Poet and creative coach Mark McGuinness from the excellent blog Lateral Action is running a series on how to break through your creative blocks. In Mark’s own words:
“. . . one of our goals for this series is to take the lid off the creative process, examine the challenges together, and for everyone involved to realise that being blocked or stuck doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you personally – this kind of thing is just an occupational hazard for those of us who live to create remarkable things.”
So far Mark has published six posts for this series, each addressing a particular problem that people face when they set out to create. Oh, look, I just happen to have written the sixth post in the series – The Inner Critic.
Head on over to Mark’s blog and start removing every obstacle that stands in the way of your creativity, one at a time:
My ebook “How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists” explains that creativity is not the sole domain of the arts but is important in any field. Whatever you do, creativity helps you do it better. Discover practical advice on how to be more creative in every life endeavor by reading my ebook.
Juicy Journaling with SARK inspires daily creative writing as you nourish your curious, colorfull, inspired writer self. Find your unique writing voice in Juicy Journaling with SARK!
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In her fabulous book, “Do Less, Achieve More”, Chin-Ning Chu tells the story of a night in the 1960’s in which Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were having dinner together. At that time, while Clint had already played major roles in several successful films and was recognized as an international star, Burt was still a struggling actor.
Burt asked Clint how he had gotten his big break and Clint answered: “I prepared myself for success”. Burt understood the principle contained in these words, he applied it, and he soon joined Clint as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Here’s a quote from the section of “Do Less, Achieve More” in which Chi-Ning Chu talks about this conversation between Eastwood and Reynolds:
“Before the Angel of Success arrives in your life, you should devote yourself to preparing your welcome for her. Polish your craft and strengthen your body to be fit so that you can do your job and enjoy success when it comes. Sharpen your mind and spirit so they are ready to face the challenges that accompany a visitation from the Angel of Success.
If you are not ready when the angel knocks, she will flee. And who knows when she will make it back around to your door again?”
Below you’ll find several tips and examples on how to prepare yourself so that when success is standing at your door you’ll be ready to welcome her in and offer her a seat at your table.
In his book 100 Ways To Motivate Yourself Steve Chandler narrates that in 1976 he was a sports columnist for the “Tucson Citizen” and he was assigned to conduct an interview with some unknown actor who had just retired from bodybuilding named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger was in Tucson publicizing the movie “Stay Hungry” which he had just made with Jeff Bridges and Sally Fields, and which was turning out to be a big box office disappointment.
At one point during the interview Chandler asked Schwarzenegger: “So, what do you plan to do next?” Schwarzenegger calmly answered: “I’m going to be the number-one box-office star in all of Hollywood”. Keep in mind that when this interview took place Schwarzenegger had just left bodybuilding and he was huge and awkward. There was also the matter of his very noticeable Austrian accent. And, to top it all off, his first movie was doing rather poorly.
Chandler–trying hard to keep a straight face–asked Schwarzenegger just how he was planning to become Hollywood’s top star. Schwarzenegger answered that he was going to follow the same process he used in bodybuilding. He explained the process as follows:
“What you do is create a vision of who you want to be, and then live into that picture as if it were already true.”
Years later, the box office receipts from his second “Terminator” movie made Schwarzenegger the most popular box office draw in the world. Having a clear vision of what you want to achieve, and constantly visualizing yourself as having achieved your goal, is a fabulous tool for helping you to succeed.
Chris Guillebeau has a very successful blog titled “The Art of Nonconformity”. He sells guides from his blog–which is basically how he makes a living–explaining how to create freedom and how to be a travel ninja (he’s on a quest to visit every country in the world before his 35th birthday). Chris wrote a free manifesto called “279 Days to Overnight Success” in which he explains how he became a full time writer in under a year.
One of the success secrets he shares is to “act as if”. Even if you have a tiny blog with very few readers, act as if you have thousands of readers. That is, post regularly, give great care to the topics you choose to write about, and make sure that you provide lots of value in each post. You’ll probably never have a lot of readers if your attitude is the following:
“Well, this post isn’t all that great, but there’s really no use in spending lots of time to write an awesome post when I really don’t have that many readers anyway.”
“I’ll save my really good stuff for when I have more readers.”
“I’m kind of busy this week so I won’t post anything, but I’ll make sure to post three times a week once my blog is popular”.
You can’t wait until you’re successful and until you have a large audience to start doing your very best. Instead, you become successful and you gain a large following by producing top quality work even when you’re tiny. This concept applies to everything, not just blogging. In order to be successful, act as if you’re already successful.
Believe In Yourself and be Persistent, Regardless of Naysayers
Anthony Robbins was having dinner with Sylvester Stallone a few years back and Robbins asked Stallone to tell him his life story. Stallone explained that he knew his whole life, ever since he was a kid, that he wanted to be in the movie business. He went to every agent in New York—many of them several times—but he couldn’t get any parts because they kept telling him that he looked and sounded stupid (which, incidentally, is because he was pulled out by forceps when he was born).
Stallone kept trying to get parts, and he kept getting rejected. He was starving and couldn’t even afford heat in his apartment. His wife kept screaming at him to get a job, but he wouldn’t settle for something that wasn’t his dream. He was going to be a movie start and he was going to burn all other bridges.
He then decided to write a screenplay. The first screenplay he sold was titled “Paradise Alley” and he sold it for $100. Unfortunately, nothing much happened after that and he got to the point where he was so broke that he hocked his wife’s jewelry. She hated him after that and their relationship was basically over at that point.
Now all he really had left was his dog. However, he didn’t have the money to feed him, so he went to a liquor store near to where he lived and stood outside trying to sell his dog to strangers for $50. Finally, one man stopped and negotiated with him and bought his dog, his best friend, for $25. Stallone says that was the absolute lowest point of his life.
Two weeks later he was watching a fight between Muhammad Ali and Webner, this white guy that’s getting bludgeoned but just keeps on coming, and he got an idea. When the fight was over he started writing and he wrote for twenty hours straight. The screenplay he wrote in twenty hours was “Rocky”.
He then went out and tried to sell the script to agents. He was turned down several times but he finally found some people who wanted to buy it for $125,000. However, Stallone told them that part of the deal was that he had to star in the film. He told them: “That’s my story; I’m Rocky”.
But they didn’t want a no-name to play the lead role in the movie, they wanted a star. In fact, they were thinking of Ryan O’Neal. Stallone indicated that either he got the role of Rocky or he wasn’t selling them the script. When they told him he couldn’t play Rocky, even though he didn’t have a cent to his name, he turned around and walked out.
They called him a week later and offered him a quarter of a million dollars not to star in his own movie. He turned them down. They then offered him $325,000 and again he said, “Not without me in the role of Rocky.”
Finally, they compromised: they gave him $35,000 and a stake in the movie, and he got the role of Rocky. They made the film with a million dollars and it grossed $200 million.
The first thing Stallone did when he got paid for the script was to go back to the liquor store and buy his dog back. Know your outcome, believe in yourself, and persist, regardless of naysayers.
Know that what you focus on expands. Stop focusing on your set-backs.
Make sure to be well-groomed and well-dressed.
Invest in yourself: read good books, attend seminars, and learn all you can.
Take care of your body: exercise, eat well, and get enough sleep.
Surround yourself with people who are more successful than you are.
Release fear of failure.
Each day do the best you can with what you have.
Be gracious to everyone you meet.
Be as happy for the success of others as you are of your own.
Honor your worth.
Take responsibility for yourself.
Demonstrate ease: stop complaining, stop making excuses, don’t overreact to problems, don’t promise more than you can deliver, and don’t take on more than you can do.
Know what is unacceptable to you and communicate boundaries.
Give yourself permission to be and do what you want.
My ebook “How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists” explains that creativity is not the sole domain of the arts but is important in any field. Whatever you do, creativity helps you do it better. Discover practical advice on how to be more creative in every life endeavor by reading my ebook.
Juicy Journaling with SARK inspires daily creative writing as you nourish your curious, colorfull, inspired writer self. Find your unique writing voice in Juicy Journaling with SARK!
Did you enjoy this article?Subscribe for free by RSS or e-mail and you’ll always know when I publish something new. (What’s RSS?).
Also, please share it on the social media site of your choice, thank you.
I’ve been using the Sedona Method for the past ten years and am constantly amazed at the ease with which this method helps me release negative emotions, as well as any resistance I may be feeling.
Being mindful is about noticing new things, questioning rules, beliefs, and assumptions that don’t serve you, creating new categories, and paying attention to the present moment.
Every now and then I take odd bits and pieces of interesting facts and tidbits on creativity that I’ve found here and there and I put them together in a post. This is one of those posts. Below you’ll find a medley of creativity:
1. Of course, you recognize the image above as Michelangelo’s “The Creation [...]
A lot of people make a living working at something that they’re good at, but which they don’t particularly enjoy. People need to look for the sweet spot where their passion, their talent, and economic opportunity intersect.
Dr. Maxwell Maltz argues in his book “Psycho-Cybernetics”–which has sold over 25 million copies–that most people don’t reach their goals because of the mental picture that they have of themselves. That is, because of their self-image.
My ebook “How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists” explains that creativity is not the sole domain of the arts but is important in any field. Whatever you do, creativity helps you do it better. Discover practical advice on how to be more creative in every life endeavor by reading my ebook.
Juicy Journaling with SARK inspires daily creative writing as you nourish your curious, colorfull, inspired writer self. Find your unique writing voice in Juicy Journaling with SARK!
, Chin-Ning Chu tells the story of a night in the 1960’s in which Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were having dinner together. At that time, while Clint had already played major roles in several successful films and was recognized as an international star, Burt was still a struggling actor.
