I wanted you to see it because she’s so joyful and so committed to her art form and her process, that it’s very inspiring.

Click on the video below to watch–or, if you don’t see anything, click here to see it on YouTube–it’s worth it. Enjoy!

Perhaps that sounds simple or obvious, but it’s the way I write my newsletters–therefore, it’s my newsletter writing process.

I’ve only started to notice my newsletter writing process because lately, I haven’t been able to use it, and that’s made it challenging for me to write anything at all.

In fact, in the last month or so, I’ve actually missed a week or two, which is highly unusual for me. (Okay, I was sick too, but still.)

And because I can’t change the nature of my schedule (at least for now), I’d like to find a way to adapt my writing process to my situation.

And this got me thinking about you.

If you’re trying to make room for your creative dreams and are having a hard time of it, maybe it’s because it doesn’t feel like you can “do your thing” the way you normally do it, or the way you used to do it, or the way you’d prefer doing it.

Maybe you like to work undisturbed for hours, but you can’t carve out a big block of time in your current busy schedule. And if you can’t do it that way, you think, “Why even start?”

Or maybe you feel like you need lots of privacy to create, but your home and your family aren’t designed that way and you feel too exposed to dig in.

This is challenging. And the funny thing is, this kind of block/thought can live underneath your own radar–it can be holding you back without your consciously realizing it.

Which can make it hard to fix.

However, once you are aware of it, then things can shift.

(Less Than) Ideal Conditions

The thing is, it’s a two step process:

• you have to realize what you’re thinking/believing AND
• you have to be willing to let it go.

This second part can be hard. Because maybe you’re pissed about not being able to follow your natural process. You WANT 4 or 5 hours in one solid block dammit.

Or you WANT to be able to work on something for longer than 5 minutes without 10 people hunting you down because they’re hungry or because they can’t find something they need right this second as they look down at your work and carelessly say, “What’s that?”

You want that. Is that so wrong?

No, it’s not.

And yet, it’s also getting in the way because the stars are not aligning to make your that happen.

So if this is you–if you realize that you aren’t creating because conditions are not ideal, then you’re probably going to have to let that attachment go in order to start creating. To be the artist you are.

Sigh.

But you can take your time about it. Feel free to be huffy, grumpy and out of sorts for a while.

And while you’re huffy, just consider letting it go. And when the huff dies down a little, maybe express it in words–privately in your diary, or out loud over coffee with your best friend, or to the guilty parties directly–”can you guys PLEASE give me some time to myself?”

And as you let yourself both be upset and consider the possibility of other options, your resistance will start to shift. A solution may pop up out of nowhere–maybe it suddenly feels okay to ask your loving family not to look at what you’re working on because it makes you self-conscious, or you feel more willing to try using the 20 Minute Technique and set yourself a lower bar for what you might accomplish in one sitting.

Now that I’ve figured out what’s impeding my writing, I’m asking myself, “How can I adapt so I can get back on track?”

What other way can I write my newsletters when I seem to have no space in my brain for another new thought?

How can I transition between disparate tasks in ways that work for me?

Or could I adapt in another way, and change my writing schedule instead?

What do I want for myself and how can I make it happen?

And so I ask you too:

What do you want for yourself and how can you make that happen?

Big Hugs! -Sarah

Are you secretly afraid you can’t beat it? Or that it was just a happy accident?

I mean, you know you made it, but it feels like the exception and not the rule, and maybe you’ve decide that it doesn’t count?

Or you feel like you’ve mysteriously managed to trick Fate and slip one by him as he dozed off on his 24 hour shift at the Dickensian Don’t Get Too Big for Your Britches accounting desk in the sky?

Maybe you’ve even made something you love so much that now it’s paralyzing you from making more work because you think none of it will ever measure up to that piece again.

And if it’s been a while since you’ve made anything and you feel rusty, these worries can bring on a full-blown bout of extreme self-censorship and anxiety about ever trying again.

Listen, you’re not alone. Almost every artist, crafter, writer or designer I know secretly harbors these thoughts or has done at some point in their creative life.

Thing thing is, it’s total garbage. You made it once and you can make it again–or do something better.

Your best work is there to remind you what you’re capable of and the incredible possibilities that lie before you. You’re not a One Hit Wonder, over the hill and past your prime.

No one is.

Even One Hit Wonders. Because their singular “hit” was about the market and has nothing to do with the music.

You have a lifetime of creativity and possibility in front of you. And in that lifetime, sometimes you’re going to make crap–it’s inevitable.

And those of you who push yourselves out of your comfort zone most often will make more crap than the others.

But you will also make more great stuff too.

The great stuff and the…. “wadders” as we say in the sewing world, are like a yin yang inevitability–each is necessary for the other, and together they make your path.

The “wadders” are not mistakes, and the time you took to make them was not wasted. They’re paving stones on your path to better work. The real trick is to enjoy and honor them.

And the more you create, the easier this is to do because…the more you create, the more you own your process.

The more you create, the more you realize you are not your stuff. You are, in fact, a many splendor-ed thing!

The more you create, the more you embrace the evolution of your own artistic journey and the less you care what others think about what you do.

The more you create, the more okay you are with your mistakes, side trips, and risk-taking.

The key is to commit to yourself and your particular creative path regardless of the “success” of the work you make. Why? Because you’re already in it for the long haul–whether you realize it or not.

You could get hit by a bus tomorrow, but you”ll probably live to a ripe old age and you’ll still be drawn to creativity and creating–whether you’re making anything or not–just like you are now.

How are you going to spend those years from now til then?

Are you going to get to the end of your life having protected yourself from bad feelings and occasionally looking silly, or will you include yourself in the creative experience simply because you want to, because you enjoy it, because it makes you feel like yourself, fully connected to being alive?

Will you give yourself challenges? Will you make things you have no idea how they will turn out? Will you immerse yourself and go to your particular edge?

Will you live your life like the artist you are–creating, looking, thinking, noticing, reveling, marveling, appreciating and making-making-making–unwilling to rob yourself of your particular creative experience, your particular creative path?

What will you choose?

Please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you.

So when I found out that Ira Glass has made 4 videos on the creative process, I had to watch them.

(Well, ostensibly, he’s talking about story-telling and the art of making stories for the radio because that’s what he does, but really, he’s talking about the creative process. So if you don’t make stories, every time he says the word  “stories” just replace it with the word “visual art” in your mind and it all still works.)

I loved all four, but I’m thinking that you probably won’t watch all four. But you should watch at least one.

So I’ve picked #3 and I’m sticking it here because he talks about something that no one really mentions when they discuss the creative process–what to do when what you make doesn’t measure up to your own taste level–what you personally consider really good.

He talks about why that’s completely normal, and the simple thing you must do to get beyond it. I love that he’s done this.

(And I’m not going to tell you what that simple thing is, because I want you to watch it. )

So even though he’s talking about stories and story-telling, it’s relevant for ALL creators of anything.

Here it is, I hope you watch it:

Your thoughts?

My dad was a football coach for 50 years, my mom golfed, my brother always played 3 sports, and my younger sister and I were swimmers when we were young, and then I played basketball in high school.

Sports was the dominant theme in my house growing up. And we were pretty much always going to practice in some way, shape, or form.

In truth, I kind of wish sports was a little less central to my childhood than it was, but I did get a lot out of it.

The best things I got out of it were:

• experiencing the benefit of practicing even when I didn’t feel like it;
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• experiencing the reality of doing something hard and having it get easier;
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• finding out that my best was a moving target–because every time you do your best, you have a new best;
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• living through the discomfort of being at my edge and getting to the other side–pushing myself farther than I thought I could–because a coach demanded that we do that.

Being bossed by a coach to your limit may sound sort of awful, but really, those experiences have carried me through many everyday challenges in my adulthood.

I could always suck it up and meet hard deadlines at work because I had to do that all the time as a kid–I knew it would end, I knew I could do it, and I knew I just had to keep my head down and finish.

And it helps me with my artmaking. Because I don’t just believe certain truisms about process, I know them. For instance, I know that practice will improve me.

I know that I’ve been very, very bad at games or techniques that I wanted to do, and I got better by trying and practicing.

And this trying and practicing by playing team sports is usually a public sort of struggle–you can fall on your face in the gym in front of all your classmates, and life goes on.

And more importantly, you go out the next day and do it again. You experience, first hand, the integrity of trying, failing, and coming back for more. The season isn’t over just because you feel disappointed.

And then you find out that disappointment is temporary. (This is huge.)

And as an adult, it helps me work out at the gym. I know the difference between good pain and uh-oh-I-better-stop pain. I know how to mix it up, how to set mini-goals to relieve the boredom, and how to push myself to get the results I want.

I also know that crappy workouts are an unavoidable part of having great workouts.

And I know if I stop for a while altogether, well, I have to get back in shape and I might be uncomfortable as I do that.

So, strange as it might sound, sports is actually a metaphor for my art-making.

My sports metaphor helps me keep trying when I think I suck.

It reminds me that a few minutes is better than no minutes.

It helps me be patient with my progress on this project or that.

And the truths that I laid out in the list above–knowing my best is a moving target for instance–is a physical, visceral knowledge for me. I don’t know it intellectually, I know it in my body.

So that’s me.

What about you?

What experiences or challenges in your life can you draw on to support yourself and your artistic goals and desires?

What’s your metaphor?

Happy New Year!

Last week, I talked about choosing a theme for your creativity in 2011 and I LOVED-LOVED-LOVED all the theme ideas that everyone shared in the comments. So smart, thoughtful, and inspiring.

If you haven’t seen them and are still looking for the perfect theme for yourself, I invite you to please take a look. You might find the perfect idea from someone else’s comment.

My theme for this year is Persistence and I think my tagline is going to be Collaborate (I’m still “honing”).

Now I want to help make it real by creating a vision board or a mind map based on my theme. Will you join me?

This can involve cutting out lots of different images from magazines that relate to your theme, but if that feels too complicated or you can’t find the right images, feel free to just get yourself lots of magic markers and let yourself doodle your way to a fun and inspiring vision board.

Here’s a mind-mapp-y visiony thing I made last year when I my theme was Break Through and my tagline was Have Faith.

I used a giant piece of paper and it took up a huge chunk of wall which I totally recommend if you have the space because it really helps make your theme a priority in your life.

The process of creating a visual expression of your theme helps you develop your ideas about what it means for you and transforms an abstraction into something more concrete. Simple imagery and symbols are a POWERFUL way to help your subconscious really internalize your theme’s message.

For instance, persistence could be expressed by an image of a river.

If I use that as my hook, I could keep exploring that angle by using blue and green markers to doodle up some rushing water swirls and shapes while also expanding on the river idea with more water images that feel persistent–maybe a gorgeous and powerful waterfall, or a picture of a mossy rock softened by a slow imperceptible drip. My tagline, Collaborate, could be expressed by images of symbiotic relationships in nature or even straightforward photos of hands or people working together.

I know all this might sound corny, but it works because our brains respond strongly to symbolism–and the more personal, the better. Remember, it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone except you!

Another Cool Way to Start Your Year Right

The lovely and smart Jennifer Hofmann from Inspired Home Office, (a very cool organizing business for us right-brain-y types) has a super cool program for starting your January off in a very supportive, un-January type way, and I wanted to tell you all about it because I’m thrilled to be involved.

She’s created a month long series of classes and programs called “A Call to Nourish“. And as part of that awesome call for sanity and self-care, I’ll be teaching a Creative Breakthroughs Collage Tele-class, and I’m so excited.

It’s truly an inspiring month of great programs run by very cool roster of powerful and creative women.

This program also includes the chance to participate in 4 of Jennifer’s Office Spa Days which are a fantastic way to get your studio or craft room organized in a sustainable fashion that makes sense to you…I’m planning on attending at least one myself–and as I look around at the chaos I call my studio, maybe make that two…

She’s offering it all at an insanely good price, so please check it out here, and if it feels right, sign yourself up for some sanity and self-care.

Your Turn

How’s your new year starting off?

Do you think you might create a vision board using your theme as your guide? Are you still trying to catch your breath from the holidays? Are you ready to organize your studio or make a date with your creativity by taking a Creative Breakthroughs Collage Class?

Please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you!

Does your Creative Breakthroughs Collage tele-class use the “blah blah blah” thing with the brain?

No idea.

But he also didn’t make things. And then when I said to him, “you know, you don’t need to be inspired to be creative,” he looked so disappointed.

I said, “I’ve made things for a living on a deadline for a long time which means that I had to regularly create things whether I was inspired or not. The difference between my inspired work and my un-inspired work is pretty much nil.”

Since this is a favorite topic of mine, (poor guy!) I continued:

“But that’s not a bad thing, it’s a great thing” I said, “because I know my creative abilities are available to me all the time.”

He still looked a little disappointed.

Ah, Romance

Our romantic ideas about inspiration are powerful and sexy and well, romantic.

We love inspiration because it feels good–it feels real and special and different from everyday life, and we ALL love that.

But inspiration is also like a butterfly or a hummingbird–who knows when she’s going visit, let alone land long enough to get a good look at her and breathe in her delicate beauty.

So if you wait to be inspired before you start creating, well, you could wait a long time.

But in the same way a gardener can plant a a butterfly bush to draw butterflies into her world, you can plant the seeds that will invite inspiration into your life more regularly.

Well really, it’s just one seed.

And that seed is? Yep, you guessed it.

Create.

Don’t wait to be inspired to create. Start creating and you’ll get inspired.

That’s how it works. I promise this is true.

It doesn’t matter how simple you keep it. 20 Minutes here, 20 Minutes there is fantastic.

Go be by yourself, or sit in front of the TV with the whole fam, it really doesn’t matter.

Oh, and another helpful thing! Either

• do something really important to you
• or try something where you feel less emotionally invested in the outcome

Just do whichever one lets you feel safe enough or motivated enough to get started–it’s usually one or the other.

Be Kind

It does help if you can be gentle and generous with yourself and your creative attempts because everyone, everyone, everyone makes bad stuff sometimes.

Which also means it’s okay to make bad stuff because everyone does it and, THEREFORE, it’s not damning evidence proving that you suck.

And you know, the mean voices keep inspiration away, not the other way around.

Inspiration can’t get rid of the mean voices.

In fact, when you start pulling the mean-voice-weeds out of your creative garden, inspiration will actually start to flutter in more often because it’s safe and you’ve been tending things and making a welcoming atmosphere.

Doesn’t that sound nice?

Now I also know the mean voices can be hard to get rid of, so next week I’ll talk about a meditation or two you might do to make room for other more positive voices.

In the meantime, remember–don’t wait to get inspired to create. Start creating and you’ll feel inspired.

——————————————————————————————————-

What do you think? Have you been waiting to be inspired or do you already create regularly and find what I’m saying here to be true yourself? Wherever you are in the creative process, please share your thoughts, I’d love to hear from you!

This summer, one of my best friends  saw the collage artist and recent MacArthur Award winner Mark Bradford speak at a conference for art teachers in Chicago and was blown away.

This weekend, she came down from Vermont to visit me and we hopped on the subway to the Studio Museum in Harlem (great museum with a warm, lovely vibe) to see his latest work.

While we were there, we sat down to watch a PBS Art 21 episode about him, and it was awesome.

I love the way he talks about his creative process!

And since you know I like to talk about the creative process a lot here on the blog, I wanted to share the link to this video with you. Please, WATCH IT–you’ll be inspired, I promise.

It’s so good. He’s so good. Art21 is so good.

It’s all good-good-good.

Mark Bradford Video

Here’s the link:

http://video.pbs.org/video/1239798931

You have no idea how much I appreciate your thoughts and reflections and willingness to play and try.

And I’d also like to suggest, as you express your own thanks for what you’re grateful for this long, feast-filled weekend, to include yourself in your gratitude list.

Because as I’ve helped aging family members transition through difficult changes this year–where simple things have now become hard–I’ve come to realize. like never before, the importance of truly taking the time to be thankful for your own gifts and abilities in the fullness and strength of your life as it is right now.

So yes, be thankful for your life and your family and your security and your friends. Be grateful for all that is around you.

But please also take a moment or two to honestly stop and let your own gifts and talents deeply sink in to your awareness–your hands that make things, your eye for color, your joy in creating, your ability to make someone laugh when they’re crying, your good listening skills, your punctuality, your willingness to do something hard–each and every one, whatever they are.

And don’t just honor your gifts, relish them. Treasure them. But most of all–ENJOY them.

Your gifts are a huge part of how you experience the world as well as why the world needs you–and isn’t that nothing less than fantastic?

Embrace your gifts.

They’re as much who you are as your limitations–so give them their equal due.

This might be kind of hard, (believe me, I know) but it’s important enough to practice. So please, practice.

One way to practice is to try not to wave off a compliment the next time one surprises you–this is hard for me too–I actually get a little nervous when I get a compliment and try to hurry past the wonderful words, even as I love to hear them.

But these past several months have taught me that this is a mistake and reveals how I’m carrying on an unspoken family tradition–being uncomfortable with honoring my gifts.

Life flies by, and it’s simply not right to get to the last years of your life never having properly honored and enjoyed your gifts, talents and abilities. They’re yours–they are you.

So this Thanksgiving, please take some time-to be thankful for yourself and all that you bring to this world as well as for the abundance of family and friends, nature and God.

And then, have a second helping of pie.

Exposed, awkward, unsure and feeling your way along in the dark?

It’s hard to hide when you’re a beginner because often you don’t know what you don’t know.

But there are a lot of benefits to being a beginner–even in your area of expertise or natural abilities.

• Being a beginner can be very freeing–you don’t have to waste time pretending you know it all or proving you’re good at it.

• Being a beginner means you probably have fewer preconceived notions and can experience the skill or knowledge with fresh eyes–sometimes seeing or understanding things that the “pros’ have overlooked.

• Being a beginner is being an explorer, an adventurer, eager to try what the world has to offer.

• Having a “beginner’s mind” or attitude even in your own area of expertise means you feel comfortable receiving insight from every source which also eliminates the need to compete or win–this subtle shift can be a huge relief.

• Being a beginner at something again means it’s okay to be rusty. You’ve learned other things about life while you were getting rusty at this art or craft you used to be good at. Now you have a chance to blend them together as you start over–whole new possibilities open up!

Don’t ruin the freedom of being a beginner by having unfair expectations of how quickly you should be good at this new something you’re trying.

Give yourself a break.