Ever wondered why some people (maybe that’s you too) are creative powerhouses but never seem able to create a sustainable lifestyle? And yet others, even those less talented, seem to do this with comparative ease.

This has certainly been a big question for me.  And it’s been a big one too for many of my clients.   I’ve spent thousands of dollars in my search for a solution to this problem. Only recently have I put together a way that works consistently. To find out more, go to:

http://katiecurtin.com/programs/money-matrix-magic/

Belief patterns encoded at the cellular level  play a key role. But how do you get rid of them on a consistent and permanent basis?  Affirmations and visualizations while useful for some, just don’t  work for others.

I’ve experimented with wide range of techniques, including NLP, Financial Alchemy, and the Energy Therapies such as EFT, Z-Point for Peace, and the Healing Codes. Over the years, I got better and better with changing people’s “inner game.”

But it was only recently that I put together all the pieces and began to get consistently outstanding results. So much so, that I knew that I had to get this work out more widely and allow more people to experience the benefits.

I’ve launched a special private coaching program called Money Matrix Magic. To find out more, visit:

http://katiecurtin.com/programs/money-matrix-magic/

I’m offering it at a reduced rate for the first 10 people who register.  To find out more, about this powerful program, visit:

http://katiecurtin.com/programs/money-matrix-magic/

 

Most daunting about starting any big creative project are the self doubts that always kick in. Listening to the voices in our heads is pretty sickening! Talk about broken records that play on and on.

Recently I did a survey about what stops creative people from getting their projects off the ground. I bet you can identify with some of the things they said about negative mindsets. I certainly can!

Later I’ll tell you some great techniques to use when confronted all those doubting inner voices. But first I’d like to share with you some of the things that stopped the people in my survey from getting on with their projects. Check which one(s) apply to you:

1. NOT GOOD ENOUGH: “I fear it won’t be as good as I imagine, that it won’t live up to my fantasy.” “I wonder if I am capable”
2. NO TIME!: “I feel that if I unleash my creativity, I might go crazy with all the other things I have to do!”
3. NOT ENOUGH MONEY: “I am afraid I’ll be cool and creative and starve to death if I go ahead.”
4. TOO MUCH VISIBILITY:  “I’m afraid to be out there and be really visible. I feel that something bad might happen,”
5. OTHER PEOPLE’S OPINIONS: “I’m scared other people won’t like it”

Whenever I start a project that goes beyond my current comfort levels, I still have to battle the “creativity demons”. Two things I find which don’t work well are repeating affirmations or trying to use willpower!

Personally I find repeating endless affirmations boring and a waste of time! Willpower works up to a point. Both methods are unable to effectively battle powerful unconscious beliefs systems.

Luckily today there are a huge range of techniques that can virtually short circuit negative conditioning. NLP, EFT, Z-Point for Peace, andThe Healing Codes – these are only some of a multitude of methods that have proven track records in this respect.

Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of half of these. You can easily access information on many of these techniques on the internet. For example, you can find lots of instructional videos for EFT (the Emotional Freedom Technique) on Utube.

Like with anything, it’s great to educate yourself about the options, and then use the techniques that most resonate with you. Choosing to work with an experienced coach or energy practitioner is also a great option, and money well spent. Their in-depth knowledge and expertise can help you identify and work through your blocks quicker than you can on your own.

Interested in experiencing some of these techniques? I will be hosting a one day workshop in Toronto on October 17th, where I’ll be sharing some of the methods I’ve found most effective in releasing negative beliefs. It will certainly help  you melt inner resistance to doing your creative projects, as well as teach you techniques you can use to improve all areas of your life.

Price should not be barrier as it’s pay-what- you-can. And hey, what’s one day’s time, to get you well on your way with the creative projects you’d love to accomplish? ! For more information contact me at katiecurtin@mac.com.

“Don’t be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid.”
- John Keats .

Is there a creative project that’s been on your mind for awhile? But you wonder if it’s worth taking time out of your busy life to even begin.

You think of all the unknowns. You don’t know if you will succeed. You wonder if you are good enough or up to the task. You wonder if you will have to sacrifice too much.

Will it will be worth the effort? And if you make the effort will anybody really care?

At the beginning of every creative journey, it is natural and almost inevitable that you pause before committing. After all, it does involve a big engagement of your time and resources.

Here are some other questions to ask to help clarify things. What will be lost if you don’t do anything about this project? Is it something you feel you “should” do, or is it something that you are being called to do at a profound level?

Is it the time now to begin? Or are there some other things you just have to get through, before you can truly engage? And if you decide to go ahead, how can you best set up things for success?

And here’s a big one to ponder. How would you feel at if at the end of your life if you still hadn’t done it?

Would you regret that you hadn’t summoned up the courage to face possible failure? Would you regret that you never got to know whether that idea could have really shone in the world? Would you regret that your life got too caught up in insignificant busyness?

The most successful creative people have been the ones who have been prepared to fail the most. They’ve been the ones prepared to sacrifice “the comfortable life,” motivated by their visions of infinite possibility.

So summon up your strength and courage. If it’s a project which you are longing to do, make a resolution to go ahead. For only by braving the challenges and fears, can you reap the treasures of a realized creative life.

Needing a way to help more your imagination flow and to see more clearly how a performance or other arts project will work out. Story boarding works really well not just for the film industry, where it first was developed. It can be adapted for theatre, for novel writing stories, plays and even for designing a creative website to market your art work or productions.

Story boarding, first developed by Walt Disney, is used in the film industry to pre- visualize the scenes of a movie by showing a layout of events as it will be seen through the eyes of a camera. Others have adapted it for different media, such as the design phase of web sites and other interactive projects.

A number of puppetry artists I know use it when designing their shows. I found it very useful when I was working on writing and staging my play “The Sorrowkeeper.”  Since I was adapting it from a short story I had written earlier, it allowed me to translate the story to the stage and visualize the scenes.

Not only did I do drawings of the scenes, I also added words to my story board to convey the atmosphere, and the sounds and the music I  wanted.

In the performance we were integrating ritual, dance, theatre, live music, masks and puppets. Many of the actors had to play multiple roles. Story boarding really helped me see how the different elements of the production would weave together, to visualize the rhythm of the play, and to plan scenes that would work.

So if you are planning a creative project, consider how you might adapt story boarding to the media you are working with, and use it to both plan your production and stimulate your imagination.

Do you know that there are deeps wells of creativity within you?  Are you often or sometimes stumped trying to access them?  Funnily enough, turning outwards and observing the works of other artists, can be one of the best ways to increase your own creativity.

I know our culture is obsessed with art work being innovative and original.  You may fear that studying others’ creative work will limit your own creativity and originality.

Quite the contrary!  The more you can expose yourself to the work of other artists, and the more you can absorb these works deep into your bones, the better for your artistic and creative growth.

It doesn’t mean you copy them. Although even doing that can be very helpful.  That’s how all the old masters learned how to paint.  And even though it’s gone out of fashion to do this in art schools, I think a good case could be made to bring back some of those ways of learning art.

Learning the foundations of your art by modeling the works of others, can teach you all kinds of things that it might take years to learn on your own. It can increase your sensitivity as to the nature of your art form and the possibilities within it.

By learning and reciting the poetry of your favorite poets whether they be T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Rilke, Rumi or some other muse, you absorb deep within you their rhythms and their images. By doing this your own creativity can be kindled, your sense of rhythm attuned, their images sparking in you more images.

Be less afraid of being unoriginal: anything you do will be different from what another does even if you draw exactly the same rose, or sing exactly the same song, or dance the same dance.

You can not only model other artist but use their ideas as a springboard for learning more about your own particular creative voice, or to get ideas for artist projects.

Just look at what they are doing that appeals to you. What don’t you like? This will help inform you about what you want to create.

As well, when you have a special project on your mind, you will be more perceptive than normal, more naturally curious about what they are doing. You may find an idea that you can adapt and use for your work, whether it’s the material they use, a theme they are treating, or the way they handle the medium.

Perhaps a painting by Georgia O’Keefe might inspire you to zero in and magnify part of a flower. Or you could adapt that idea by magnifying a part of the human body such as somebody’s lips and make it fill the whole canvas. Or you might like the colours and hues of a particular painting and use them in a weaving you are doing or a glaze for a ceramic piece.

Or you could take this passage from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land:

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

What powerful images even just title evokes!  Does this passage startle you with it’s depiction of spring as the cruelest month?

You could write another poem on  based on your experience of being in a very empty desolate, emotional waste land. You could create a dance on that theme, or  a sculpture of found objects, or a collage of “Memory and Desire” or a photograph of a land laid to waste by war, or drought.

The possibilities are endless.

Take a piece of paper out now, and take two minutes to jot down some ideas of what different art works or projects that you could do on the theme of waste land. And then turn it around and write down some notes on what you could create based on the opposite theme “land of milk and honey.”

I  think I am going to be a little less serious with this blogging thing, and listen less to the voices of how it should be.
Damn it, I’d like to have some fun, rant a little and stop trying to be so damn practical.

So in the next few days, I am going to drop all my rules, and do what I do in my art, which is step out on the ledge and jump.

Hey, okay so it might not be so great, and I might break some literary bones, but
on the other hand it  will be more fun and adrenalin producing.

And yeah I love adrenalin rushes! Yippee!

And maybe it will be a breath of fresh air, and bring me something new.
And hell if it doesn’t work I could always  go back to the trusted and true.
Gosh that does sound a boring thing to do!
So watch as I play, and throw the rules out.
Yes and I may be a little self indulgent and not speak to you.
But then try another day, and maybe something will spout
My god I am sounding like Dr. Seuss
Oh dear, oh dear, what I have let loose!

Do you have a hard time getting down to writing your blog, even though you may enjoy it? Does life somehow get in the way?

It certainly has for me. I started the New Year super motivated and wrote a whole
load of blogs. Then I had to move house, and I had lots of other projects to work on including my book on creativity.

My blog got sorely forgotten. I abandoned it, forgot it, left it unattended, thinking every week, “Got to get back to my blog.”  Every week there was a new excuse.

Well I had one for this week. But I am putting it aside. I am joining the 30 day blogging challenge organized by Jeanette Cates. I am doing it with a good friend, so that adds to my motivation. Apparently there’s already over a hundred people registered.

Want to join me on this venture. It’s free. Go to:

http://JeanetteCates.com/blog-challenge

Then come back here and tell me you’ve signed up.

Hey and if you get blocked about doing the writing check out my blog series  “Creative Flow: A Writer’s 7 Secrets to Stop Hating Writing and Begin To have Fun”