Creativity and the Beast
Creativity is your gift to the creator (you), not just your audience.
Gifting myself time to write resulted in seeing my mission and purpose more clearly. The process of writing my first book clarified my niche and provided the two things I needed most: confidence and excellent social media content!
Being in the “creative zone” looks different for everyone. Painters and sculptors often call it the “Artist’s Trance”. Anyone who loves playing golf, tennis or basketball plays their best when “in the zone”.
We cannot control when we get into our creative zone, or where. Trust me, I’ve tried!! Although we can find places and times of the day where we tend to be more creative, there is no guarantee that the creative zone will bless us with infinite wisdom and energy when we want it to. But I promise you this: creativity comes to those who put out the welcome mat, unlock the door, remove distractions and make an effort to be in its presence.
When I am on a mission to write a book I set aside 1-3 hours a day three to four days a week in the mornings. This has changed since writing my first book when my son was young and I was making him breakfast and driving him to school. Back then I wrote mostly in the evenings after putting him to bed. I would write until 2:00 - 3:00am, sleep until 7:00am, take him to school, check email and take care of my financial business, take a nap, walk the dog, pick him up from school, and repeat. Now that my son is in high school and drives himself everywhere I have found mornings are when I am most creative and I can structure my life around writing in the mornings.
Recognize the gift you have given yourself by allowing time and focus for creativity. Of course your audience will benefit, but you will benefit just as much, if not more.
Why aren’t more women giving themselves the gift of time to be creative?
Most of the women I’ve worked with are mothers who feel their number one job is to take care of their children. They feel it is selfish to set aside time to be creative, even though the way they show up as mothers hugely improves once they set boundaries around creative time!
Why aren’t more women bringing their book ideas to life?
After working with hundreds of Fempreneurs I’ve found the culprit is a complex, ferocious and hairy-seeming beast…
PERFECTIONISM.
This is the nasty-seeming culprit when it comes to marketing their businesses, too.
Good News: You created the Perfectionism Beast, so you can un-create it.
When I was 28 years old, I began staring the beast in the face instead of backing down. I had accepted a job offer which required me to learn and do tons of new things: take courses, pass exams, wear blazers and speak with confidence to people about the most private subject in their lives...
MONEY.
Back story: I became a hairdresser after high school and had my own mobile beauty company for eight years before a series of very serendipitous events led me to a job at a large international investment firm. In a class of 20+ new hires, I was the only one whose post-secondary career experience was 100% in the beauty industry. It was the fact that I had been self-employed for 8 years which landed me the job. I had to be self-motivated and know how to talk to people. They were willing to teach me everything else, after I passed a few exams, including the Canadian Securities Course and Life Licence Qualification Program.
Meeting new people along the way who worked their way up from being a regular person to having success and credibility gave me a new perspective on the beast’s lies.
Which thoughts are you giving power to?
Instead of focusing on and giving power to the negative thoughts, I focused on the “rags to riches” stories I was hearing. I chose to believe anything is possible. I hit the bumpy road with mistakes and embarrassing moments, knowing the road would get smoother and eventually become a paved highway to success and fulfillment.
I chose to embrace my small town girl persona and quickly found that most of my clients were also from small towns. They liked that about me. I talked about my outdoorsy roots, sharing hunting and camping stories. My best clients, many of which are still my clients today, liked the real me. In the beginning I was often tempted to pretend to be someone I’m not because I worried the “small town girl” wasn’t what they wanted in a Financial Advisor. It was the beast telling me these lies, that the real me wasn’t good enough. The less I paid attention and trusted my heart the more ideal clients I found.
Not to diminish my book writing knowledge, but honestly my top Superpower isn’t writing books - it’s MARKETING. I discovered this Superpower while writing and marketing my first book. When I turned my best marketing strategies into a marketing school, the Perfectionism Beast began showing up over and over again, actually stopping women in their tracks and leaving them feeling helpless and frustrated.
Once you stare Perfectionism in the face and really see it for what it is - pure illusion - you can choose to turn this beast into something else. You can rewire your brain to label “fear” as “excitement” instead. You have the power to react in a positive way to the exact same feeling.
Here are the common lies Perfectionism tells us:
Everyone is watching you and thinks you suck.
Why do you think you are so smart? Get over yourself! You are not better than anyone else, so stop pretending!
You are going to mess up and embarrass yourself, and your friends are going to ditch you because you are being a show off.
You aren’t pretty enough and your hair looks stupid.
Someone has already done it better than you.
This beast and all the awful things it says to us is made up of the people in our past and/or present who said mean words to us. Or it could be someone who never said anything - kind, mean, or otherwise - but their facial expressions left us feeling insecure.
Draw a line between the beast and your heart. Each time a negative thought comes to you, clearly identify where it’s coming from: the beast or your heart.
Your heart wants you to take risks and step out of your comfort zone because it wants what is best for you: to move forward into more abundance and fulfillment.
The beast wants you to stay stuck and unfulfilled, feeling like you aren’t good enough. That’s how it wins. And it will play dirty to win.
When you hear the voice that you know isn’t coming from your heart, call it out. Give your Perfectionism Beast a hideous name, perhaps your mean step mother or physics teacher - someone who didn’t encourage you and left you feeling unloved or insecure. Tell them to F-off and immediately switch your focus to the thoughts that you know come from your heart - your inner wisdom.
If this book results in you experiencing one positive life change, my hope is for you to break the bad habit of listening to your made-up Perfectionism Beast.
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