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Last week I shared my first creativity boost/challenge in a while, complete with a Facebook Live video (which you can see at the end of that post if you want to). It was all about giving things up to give yourself time and space to be more creative.
How it Went for Me
I’m actually really proud of myself for sticking with the things I wanted to give up all week. I did knit in the evenings while we watched television and finally finished that baby blanket I’d been working on forever.
I put down the device and picked up a book before bed and got a lot more reading done than I had been lately.
And I stayed away from my desk during lunch. I did some reading during those times, too, which was great. It was nice to have a little break in the middle of the day, and to be productive in a way that didn’t involve a screen.
This Week’s Creativity Challenge: Do Something Scary
I have been doing a fair bit of scary-to-me stuff lately:
- I spoke at a blogging conference. I usually avoid public speaking because it makes me super nervous.
- I did a live video. I had been wanting to for months but kept resisting it.
- I’m going on a solo trip this week, doing some life-list kind of stuff (a writing retreat with Natalie Goldberg and my pal Jackie). I have huge travel anxiety and lots of super mixed emotions about this one.
The good news is, I didn’t die from any of it. It wasn’t even that bad in reality (I hope travel is the same; it usually is).
[Tweet “Don’t things always seem worse in your head than they really are? Do the scary thing.”]
That’s how it goes, right? We build things up to be horrible in our heads, or even just hard or uncomfortable, so we don’t do them.
Your thing might not be as big as public speaking or flying across the country.
Maybe yours is:
- sending a query to a magazine you’ve always wanted to be published in
- entering a contest
- finally setting up your etsy shop
- trying a new art material
- getting out your sewing machine and just making something (I did this with my serger not too long ago; now I have to get over the fear of learning to thread it because one of the spools ran out of thread!)
- setting up a Facebook page for your business
- posting a work in progress on Instagram
- writing about a craft fail on your blog
Or whatever. You probably know what it is.
Can you do that this week?
Or take a little step in that direction?
I hope you will. And I hope you’ll declare what you’re doing and share your results, too.
Check out the previous creativity boost: Give Something Up
Check out the next boost: Honor the Transition
