, find out WHEN and HOW you're most likely to procrastinate.

What this gives you is an honest appraisal of the reality of your procrastinating habits. Maybe you procrastinate most when you actually have a spare few hours to create, and end up doing less than when you have short but energetic bursts of creating? Maybe you're favourite procrastination habits are checking your email, surfing the internet and watching repeats of TV shows you never really liked in the first place?

Gather the information without judgement. Forget about the "WHY?". Find out WHEN and HOW you procrastinate most.

It's only then that you really begin to take control and put yourself in the empowered position of being ready to overcome those procrastinating habits at last...

And 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

For your free 7 article series on the first steps to beating procrastination, head over to http://www.CoachCreative.com/procrastinationarticles.html

How To Beat Procrastination - Recognising The Little "Justs" That Waste Years Of Your Life

How often do you find yourself fully intending to settle down and create something new, but only after you've "just" checked your email, or "just" made a snack, or "just" reorganised your pens, paints or materials?

This collection of little "justs" adds up to a lot of minor activity and very little creativity.

These kind of procrastination techniques are common to us all, and most of the time their greatest strength in stopping us creating is convincing us that all these little "justs" are insignificant, and aren't really stopping us from creating.

So what if you do take a few minutes to check your email every now and then? Does it really make much of a difference? What if you do spend 10 minutes rearranging your supplies before you go to create, does it have much of an impact on creating?

Let's look first at the raw facts, the time involved.

Say it takes you only 3 minutes to check your email. And you do this every half an hour. In a typical working day of 8 hours, that's 48 minutes checking email. 48 minutes out of a day of 24 hours is a little over 3%.

If you lived to 70, spending 3% of your life checking emails (or an equivalent "just" habit), that's over TWO YEARS of your life!

Are you happy that you're going to spend two years of your life doing something of such little significance, especially when many of those times when you went to check there was nothing new of any significance to see anyway?

And this is just the time you can actually measure. The real damage comes from how these little habits stop you ever getting any flow or momentum going with your creative work.

The first step to beating procrastination is to actually admit that you procrastinate.

Once you take that step, step up and say - "Yes I procrastinate, I spend time on fairly insignificant activities as a way of avoiding creating what really matters" - then you're in a very strong position to take the next step to overcome it.

Admitting you procrastinate is a positive, empowering step.

You're ready to put an end to these time wasting habits, to take back control of your creative life, and to create on your terms, when you want, how you want, and without distraction from some minor insignificant task you "just" have to do first.

Take that step today, admit you procrastinate, and prepare yourself for the next step in beating procrastination.

And 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

For your free 7 article series on the first steps to beating procrastination, head over to http://www.CoachCreative.com/procrastinationarticles.html

How To Beat Procrastination - The Crucial First Step You Can Take Before You Sleep Tonight

Procrastination - the act of avoiding something you want to do by doing other activities you convince yourself are more important and more urgent - is one of the biggest issues creative people wrestle with.

However much you personally struggle with getting down and just creating, without finding a hundred and one other tasks to do first, there's one crucial step you must take before can even begin to overcome procrastination.

Are you ready for this startling revelation, the secret to setting you off on the road to procrastination free creating?

The first step is simple: Admit that you procrastinate.

In fact it's so simple, that's why we tend to overlook it and plunge headlong into all sorts of analysis about why we're not creating.

How often do you find yourself asking questions like:

"Maybe this isn't quite the right project for me?"

"Maybe I'm scared of messing this project up and all that time will be wasted?"

"Maybe deep down I doubt I have the ability to create something like this?"

While these are all genuine and understandable concerns, they all overlook the basic fact that yes you do procrastinate. And that's OK, it's not a hangable offence, it's not something to be ashamed of.

Everyone who creates procrastinates, just to different degrees.

Here's your chance to regain control of that procrastination and start being more creative than you've been in probably longer than you can remember.

It starts with this first crucial step, admit that you procrastinate.

Once you've done that, you can move on to the next step, which is looking at when you're most likely to procrastinate, and how you're most likely to procrastinate.

You won't find some magic secret to why you're procrastinating, a single answer that will pop into your head and let you say "THAT'S why I procrastinate! Now that's out of the way I can get on with creating, I won't ever procrastinate again!"

But once you take this first step of admitting you procrastinate, then you can commit to looking at when and how you procrastinate.

Take this step before you go to sleep tonight.

Tomorrow you'll be more ready for the next step to beating procrastination than you've ever been before.

And 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

For your free 7 article series on the first steps to beating procrastination, head over to http://www.CoachCreative.com/procrastinationarticles.html

Creative Confidence - How To Avoid Drowning Before You Remember How To Swim

If you've not created very much for a long period, or if you've only been creating relatively small projects, and long to return to more expansive and ambitious works, there are two main ways of doing this.

Unfortunately, many of us take the difficult option by embarking on a major complex project, get stuck early on, our confidence in creating takes a shattering blow, and we retreat further into a frustrated non-creative state.

But there is a better way.

To illustrate, let me share the story of high school champion swimmer Cathy.

Naturally gifted, at 16 Cathy was the strongest swimmer in her school and had little competition locally. She joined the regional team, then the national team and by the age of 19 was one of the most successful swimmers in her country.

Cathy loved swimming, but through her twenties, life kind of got in the way. Her swimming career had to be supplemented by additional income, she got an office job, and before Cathy really realised it, she woke up one day at 39 years old in a middle management position in a job she didn't really care about.

Cathy decided it was time to rediscover some of the passions of her younger days, and swimming was the big one.

So, despite never having been in water any deeper than her bathtub for some 15 years, Cathy decided to go to the ocean to swim. Maybe you can guess what happened next.

Cathy underestimated the force of the tides, was overwhelmed by the water before she got up to her waist, retreating rapidly back to the safety of the shore. Worse than her struggle to actually swim was her realisation that she wasn't the fit, strong swimmer she used to be.

For the next 6 years, Cathy returned to nothing more adventurous than a bathtub, her pride bruised and her confidence having taken a severe blow.

On her 45th birthday, Cathy decided again that her urge to swim could not be ignored. But she was more terrified than ever at what might happened if she returned to the water. So she took the brave and humble step of enrolling in a swimming class at her local pool.

Within a few weeks, Cathy was gaining confidence in the water again. So much so that one of the teachers asked if she would like to help out with the babies swimming class that followed on from her lesson.

Now, a year later, Cathy teaches mothers, toddlers and children to swim in half a dozen classes a week. She also swims for herself, is in better physical shape than she's been for nearly two decades, and most importantly, loves being in the water again.

How does this relate to you and your creative life? Are you scared to "get back in the water"? Is your confidence in creating so low you barely attempt to create anything?

What are 3 things you could do this weekend to start to take the steps back to creating what you love? We're not talking about throwing yourself in the ocean, just dipping your toes in the shallow end of the pool, splashing around and having a little fun again.

List 3 things you could do this weekend, then pick one, set a time to do it, and take that action! Taking that first step will lead to another and another. Remember the story of Cathy and just imagine where you can be 3, 6 and 12 months from now...

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

Creative Inspiration - How Are You Leaving Your Unique Creative Fingerprints On The World?

Most of us who are creative have two major motivations to create.

The first is to discover more about ourselves, figure out who we are, what's important to us and where we're heading.

Our creative art in whatever form it takes allows us to experiment, explore and step by step become more ourselves.

The second major motivation to create is to connect with others.

To somehow touch, enrich and add a little colour to the lives of other people, whether they're people around us, or until now complete strangers.

So think for a moment how this happens in your creative life.

What creative fingerprints are you leaving on the lives of others?

How does your creativity enhance and inspire other people to create more, to understand themselves better, and ultimately be more happy and at peace with themselves?

You might well be thinking: "But how can I do that, I'm not a best selling author or a renowned painter with works in galleries around the world? How can someone like me do any good with what I create?"

What you may be overlooking is that your art, the "creative product" that results at the end of a new project is only a small part of the story.

There are many ways to get your art in front of the eyes of an appreciative audience - especially since the explosion of the internet. But there are other ways, equally powerful and inspiring ways, you can leave your creative fingerprints.

As important as WHAT you create is HOW you create.

Imagine you have a day job local to where to live and walk to work every morning. You regularly pass a young man in a coffee shop, who always has a sketchbook out, scribbling away. You've never seen the result of his creativity, in fact it's not relevant to the impression he leaves on you.

Just by seeing that young man publicly creating each day, being brave enough to demonstrate through his actions that creating is something important enough to him that he has no fear or embarrassment about drawing in the midst of a crowded coffee shop, can't fail to inspire you.

Or maybe every evening you walk home past a dance studio and see a mature couple in each other's arms, gracefully gliding through the kind of steps they've danced a million times before, still with the same passion and enjoyment that they had when they were young and first met.

Again, you couldn't help but be inspired and encouraged in your own creativity.

You too can be the young guy sketching in the coffee shop, or the dancing couple. Just by stepping up and creating each day, you also can touch the lives of other creative people, lead by example and say "Creating is a core part of my life, I'm showing my commitment to that by showing up each day and simply creating."

Think of some of the ways you can do this today. Then put them into action. You have no idea just what kind of fingerprints you could leave on the creative life of another...

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 Beat Procrastination - How Many Procrastinators Does It Take To Change A Light Bulb?

Q. How many procrastinators does it take to change a light bulb?

A. Five.

One to check their email, one to go and make a cup of coffee and a snack, one to empty, clean and rearrange their toolbox so they're 100% prepared and ready, one to go on the internet and read at least 10 articles on how to change a light bulb, and one to sit in the dark and complain they never have enough time to do things like change light bulbs... And, guess what, the light bulb doesn't get replaced!

Which one of those five is most like you?

I know I've used each and every one of those techniques to avoid creating. And about a hundred others.

There's one crucial step to beating procrastination that if you don't take, you'll be trapped in these seemingly never ending cycles of procrastination for the rest of your life.

How many minutes of each hour do you waste procrastinating when you could be creating? How many hours each week? How many days in this last year can you write off to various procrastination habits?

It's a scary thought isn't it?

I'm not asking you to count this time up to depress you, but to show you the first step in how to beat procrastination.

The first step is simply to ADMIT you procrastinate.

To say "Yep, this last year I've probably spent at least a week or two purely on doing things to avoid creating what's important to me..." It's not to judge or criticise you, it doesn't make you a bad or weak person. By admitting you procrastinate you instantly take a step towards being stronger, more informed, and far less likely to procrastinate as much any more.

By admitting you procrastinate you're also saying "It's time for change. From this day on I'm ready to drastically reduce the time I spend procrastinating and reclaim this time for creative pursuits that are important to me."

Congratulations, you're on the way to beating procrastination.

Once you've admitted you do procrastinate, the next stage is to look at WHEN and HOW you procrastinate. As soon as you begin to shine a light on those most common habits of procrastination, you'll be in a far more powerful position to eliminate them.

But it all hinges on that first crucial step. Are you ready to admit you procrastinate, and take the first step to overcoming it?

And 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

Creating Writing Prompts & Exercises - Your Recipe For Mouth Watering Creative Writing

Have you found lately your writing has become a little predictable and samey? Rather than serve up scrumptious sentences and mouth watering metaphors, you've somehow slumped into a writing diet about as appealing as stale bread and water.

There is a way out though, techniques you can use to restore your writing to fabulous feasts fit for a king, rather than the day before yesterday's reheated leftovers.

Creative writing prompts and exercises are fantastic tools to help your writing evolve into new levels, and give it the sparkle and freshness it's recently lost.

Good writing exercises and prompts are a lot like good recipes. Simple, easy to follow, and most importantly, they produce delicious results far greater than the sum of their ingredients.

So why don't writers such as you and I use prompts and exercises more often?

The most common concern is that they are somehow a shortcut, a cheat. You feel as a writer you should be able to produce every last word and syllable yourself, not borrow them from others.

Let's look at the recipe analogy again. Do you need to produce every ingredient in the recipe yourself for it to be a tasty meal? No. Do you have to be the greatest chef in the world with a top team working for you in the most lavishly equipped kitchen imaginable? No.

With writing prompts and exercises, once you're over that first hurdle, you actually realise that the more you use them, the less strictly you need to follow them.

The wider range you use, the more techniques you absorb into your writing arsenal.

In the same way as when you've followed a recipe a few times and prepared delicious meals, you start to add your own little tweaks and flourishes and really make it your own, you can apply this same theory using writing prompts and exercises.

Then, instead of reaching for a new prompt when you get a little stuck with your writing, one you've used before pops into your head. "I know, I'll try that Random Objects exercise. But instead of picking two objects, I'll pick one object, two people and a location..."

Your creativity is brought to the fore not only in the writing itself, but also in the way you come up with ways to write.

The more you use them, the easier it becomes.

In a matter of weeks you can take your writing to new levels, and never fear being stuck for ideas or inspiration again. Now that is mouth watering prospect.

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.

Beat Perfectionism! Top Techniques To Keep Your Creativity Alive

Perfectionism - the need for every last detail of your creative projects to be exactly right down to the last button, beat or brushstroke - is a major creativity killer.

Think about your own experiences of perfectionism for a moment and how it's affected your creative confidence and your ability to finish creative projects.

Maybe you recognise the following kind of scenario:

You have a great idea for a new project, your enthusiasm is bubbling over and you throw yourself into creating with great excitement.

This initial momentum carries you through about 80% of the project easily and you're so immersed in your work - and having so much fun - you completely lose track of time. 4 hours pass in what seems like about 4 minutes.

Then, from nowhere, up pops our old friend Mr Perfect.

You know you're approaching a natural point to finish your project, and somehow whenever you get to this stage, Mr Perfect seems to appear.

From then on, your creative energy plummets, you start to doubt all you've created in this project so far, and all you can focus on is the seemingly impossible mission of ever getting this finished.

There are two great techniques to use to prevent and overcome these kind of miserable experiences when you're in the grip of perfectionism.

1. Practice finishing creative projects.

The more creative projects you start and don't finish, the more difficult it becomes to finish ANY new project. You begin to develop a complex about not being able to see a project through to the end, and feelings of being a failure or useless become stronger.

The way to overcome this is simply to practice finishing. Get used to the experience of going through every stage of a creative project, from beginning to end.

The easiest way to do this is to regularly pick small projects to work on, as well as the larger, more complex ones. For example an Artist Trading Card or a Haiku are both small but rewarding projects that can be done in 15 minutes. The more comfortable you become with finishing these smaller projects, the easier it'll be to finish your more complex ones.

2. Practice making a mess and scribbling over the lines.

Fear of making a mistake or making a mess is often a huge element of perfectionism. Again, practice in doing this will help you become more familiar and accepting of it and make it less of an issue when it happens. Remember too, some of the most interesting experiences of your creative life can come from "happy accidents".

Here's a simple and fun way to get started. Buy a childrens colouring book, one with thick black lines and big bold pictures and some coloured pens. Then pick a page at random and start writing wherever in the page you feel is the least perfect and most messy place to start.

It doesn't matter if you write out a shopping list, just write something, using a number of different colours, and all over the lines of the picture outlined in the book. It might make you feel awful at first, like you're committing some unforgivable sin. But the more you do it, the more comfortable you'll be. And the less you'll have that desire to be utterly perfect in the rest of your creating.

Practice these two techniques regularly and you'll be well on your way to overcome the dreaded perfectionism, and be able to create more freely, and more enjoyably.

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

And 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.

Creative Writing Prompts & Exercises - Shortcut To Happiness For Your Writing

Have you been struggling lately to find new interesting ways to write, and frustrated that all your writing seems to end up in the same place, with the same words and phrases? Then you might want to check out a few creative writing prompts and exercises.

What writing prompts and exercises do is give you a new way of seeing, a fresh perspective to start from, something you might not have thought of on your own.

At this point, many writers back off, and claim that using something like a prompt or exercise is cheating in some way and that true writers should be able to come up with every last letter of their writing themselves.

Think of it like dancing.

Say you've been dancing modern jive for a few months, you've got a good range of basic moves and know how to have a good time on the dancefloor. But you want to know more, you want to be able to learn some new moves, because the handful you know are getting a little repetitive, and, well, boring!

What do you do? Do you expect to be able to conjure up some new techniques yourself from nothing? Or do you do the sensible thing and enrol in a few intermediate level classes or workshops to learn some new moves from people who already know them inside out?

You'd more than likely take the second option. Does it mean you're not a good dancer? No. Does it mean you're not capable of being an amazing dancer and developing your own unique style? No again.

Because you enjoy dancing, and because you're keen to explore your dancing potential and try new moves, you make the wise decision to take some new classes.

A few months in, you'll be amazed at how much you're dancing has progressed. And it's more than likely you'll have developed your own unique style, your own favourite signature moves and new sequences you put together yourself from elements you've learnt in classes.

It's just the same with your writing and using writing prompts and exercises.

It doesn't mean you're not already a good writer, nor does it mean you're not capable of being an incredible writer.

By spending time exploring some new writing prompts and exercises, you're simply saying "Writing is important to me, I'm prepared to invest some time exploring new ways I can develop my writing potential, and become the best writer I can be".

Then, like with the dancing, the more different new techniques you incorporate, the more experienced you become, and the easier you'll find it to develop your own unique style of writing.

Your hesitation in using writing prompts and exercise is understandable.

But if you really want a few shortcuts to happiness in your enjoyment of writing, they're one of the best paths you can take.

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

Why Using Creative Writing Prompts & Creative Writing Exercises Doesn't Make You A Cheat Or A Fraud!

Many writers find themselves in the position of being caught between two stools.

One the one hand, you’re struggling to find new ideas and new ways of writing, and all you seem to be able to come up with is tired rehashes of work you’ve written dozens of times before.

On the other hand, you’re not prepared to try any writing exercises or prompts, because you feel that’s a cop out, or a shortcut.

You feel you should be able to come up with your own ideas and work, from the first word to the last, not by using anything that’s been created by anyone else, even if it is just to get started.

Obviously, this is not a very comfortable place to be and doesn’t make for a happy productive writer.

So what can you do?

Well, maybe the creative writing prompts and exercises route isn’t the big cheat you think it is.

Using a prompt or exercise to get you started, so you can then set your own creative talents free, is actually one of the best ways to develop as a writer, to keep your ideas fresh, to experiment, and maybe most important of all, to ENJOY your writing more.

Under a little closer scrutiny, the “it’s a cop out, it’s cheating” argument doesn’t really stand up.

If your argument is that you should be coming up with your own work from the very beginning to the end, then why do you use words that have already been invented? Why do you write in sentences? Why do you use punctuation?

Take this a step further even, why do you use the recognised letters of the alphabet and not invent your own new set of symbols every time you sit down to write??

When you use letters, words, sentences and other recognised ways of expressing yourself through writing, you do it because it’s a structure you can use to write effectively and easily. You don’t have to think about which alphabet to use, or what a symbol to represent the emotion “jealousy” or the colour “blue” might look like.

With creative writing prompts and exercises you’re using the same theory and process. You’re just using a certain structure or outline or starting point to give your writing some direction and some form.

Writing prompts and exercises just get you started. What you do once you’ve set off writing is entirely up to you, and completely, uniquely your own work.

So if you’ve been struggling for that breakthrough to give your writing the breath of fresh air it needs, but have been avoiding using writing prompts or exercises because you feel they’d make you a fraud, then think again.

They could well provide the starting blocks you need to take your writing into the realms of greatness...

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

Creativity Is A Choice - The Crucial Difference Between "I Don't Create" And "I Can't Create"

We’re all born creative. It comes naturally to us, as does being inquisitive and curious about the world around us.

We want to explore, to question, to play, to learn and to make stuff. All the core elements of being highly creative.

Then, unfortunately, over time most of us grow up and lose sight of that carefree spontaneous creativity we had as a young child.

We start to believe “I can’t create like I used to”, “My creativity dried up long ago”, or even “Maybe I was never creative anyway”...

When we think and say these kind of things to ourselves, it reinforces the belief.

Each time we have the thought “I’m not creative”, it makes us a little bit more sure that we’re not creative.

The belief gets a little stronger.

But it IS only a belief. That’s the crucial point.

We act according to what we believe about ourselves.

Our patterns of behaviour follow our beliefs as surely as a dog’s tail follows its body.

Fact is unchangeable, reality, truth. It’s just what is, we can’t do anything to alter that.

But our beliefs are not so set in stone. We can CHOOSE what we believe. And we can choose which beliefs to let go of, which ones no longer serve us and the person we want to be.

Ultimately, it’s down to choice. YOUR choice.

YOU choose whether you allow yourself to use your creativity. You haven’t forgotten how to create, anymore than you haven’t forgotten how to breathe or to eat or to walk.

Creativity is embedded in you, it can’t ever be removed. It’s up to you whether you choose to acknowledge it’s there.

When you say “I’m not creative”, what you actually mean is “I’m not ALLOWING myself to be creative”.

Saying “I can’t create” disempowers you. It removes all control. It makes you a powerless object with no free will, like a tiny pebble on a beach at the mercy of the ocean’s tides.

Change this statement – “I can’t create” – instead to “I don’t create”. Notice how different that feels now. Take it a step further and say: “I choose not to create”.

Say it out loud a few times: “I choose not to create”.

How does that feel?

The simple act of just changing what you tell yourself from "I can't create” to “I don’t create” and then “I choose not to create" returns the power and control to you.

Now it logically follows that if you choose NOT to create, you can just as easily choose TO create.

So there’s your new belief: “I choose to create”.

Just say the words out loud a few times and notice what it difference that makes. It’s a simple choice, and most importantly it’s YOUR choice. And there’s never been a better time for you to make it.

The first step to rediscovering a life of creativity is to have strong guiding beliefs on place that tell you that you CAN be creative, and that you choose to be creative.

Don’t ever forget, that choice rests with you and you alone. Choose to create TODAY!

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