Let’s face it – creating stuff isn’t always easy. I’m a strong proponent of keeping *fun* in the process. That said, there is a balance of freedom and constraint that can make our creativity most helpful to others.

Not long ago, a professional tightrope walker successfully walked from one end of Niagara Falls to the other. He succeeded safely because he was able to balance successfully between two extremes over a long period of time. He started out with balance and kept his awareness focused for around an hour. He knew when he was shifting slightly one way and was able to counterbalance himself before the “wobbles” got too great.

Here are just a few ways in which our creativity is a balancing act.
Fun and Function
Freedom and Constraint
Logic and Liberty
Details and Big Picture
Spontaneity and Closure

Over time we can develop a sense of how these ideals balance each other and lead to success. Our goal is to use both of these extremes together to be able to produce solutions that benefit others. When we benefit others we can in turn benefit our own bottom line because there will be value added.

Are you challenged too? Which balancing act challenges you the most?

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Unlike other religious holidays, its meaning isn’t obscured by materialism. We are all supposed to cultivate gratitude and thankfulness. The byproduct of gratitude is a much more positive mindset, which spirals upward into all sorts of options and possibilities if we don’t watch out!

But again, that’s not the point. Giving thanks is.  I’m listing 5 areas related to our creative lifestyle that resonate with me and perhaps you too.  You might even see things you might perceive as challenges on this list – for example #2 the information-oriented economy we are in. I encourage you – why not see the upside of these things. You might just find some new possibilities there.

Let the countdown begin!

5. Two-Sided Brains

I am thankful for both the logical and creative sides of my brain. Unlike Leonard Nimoy’s character “Spock”, I am thankful for this contrasting part of my nature even though it can be conflicting at times. Head vs. Heart.  Details vs. Big Picture. Enthusiast vs. Inner Critic. Constantly shifting gears. Contrasting mental orientations allow me to leverage both sides to create useful and engaging information that adds value to others.

4. Cheap Technology

Technology today is so abundant and cheap that we are wearing our own publishing tools.  Your average smartphone can record all kinds of expertise when we leverage it that way. Waiting in line?  Pull out your iPhone and quietly record your latest idea in 30 seconds. Amazing.

3. Social Connectivity

Equally incredible is the extreme social networking that allows us to quickly upload and publish a 2 minute-old thought for hundreds of friends to comment about. This is just as amazing as wearable technology.

2. New Economies

Today, our expertise is valued even as information is commoditized. Ironically, we validate our expertise by packaging our information into media products. Even though packaged information can be easily replicated (legally or otherwise), it also allows us to separate our time from our expertise. All of us have access to tools which give us a voice – if we develop one. We are fortunate to live in times that essentially mandate the packaging of our ideas.

1. Collaborative Partnerships

Life is a journey best shared with others. Similarly the creative lifestyle wasn’t meant to be travelled in isolated competition. I’m so thankful for FastTrack because we all get to create and grow together! Having a key role in unlocking others’ ideas was the most rewarding part of my year.

What are you most thankful for this year? Leave a comment!

Last week I shared how a man in a Green Grape suit, a wilderness forager, and blaring car horns joined their diabolical forces to try to stop my creative flow. It didn’t work!

Preparing for chaos in our outside environment is the first step to getting creative.

There is another angle to the environment that we need to settle even before we overcome the outside one. For better or worse, our minds, thoughts and emotions are ours for the taking. If we take them first we can dominate lesser impulses and create.

On this same day, I had several battles – and then simply cast them aside by hitting the record button and moving forward.

Not “in the mood”
I simply “wasn’t feeling it”. Insidious feeling and a frequent one for many of us. I hit RECORD anyway, outed this lesser attitude on camera, and then created about 45 minutes of useful content.

Headache
Sometimes even a faint headache is enough to derail our creative plans. Again, I encourage you to hit RECORD and distract yourself from the headache using the creative task at hand. I’m fortunate not to have many significant headaches so this works for me. I empathize with others who are more afflicted here.

Frigid
Of course what my summer-weary body consider “cold” that day was downright tropical-sounding a week later. I simply need to plan things out now. Bundle up, do what I can to prepare and adjust.

Other external factors can be more challenging. Sometimes it’s simply not possible to create – so we plan and prepare instead.

What is your biggest internal challenge – and how do you overcome it? Share your creativity tips below!

Which kind of person are you? Optimist, pessimist or realist?

Optimists are often accused of oversimplifying situations and focusing on the good almost to a fault. The older I get the more I notice the consequences of such thinking. Often they enjoy ease, success, and extra rewards for their seemingly superficial thinking.

I used to admire realistic or pessimistic thinking and then I got tired of being so crabby and jaded all the time. Life is too short!

If you also esteem realism or pessimism, I suggest you learn optimism and start giving yourself the benefit of the doubt. Because you may call it “realism” but much of your inner state is filled with doubt. A lot of it.

Recently I have come to admire the optimists. I’ve lived life as a realist and it’s just so much more fun to believe the best and not limit myself with negative thinking.

But the negative thinking is still there. Maybe you’ve also found this to be true also. Old habits die hard.

So I’m retaliating with a series of empowering beliefs that I strategically use to pump up positive emotions. I also disengage my complex brain by focusing on this presupposition*.

Here it is – “It’s Easier Than You Think”

That’s the idea. I tell myself this whenever I face a negative feeling. Again, it’s a presupposition.* What if the true reality is that it’s easy?  What if I was actually making a simple thing hard? That would be horrible. Let’s go back to all of the times we’ve hit walls or backed into corners. How many of those actually had workable solutions that we simply couldn’t see? If we talked more positively to ourselves, would that keep us going the extra step to discover solutions?

So as my own awareness and effectiveness grow, I want to help many other people break free of limiting beliefs like “it’s too hard”. Because it’s easier than you think.

If we really focus in on this question, the followup question is intuitive and empowering. We have to ask “HOW is it easier than I think? What am I missing here?” This type of questioning leads us to real solutions and creativity. It’s an open-ended question that can be answered in any way. That answer needs to be tried out. There is often an abundance of answers for us to explore.

So the situation changes from being locked in a lose-lose situation (“it’s just too hard”), to having several options to try before stumbling upon the ones that work.

It’s easier than you think. Use it today!

*a presupposition is a tool that helps us unlock our minds. It is a belief that may or may not be true in reality. When acted upon as if it were true, it can lead us into productive action.

Creating great content is empty until others see it. If you’re like me, there’s an inner force lurking underneath all that creativity.

Introducing the “inner critic” – this fiend discourages, discounts, dismisses, the worth of your know-how. If you don’t go the distance and publish your work, he disqualifies you from reaping any benefit from your toil. No fans, no impacted lives, no benefits, no tweets or shares. Kind of like the “BANKRUPT” section of the “Wheel of Fortune”, or hitting a Whammy on Press Your Luck. Nothing.

Don’t let the critic stop you*. Believe in yourself and babystep yourself to creativity. You can do it – just keep going! Overcome this critic. Publish your ideas and improve them over time.

* if you’d like more strategies and a handy tool to silence your critic, read this post.

Remember that scene from The Shining where Jack Nicholson’s character is writing all the time, appearing to be working so hard – only to produce a series of repetitive lines? “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. The scene is horrific for several reasons… perhaps the most disturbing to any creative is that so many of us have been in that place of dryness, frustration, and writer’s block.

Contrary to the popular image of creatives, many of the most prolific people have actually set and maintained daily regimens to ensure that they get the most important things done first.  Recently I began to force myself to sit down each day and blog one post before moving on to other tasks. It’s amazing how much more productive I feel after hitting the Schedule For button and knowing it’s setup to publish soon.

Did you know that there is a science behind this?  The athletic world is more outwardly competitive than the creative world. There’s a lot of research that has been done to determine how to get and stay at peak states for maximum output.

In The Power Of Full Engagement* there is a discussion about top tennis athletes and how they always built a series of “rituals” or systems in between plays. It essentially allowed their minds to take a rest along with their bodies in preparation for another set.

Are you better in the evening than the morning? I encourage you to develop your awareness of your peak times for greater productivity. You will feel so productive when you refine this habit!

So what are your rituals every day? How do you harness them, and what has it freed you up to accomplish?

*Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement. (pp. 32.) New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Scripting my video shoot was quickly becoming even more painful. I was being assaulted by subconscious voices. The inner critic had me pinned to the mat and I didn’t even know it. All I was aware of was a growing sense of futility. Who was I to think my content would help anyone anyhow?  With that blatant inference, the critic exposed himself.

That Thieving Inner Critic

I thought about what defines the leaders of any tribe – the people online who have been able to attract and build a devoted following around an idea. Before we produce anything valuable we Become by Believing. To a normal person this sounds obvious. For many of us who have tolerated the inner voice of criticism too long, the concept is revolutionary.

Think about it – it makes perfect sense. Our output will never be good enough to publish unless we start with great confidence in the impact we will make. When we focus on what our goal is – and reinforce our qualifications – we can take those important first steps to creating engaging content.

Envisioning your content impacting someone’s life is essential to the creative process.

So I called the inner critic on the carpet. I devised a way to expose and retaliate in a tangible way, at the exact moment that I am “slimed” by him. It’s a lot of fun to take revenge on this guy.

Directions

1. Download and print this sheet
2. Have it in front of you as you create.
3. Write in the lie that your subconscious critic is harassing you with.

As you continue creating your content -

• Put a tick mark every time you hear that lie, or a new one. 
• Slash through the image of the critic also to pay him back for his meddling.

Here are a couple lies the critic might tell you:

• “Your stuff isn’t good enough”
• “You’re not an authority in this field and have no right to teach anyone else!”
• “Why would anyone read this?”

In my case it was:

“You don’t have any references yet. To prove your points you must have footnotes everywhere to prove your impeccable scholarship to your readers. No one wants to hear your silly baseless theories about online learning”.

Once I used this form, I noticed that my critic was a wuss. I only marked a couple recurring instances of his harassments before moving back to an uninterrupted flow of creativity.

If you are also being held back by your critic, go ahead – print out this sheet and expose the unbelief! Create something that adds value to the rest of us!

Is your critic tougher than mine? Or did he shut up after just a few slashes? How will this impact your creativity?

Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.

None of us can go it alone. We all need one another to catapult our message over the barriers that face us. Online, we need to value, cultivate, and solicit social proof. Social proof is validation that your message resonates with the passion of your audience. Social proof is a feedback loop that will fire you up and keep you going even when things are rough.

Social proof points to 4 things:

• Pain
• Potential
• Profit
• Purpose

Pain – To influence people to change for the better, you will need to point out the pain of the status quo.

Potential – Don’t stop with the pain or you’ll lose your audience. Many religious institutions have shut their doors because their message was only about pain.  Your message needs to inspire people towards the potential and the solution. Focus on the potential and inspire your audience to success.

Profit – As you inspire others to change from pain to potential, you will automatically benefit.  Profit can point to an increase in your traffic, buy in, and your tribe, rather than only money.

Purpose – Some topics are a hit, others will miss.  The intersection of your passion and your audience’s needs is where your current purpose lies.

Whether you eventually want to monetize your content, or simply build a tribe of likeminded friends in your spare time, it pays to develop social proof.

How are you building social proof into your content? What works for you?