Starting a creative project ...it’s messy.

Starting a creative project …it’s messy.

Every one of us, no matter what type of role or business we are in, has our own creative journey.

Whether it’s starting a new business, developing a strategy, delivering a project or making art, we all have a process, even if we think it looks nothing like one – because processes are meant to be structured and linear and creativity is often anything but.

In fact, the creativity process can look something like this:

Come up with an idea. Get ridiculously excited. Perform a mad visioning process. Write an outline. Sincerely question your ideas (even your sanity). Know it must have been done before. Put it away. Come back. Contemplate. Walk away. Come back. Get frustrated. Let it sit. Come back. Revise. Create. Leave it for a while. Come back. Commit. Contemplate. Meditate. Keep triggering inspiration. Listen to your muse. Revise. Create. Revise. Create. Revise. Create. Revise. Create. Revise. Revise. Revise. Complete. Collapse. B r e a t h e .

This process can happen over a couple of months or a couple of years. Some parts of it may be compressed or really drawn out. It’s not always the same, but the elements or some variation of them are usually there. And it’s always a dance.

Maureen McHugh outlines the life of a project like this (from Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon):

This is the best idea ever
This is gonna take some work
This sucks – and it’s boring
Dark night of the soul
It will be good to finish because I’ll learn something for next time
It’s done and it sucks, but not as bad as I thought

Here’s the thing with creativity and processes. Messy is nothing to be afraid of. It’s only an issue when you think it should be a straight line and it ends up being a pretzel. But when you start out with the pretzel in mind, you aren’t freaked out when the first curve comes, and the twists no longer take you by surprise.

Start your creative project. Pick it up. Dust it off. Open the file. Grab the new art journal. Start. And when you get to that first pretzelly turn, put your helmet on, kick yourself into high gear, and ride that twist until it flatlines.

This is your work. All you have to do is show up and do it. It’s that simple. And that messy. So go.

Starting a creative project …it’s messy.

SELECT WHERE TO SHARE:

Photo Credit: Efrem Efre

Encouragement: The Complete Collection

What would a radical move look like?

Think radical. Off the charts. Exciting but perhaps mildly terrifying. A definite game changer. What would it look like? Is it something completely unexpected, or perhaps something you have been quietly dreaming about for some time? Feel into it. We don’t often make radical moves. Mostly we skim around the edges. If we want to

Make your art

You are an artist. No I’m not. I can’t paint. I don’t have an artistic bone in my body. I’m not creative. I don’t write. I don’t play. I don’t…..write down the resistance filled blank here. But this is not just what art is. Art is creation. Art is thinking outside the box. Or destroying

Everything is progress

Sometimes we feel like only the big steps matter. That only when we achieve a major milestone are we actually moving forward. But in truth, every single thing you do is progress. The smallest thing you ticked off your to do list today is inching you closer to your goal. And whenever you are being

See what’s possible

Picture this: A woman sits in front of me. She is amazing, but doesn’t fully realize it. We start talking. She has come to see me for coaching because she wants more for her career than what she is experiencing. Secretly, she actually wants more for her life. She feels stuck. Stifled. And more than

Rejection won’t kill you

It won’t kill you. You think it will. You think that if you ask and you are rejected, it means something bad about you. That you are less than: less than worthy, less than others, just less. So you don’t ask. You choose not to go for it: the job, the client, the project, the

You can let it go

Stick with it. Tough it out. Dig in. Dig deeper. Go the distance. Play to win. Race to the finish. Get it done. Hustle ’till it hurts. We’re told in a thousand different ways to hang in there, never to quit, to always keep going no matter what. Even when it no longer serves us.

Starting a creative project …it’s messy.

Share this:

Starting a creative project …it’s messy.

Encouragement: The Complete Collection

What would a radical move look like?

Make your art

Everything is progress

See what’s possible

Rejection won’t kill you

You can let it go

Explore Other Collections

Empowerment Encouragement Leadership Livelihood Power Sovereignty Wellbeing Womanhood