It’s time to ask yourself not simply where you’re going creatively, but how you’re getting there. The creative crossroads you’re staring down is your opportunity to go big.
If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.
Albert Einstein
More and more, entrepreneurs and leaders are telling me that they are eager to express their creativity. Dive into the center of themselves and mine the gold that lies hidden from the world. Finally…finally…do the thing that has called to them over and over.
There’s one small hitch—they are terrified and paralyzed.
I wrote about this fear in my book, BUOYANT:
So how do we find our way into the work that we know will be challenging but rewarding? How can we breathe courage into the center of our hearts and get to our blank pages, index cards, and prototypes?
I have made a ritual of sorts for piercing the veil of getting started. I begin by gathering the items I need, like a chef arranging her mise en place. I leave nothing to chance, knowing that if I have to go in search of a tool, a note, an art supply, I can deftly use this distraction to avoid the work.
With everything set up properly, I muster my willingness to make my first mark. This is the moment on which everything else hinges: reaching forward where nothing currently exists and placing something onto the blank surface. It seems so simple, innocuous. Yet our minds will want to make this moment one of life or death—monumental, as if an error or misstep here is one from which we cannot recover.
It is the only way we ever create anything. That first mark is the beginning of the conversation, not the end. It is the first call in what will become a series of calls and responses. We put down the first mark, the first word, the first line, the first step. What follows is the reaction to that first effort, formed by our intuition as to where to take it next.
Artist Ralph Steadman says, “There’s no such thing as a mistake, really. It’s just an opportunity to do something else.” He begins his paintings by picking up his pen and making a strong flip of his wrist, forming a giant ink splat on the white paper. Steadman studies the ink splat and then decides what to make of it. The entirety of his artwork is born from those initial marks. Once a mark is on the page, he has something to fuel his intuition and build upon. And by choosing to “go bold” with his first mark, he bolsters his creative energy, and the energy communicated via his work, and swats away self-doubt.
This can be true for all of us. But it’s easy to forget. The wolves of self-doubt started circling me during the fifth (!) draft of my book. Gone were my rhythm and carefree approach to creating. My mind had gone uncharacteristically blank. As I cowered in fear, I tried to squint and see their body composition, every hideous hair of their being. Before their fangs could find my jugular and pronounce me creatively dead, I saw it, the source of their power: a dark zone comprised of the fear of harsh judgment. The fear of vulnerability, of being fully seen. Exposed and shivering in the limiting beliefs that my work would not be good enough.
That old fear again? Hadn’t I soundly healed those ancient wounds long ago? I had forgotten the cardinal rules of creativity that I teach to my coaching clients: 1) evict the squatters of self-doubt and the fear of judgment by keeping the editing and critiquing phase far away from your creating phase, and 2) the process of art-making teaches us how to trust ourselves.
Here is my 5-step process for getting started on a creative project:
- Get quiet. Turn off all distractions. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Sit still and in silence. Hear yourself think. Let the emotions you may tend to stuff down come to the surface. Listen. Feel.
- Decide what it is you want to create. (Hint: you already know.)
- Make your first mark, idea, or action BOLD. In fact, go for completely absurd. Ridiculous. Stunningly strange. Awful. Wild. Uncontrolled.
- After 10 minutes or so of creating with abandon, step back and have a look at what you’ve made. What else could it be? What else does it want to be?
- Make some rapid edits, additions, and/or subtractions, but hold those changes lightly. Think experimentation and iteration, not perfection.
Take a deep breath and exhale. Congratulate yourself. You have pierced the veil and crossed the threshold into the portal of creativity!
Now, notice something. Do you remember that approximately 45 minutes ago you used to believe you required self-trust, confidence, and clarity before you could create? Are you now willing to believe that those things come as a result of creating?
The Clipboard Susie version of me wants her ducks in a row before she writes, paints, sketches, cooks. I want it all figured out in advance. I crave confidence in my ideas before I make a move, and I want my path neatly defined.
And then I wonder why I’m stuck!
The longer I avoid beginning, the harder it is to get going.
The longer I avoid beginning, the harder it is to get going.
If you are being called to go on a Hero’s/Heroine’s Journey, and have consistently been refusing that call, it is time to lace up, grab your backpack, and make a path where there is none. All it requires is your willingness to embrace the absurd.
A quick note before I sign off:
If you are looking for a way to spark your inspired creativity, raise your energy levels to untold heights, and get the aligned strategic focus you crave, I would love for you to join us in the next cohort of The Sketchbook Entrepreneur Masterclass!
Those who have taken the masterclass report the ability to attract their ideal clients, develop new ideas for programs and services, and experience better energy and clarity. I’ve also heard students say they feel newfound joy and a lightness of being they haven’t felt in years. And…they now have the willingness to tolerate uncertainty and do the work they are most passionate about.
