pep talk for the 20 day challenge

WELCOME to the February CREATIVE COMMITMENT challenge!

Unlike the Create Everyday classes I offer, this particular class doesn't have a supplies/materials list or a specific exercise with various examples.  There are only two words given each day (and one of those words will always be "it").  This broad, general, daily prompt could possibly be a lot more overwhelming and challenging to get your head around.  To set yourself up for success, I recommend choosing 1- 3 materials and applying the prompts to this particular material when working with the prompts. Please note that when I say materials, they need not be traditional.  Your materials can be a chair, an empty picture frame, items in the recycling bin or on a more "traditional" note, a sketchbook.  You decide. I may work with something three dimensional because I have been wanting to experiment here.  If you need help here, ask around, email me, consider something you are attracted to or intrigued with right now.  If it were summer, you can guarantee, I'd be picking milkweed pods and working with them for 20 days.

More about materials: try to use what you have.  There is no need to go out and get anything to complete the daily prompts.  SERIOUSLY, we all have enough stuff.  This is part of the creative process too.  What is lying right in front of you and how can it be applied to the prompt?  Again, if you need help, ask around. Email me.

An important note: it's SO easy to get caught up in the product of your creation.  Seriously, this happens to me EVERY day even though I have been doing this for years.  Please try with all your might to refrain.  This commitment and process has absolutely NOTHING to do with creating a product.  To reap the ENTIRE benefits of this class, all you need to be concerned with is the process.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  Don't think about your creations as the end-all of this class.
Think about your creations as a launching pad or a bridge to what you really came here for.  SERIOUSLY.  Take my word for it, please.  If I know anything, I know this.  And since you are wanting a shift, be open minded and let your creations just "be".  Please don't judge them and try not to compare them to anyone else's.  You have signed on here and have already demonstrated your willingness.  TRUST the process.  It's YOUR own.  It's actually sacred.  Before your creations have been created, yes, they are already sacred.

About process and what makes it powerful: schedule your creative time.  SO MANY wise creatives out there recommend getting up earlier than you normally do and using this time to "create".  I understand that some of you may already be getting up at 4:30 am just to take care of business so the kids get off to school on time.  If this applies to you, make sure to schedule your creative time (10 minutes) at some other time over the course of your day (perhaps it's in your car over your lunch break, perhaps it's at the same coffee shop everyday after work, etc).  If you want to reap the most from this process, schedule it at the same time everyday (to the best of your ability).  Listen, if we don't schedule it, all of the sudden, it's 10 minutes before we are supposed to be in bed and, at this point, we are just throwing stuff together so that we can check it off our list.  In other words, at this point, the process has lost it's sacred-ness.

Barbara Sher who wrote the well known book, Wishcraft, breaks down the creative process
into 3 steps.  She says:
1. PREPARE (in other words, decide on your materials and schedule your time)
2. LOWER YOUR STANDARDS
As someone who was raised to think that I should always be raising my standards, this is still a difficult one for me to get my head around.  SO many creatives reference this same idea though.  Try not to use your head.  Use your heart.  Be gentle.  Just show up.  She also says, "You're not supposed to be good at the beginning." (well, duh! why didn't I EVER think of THIS?)  Consider the entire 20 days of this class "the beginning" OK?
3. GET SUPPORT (ask for this is your personal life, email me and know this is why we are doing this as a class and not individually, all alone in our own little worlds)

Here is what I say (ha!  Like I haven't said enough already....)
1. create a space
2. set a time
3. gather and go

Alrighty, folks, there are 3 more days until February 1 and your first prompt.  I can almost guarantee this won't be the last you'll hear from me either.  In the meantime, I am really looking forward to working along side of you as we enter this creative process together.  Yippee and yahoo!

For now, BE WELL.


Read MORE about the February 2013 Creative Commitment Challenge here.