What’s bugging you? Trying to get creative work done can be a challenge. Tiny troubles or even big bothersome dilemmas show up. Let’s face it. It’s all not peaches and cream 100% of the time when “following your joy.” Sometimes it’s peas and screams.
Sure, we valiantly try to not sweat the small stuff, to look at the bright side, to just keep going. But what’s a creative entrepreneur to do if the bright side is out of sight, and moving forward feels like slogging through peanut butter?
Let’s consult an expert.
Remember the Princess and the Pea story? She didn’t sleep a wink. Despite a cushion of twenty mattresses and twenty down feather beds, that tiny pea annoyed her all night. Good news. The next morning her sensitivity proved her to be a real princess.
Although it may not prove our royal blood, I think we need to pay attention. What has you feeling restless, annoyed, anxious or downright crabby? Whether it’s a pea-sized complaint or an obstacle as big as a boulder, those irritants (a.k.a. peas) can inspire creative action.
Here are three recent examples. Crabbiness points to creative clarity.
The other day I felt particularly fed up with my clutter-stuffed email boxes. What am I doing with thousands of messages and more coming in every minute? Empathizing with Lucy and Ethel at the accelerating conveyer in the chocolate factory, I had to do something. Enough already! So, I dove in, organized tags, made filters, unsubscribed from lists I never open and found a way to delete unwanted messages en masse. Thirty minutes later I could breathe again. Whew! Making spaciousness this way left me feeling more at peace with the flow of things rather than inundated by it.
It also bugs me that I have so much to do and it all seems like top priority. How is that possible? It’s not. But yesterday, instead of letting it get to me, I quickly sketched out a colored mind map of all the pending projects. I felt better. Some timely priorities emerged from the picture, and this new perspective shifted my energy, available once again to the creative flow. By the end of the day I’d taken care of two big matters, one artistic and one numeric. After fabric-dying and year-end bookkeeping, both sides of my brain were happier.
The third thing that’s been bugging me is when my blog articles distill down to step-by-step how-to advice. Sometimes that’s helpful, indeed. But my creative self can get hung up on following instructions. Argh! So, instead of offering counsel or direction on p’s and q’s, I’ll leave you with three questions to prompt your own “peas and cues” for making way for creative action.
What’s bugging you these days?
What’s one thing you can do about it in thirty minutes or less?
What difference does it make to do that one thing?
Your creative energy would love to find out.
(This article was written for a guest post on TheRightBrianBusinessPlan.com)
Making way for creative action, Amy Egenberger, MEd., CPCC, is proud to be a Licensed Facilitator of the Right Brain Business Plan®. She is a seasoned educator, life coach, artist and founder of Spirit Out! Coaching. Amy helps people find the courage and clarity to get moving on their creative path. A book, a business, a project, a change… your creative spirit gets out! Amy is one of our licensed Right-Brain Business Plan® Facilitators.
Join Amy on Feb 8-9, 2013 for fun & focus to make your biz plan real.
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