Chili Contests and Vulnerable Creation Spaces

I entered a chili cookoff last night at my daughter’s school for the first time in my life. Never before have I felt the courage to invite people to openly critique my food! And I can’t exactly pinpoint what came over me for this shift to occur!  In fact, if you’ve eaten at our house before, it was likely Jeff’s cooking that was placed in front of you.  I say I like to experiment or functionally cook. And I come more present to the table when it’s not my creation we’re invited to.
 
In the month prior, Jeff noticed this rare occurance unfolding and asked me why this time was different (as well if I wanted any help!). I responded, “After years of really bad and below average chili-making, I think I might have found my go-to recipe!” I had recently modified a chicken fajita chili and thought it good enough to share with the world.
 
My son chimed in, “Do you think it’s good enough to win? Is it a contender?!”
 
To which I thought for a few seconds, “Actually, no. Ha! If I’m honest, I really don’t!” But I do think it’s good enough to share, as it’s unlike anything I've had before. 
 
I reflected that this process was more about me and a process of creation than it was about chili or winning.
 
That small revelation spoke to how I feel about much of what I create today. Vulnerable with a large dose of personal growth…Hard to get out of my head and into the world.
 
Isn’t that the summary of the creation process - vulnerable and often stunted? Vulnerability is required every step of the way as you pivot from one stage to the next...As with anything creative from writing a sermon to creating a painting and everything in between, all creative processes go through these 4 phases - Preparation, Incubation, Illumination and Implementation which I was reminded of in something as simple as a chili contest.

In the preparation phase, it is often a change that has necessitated a creative shift. Anything we create requires and entry point and motivation towards something new. For me that was bad chili. This nudging caused me to prepare and begin looking.

The Incubation phase - a time of hiddenness and experimentation. This phase was an invitation for me to brainstorm, explode, mess up, try out a combination of ingredients as was the case with the chili, double the recipe and even mess up. Like creating in life we have the opportunity to keep trying in this phase or to give up. The best innovation happens here in the incubation period when we keep working to refine what was okay into something great.

The third phase is the illumination - an aha that what is being created is different and worth it. Some say what brings you to creation is desperation. We need to be reminded of the impetus for change as we trudge through the mud waiting for that moment(S) of illumination. In the illuminate phase we can use that desperation for something better, something more, a fix for something that was breaking or broken.

And finally in the implementation phase we try it out in the world. A pilot phase. This piloting may be a place many never make it to. One might create in private and keep it in private never showing their brilliance to the world for fear of failure. My coach used to say, “Excellent enough, Sara!” As though he knew I might paralyze the process and keep it from full implementation if I waited for my creation to feel complete and whole.

And while implementation is the final phase of the creation process officially, in many ways it’s just the start. The feedback loop provides invaluable input into the creation itself.

I coached a leader this week along these lines saying, have you thought about just trying ____out with a small group of people and asking for feedback? He is looking to make a shift but not sure how to take the next step. As we considered together the blocks, we also discussed a trial period of sorts. 
 
“Why not bring this idea before a handful of supportive people? And ask for their honest feedback? Isn’t that what a pilot is – pressure to not have it perfect, but openness to be on the way.”
 
Bringing my recipe to this event was a small step towards awareness of my self-consciousness and insecurity around cooking; as well as an openness to be on the way. I’m hesitant to bring what I create to the spotlight for critics and approvers alike. I shy away from saying, look this is pretty good and I think you’ll benefit if you try it (and also it might not be your favorite yet!)…but amuse me either way! 
 
That vulnerability in recipe-making translates to what we’ve created recently in this vocational world of transition care in the form of a sabbatical ecourse and camino hiking experience. 
 
We think these two particular offerings are pretty off the charts (way better and time-tested than my chili) and maybe the best spaces we know that exist for leaders in transition to overcome burnout, stuckness, major life transition, and confusing places of vocational shift. We created these resources because this is what we wanted in transition or on sabbatical. And they have served others with positive feedback and ultimately deep soul care! 
 
I watched and reluctantly asked person after person their impression of my chili. A part of the refinement process that I’m working on in every area of my life being helpful feedback loops. Honestly, my flammin’ chicken chili needed to be cooled down, so I brought sour cream – maybe as a bit of a crutch but also as permission. There’s no going back when you add too much chili powder. In return for my asking, I received lovely interactions, and was met with delight, surprise, dislike and even one man’s wanna-be-professional-chef evaluation on my secret ingredients! Many children loved the sour cream most of all the “chili” offerings! And ultimately I had fun doing it.
 
Honestly, I’m proud of myself for this humbling step. And while I didn’t win, I did create something that was a process of vulnerability and the creative cycle feedback loop. For that alone it was a success. 
 
What are you putting out into the world these days? What is requiring new levels of creativity and vulnerability?
And what support do you need on the journey?

End of Year Visual Examen

End of Year VISUAL EXAMEN

I’ve never been one to create New Year’s Resolutions. However, the idea of reflecting for the purpose of living life with intentionality, resonates. If given the space, I could enter into reflection and processing mode for hours. Unfortunately, this is an unrealistic expectation in this season of life and especially during the holidays. As of late, I give myself the whole month of January, not just the last day of the year or the first of the new year. Using an examen as a form of reflecting with God allows me to see where He was at work. Using visual cues allows for deeper and more holistic processing. In this space I consider how I grew, saw God at work, grieved or celebrated and ultimately became a different person in the year prior moving into the new year with purpose. Here are a few suggested questions and approaches.    

Top Reflection Questions:

·      What area(s) consumed my thinking and attention most?

·      Where did I experience God’s delight?

·      What are the most important events that took place in the last year?

·      Who are some of the significant people that were present in my life?

·      Where did I see the greatest breakthroughs (physically, emotionally, relationally, vocationally, spiritually)?

·      Where did I see the Lord at work in me this year?

While you may begin by just diving in, I find a few approaches aide my processing best. Begin by creating a quiet reflective space. Set aside distractions. Choose one of the following 4 visual prompts approaches.

Approach:

1.     15-30 minutes: Look through your calendar and make a list of the top events. Let these events prompt your thoughts as you contemplate the questions above.  

2.     30 minutes-1 hour: If you take photos, look back over the year’s pictures, such as on your smart phone and allow the visual stimulus to jog your brain in reflecting the questions above.

3. 1-2 hours: If you journal, look at your entries from the last year and note the important events and areas that concerned you or caused you great delight. You took time to write them down for one reason or another, note how they impact the questions above. (Looking back over emails or social media posts may serve as a similar form of mental stimulation.)

4.     1-3 hours: Utilize one of the above methods together with this visual reflection exercise of a clock. Having already made a list of important events, draw a clock adding numbers. The numbers will correspond to the months of the year (Jan = 1, Dec = 12). Start with 1/Jan. Use this as a prayerful exercise. Consider the highlights, breakthroughs, consuming thoughts or God’s delight in this specific period of time – January. Ask yourself a few questions like: Where were you as the clock turned last year? Who were you with? What has changed since January? What were you celebrating? What were you grieving?

Take your time and ask similar questions for each month. Allow the visual prompts as listed above to aide your memory. Draw or make note of the thoughts or feelings you want to capture within or outside of the clock. By the time you get through December you will be reflecting on recent days.

From there consider the integration of your examen with goal-setting or future-forward movement.

1. What Question(s) do I currently need answering from God?

2. What am I carrying with me into the New Year that I would like God’s healing around? 

3. What word, verse or song stands out to me right now as one to carry with me throughout the year?  

Consider who you want to share this with – your spouse, best friend, coach or team. What feels most significant to you from this experience? What support do you need going into this year?

Well done! Celebrate having created the time to listen to your head, heart, body and life!

Facing my Limiting Beliefs around Creativity, head on

The Creation and writing process, releasing many of the ideas swirling in my head, cause to me to continually face the limiting beliefs that I: AM NOT a write, thinker, or voice worth listening to. This work is real-life proof of the material that I am writing about and asking others to engage in:

1.     De-bunking the beliefs we carry throughout our lives that inhibit us from reaching our true and full potential. 

2.     Continually coming face to face with where our passion and the world’s needs collide - even when it is hard work and requires discipline and grace.

3.     Ultimately unlocking the creative potential uniquely inside of you and only you.

Limiting Beliefs

What are the stories that I tell myself when I’m low, lacking energy or hope and needing encouragement? What are the inhibiting factors that keep me from getting to the work that I believe I’m uniquely called to?

As a not-yet-able-to-call-myself-a-writer, writer, I’m aware that the voices that are coming out of me are ugly, loud and inaccurate. And while I can call those out in others, I struggle to be honest with myself. 

Here’s what those voices sound like as a writer (because I know listing them takes the sting away):

…Your message has already been said

…Your voice doesn’t matter

…You don’t have time for this

…You have other ways that you should contribute

…You are not a good writer

…You are not articulate

…You are not creative

…my thoughts are too scattered and all over the place

Overcoming objections is the kind and gracious extension we all need from ourselves. It’s the dig deeper, love big, way of settling our inner voice when the other voices get loud and out-of-control!  It’s the hard work of reframing stories that have been told wrong in the past. Changing the narrative to what can be done when there is courage and faith in myself to believe…

These limiting beliefs all point to what is called the imposter syndrome! What if people find out who I really am? The truth is, many have and they’ve liked that person. Could writing in public be a more vulnerable space to let others know who you are and what you think? It’s scary and vulnerable and they will get the real me, and I have to believe that many will resonate with that vulnerable girl.

For now, I must reframe these limiting beliefs and get them out of my head and heart:

…I do have a unique message

…my voice will be heard in a different way from others

…others have said that I communicate in a way that resonates with them (so even if it’s just 1…)

…the way that I connect the dots is unique to me

I came here today during a writer’s retreat and decided to let myself tangent here. I wanted to press on and press in. After months of feeling stuck, I had to call upon others who have gone before me to speak with a new voice. And really just create a safe space for me. 

I’ll admit it, it was a stretch to ask a group of complete strangers to hold me accountable to the task of writing! And yet there was great power in this silent group existing in my life for one day and for one sole purpose – to free the thoughts in my head. There was something incredibly comforting knowing they were boldly looking internally to discover their own writing voices. I knew they were diligently fighting the demons of their past alongside of me. And simultaneously, the main objective was to just keep showing up! Without criticism, without judgment. So I signed up for a group and away I went. I give credit to them for helping me to overcome one of my many objections.

In order to get to this point, sometimes I have to coach myself and be reminded of other similar situations in which I overcame objections. What other hard things have I done that look similar to this? That’s exactly where I woke from my sleep this morning. My response in this particular scenario: I’ve written and published a workbook, I took a 3 year degree and made it 9! And wrote a thesis to prove it. I’ve organized thoughts in hundreds of blog posts and created a manual to train others on…and so forth. I must remind myself that this is not new. What I’m attempting to accomplish is not the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I have been prepared for this moment to begin looking into the eye of the storm of creativity and allowing all the unique ways that I am me to show up in full and good form. In that way, I am convinced that there is someone out there who needs me to persevere and keep finding my writer’s voice. It’s for that reason I continue. 

What are your limiting beliefs? How do you overcome them? Who do you share these with?

The Universal Creative Process and The Creation Timeline of My Unnamed Baby

INput overload…where to start and stop in the writing process?

The Universal Creative Process and The Creation Timeline of My Unnamed Baby

“If I permit my body to move - even just the movement of my hand, fingers, and arm with pen and marker - then my bones and muscles are content. I can become calm and relaxed enough to find inner stillness and to pay attention. In general it's not the body that needs to be stilled; it's my mind.” (Sybil McBeth)

This was my experience this past weekend as I set aside 3 days and 3 nights and was gifted time in a beautiful mountain home to write. The setting could not have been more idyllic (okay maybe minus the 17 college-aged kids who crashed everywhere in the house where I was invited into! Not my call! Just a minor obstacle).  From the mostly serene setting I had access to hikes, a few open rooms, a desk, a comfortable writing chair, the fast internet and a coffee shop within walking distance. What more could I want from a creative space? The truth – a clear mind and a way to organize my million scattered thoughts that seemed as though they would never find a clear way forward. That’s what more I wanted. That and about another month to stay in the zone. I struggle to just be in process. Like a vacation, it takes days to get into it and right when you do, you need to pack up. I wanted to just dive into the space, overcome obstacles and of course create at an unrealistically rapid speed. Let’s just say none of that perfect picture was how it all went down!  

Isn’t it true that you see great creative work and have no comprehension of all that it took to get there. Austin Kleon, in Steal Like an Artist, says “Really good work appears effortless! People won't see the years of work and toil you put into it” End products seem as though they magically appeared overnight but in reality it is years in the making that caused them to blossom into something beautiful.

I was reminded of this as I entered into this sacred creative process this weekend. It can take years of blood, sweat and tears to see a really good product, process or art come to fruition. 

 “Really good work appears effortless! People won't see the years of work and toil you put into it”

The language of the universal process to all things created brings comfort and validity to my inner discontent of wanting a creative product. My rational inner voice reminds me, “Sara, it’s a process, not a product.” I need the reminders for patience and a realistic horizon.

With that said, let me share the universal creative process and the intersecting points of my creation with the hope that this might bring you some point of reference for your own creative baby that you need to bring to life.

4 Stages of the Creative Process:

Start with - what is the question you are answering or problem you are trying to solve. (Examples: designing a logo, writing a story, writing a sermon, creating a website, creating an e-course.)

1. Preparation
   Research: Collect information or data.

   Questions to ask: Who am I designing this for (who is my target audience)? Who would benefit most? What do I uniquely have to offer here? What voice is still missing on this topic or in this field?

2. Incubation
   Percolation: Milling over collected information.

   Questions to ask: What is necessary to include or exclude? Do I have enough information or too much? What else do I need to learn more about right now? Where am I stuck? Who can help me with this?

3. Illumination
   Light Bulb Idea: Aha moment.

   Questions to ask: How am I answering the question or problem uniquely? How am I going to present/display/share this information? Who can help me with this?

4. Implementation
   Actual Making, creating: Verification.

   Questions to ask: Who can help me implement this? What am I still missing? Where can I see this product come to life? What else would I like to do with it?

I’m always curious about the timeline of beautiful creation and know there is a behind-the-scene story from inspiration to implementation. I want to know, How long was it in the making to choreograph that routine or illuminate the painting or pen that e-course? What did the maker space look like on a practical level? To gain a better understanding and appreciation of my own maker story, (and because I’m relieving my brain from sorting research quotes - aka desiring some movement from incubation to implementation), I decided to sketch a rough outline of the creative process of this book I’m writing on creativity and transition (still to be named). There are several creative processes that intermingle – The Art of Transition workbook, The Way Between as a developed organization, and the now Unnamed book that gives the backstory. For the sake of this conversation, I’m just focusing on the timeline of the book to date, starting with the inspiration of the workbook. Because truly a book was never a part of any plan and is still somewhat of a daunting element to me!  

Preparation: for the workbook, book 

2016-2017 – living out the message in deeply painful and dark ways. Negative preparation for what was to come; priming the pump knowing that there was something deeper to the approach of transition and calling which we had used for over 10 years. (In reality you could consider the 10 years leading up to this point as part of the preparation phase).

Incubation: for the workbook and book

Sept – Dec. 2017 – A four-month sabbatical (still in my cross-cultural context and with my family while Jeff worked full time) Sabbatical looked like a working sabbatical for me: 9am-2pm, 5 days a week plus two short trips away. In that time I met God on my yoga mat, hiked and researched varied areas of interest. I had the luxury of flexibility to say no to meetings and community gatherings. I spent time with friends who were life-giving and supportive. I took 2 different short classes that contributed to the work - one of which I dropped out of because it became too much to unpack at this particular season. I met with a therapist and a coach that kept me living the message and engaging with my head and my heart.

Illumination: for the workbook & book

Nov 2017 – I had enough supportive research to start creating the first draft process. I needed to get the material as it was to date, out of my head and into the world. I took 6 days and went to Mallorca, Spain on a creation retreat* with a friend. (While this sounds extravagant, I was elated to find tickets from Malaga, Spain where I was living at the time, that were $25 each way. I asked a friend who would join me in the space and split the cost of a place for less than $100 each.)

Nov – Dec 2017 – I came home from the retreat and refined the learnings and articulated the process to an “excellent enough” place to offer it to 10 people come the new year. 

Implementation for the workbook and Incubation for the book

Jan – Feb 2018 – I hesitantly released the material to an in-person target audience cohort (the who) over the course of 6 weeks; wrote supporting articles (content creation), weekly for two months to explain the workshop & process & give validity using the research I had collected. I quickly realized that while I created the process (the what), I still did not give voice to the explanation behind the process (the why).

May 2018 – I co-led a group of 8 women in transition on a spiritual pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago for a week and tried the matieral in a very loosely resembling form.

2018-2021 – Over the course of several years, I have tried the material out in at least 8 different formats; receiving ongoing feedback and tweaking it towards best practice all along the way. Painful no-shows and empty workshop spaces were all a part of this process. I quickly learned to acquire thick skin. As well I became painfully aware of my limitations and areas of lacking - I’m not good at marketing or social media relations! I had to and still have to include a number of people in this with me. This is my social support structure.

2017-2020 – After every course, I edited the workbook in several different drafts (really for all 8 different formats listed above I was modifying the content each time.) In Dec 2020 I finally put a pause on the editing with a graphic designer and patient friend and made the workbook an official publication. (Thank you Springtime Books).

2017-2020 – Gave what I was doing an official name - The Way Between and thewaybetween.org and starting blogging ideas around this material monthly. A big hairy audacious goal! Requiring daily steps of courage!

2020-2021 – Transitioned our family during a pandemic to the US to once again live out the message of the material. The book continues to gnaw at me as I lack the full courage (and time) to find my writing voice the material requires.  

Illumination period for the book (and back to Implementation)

TODAY Aug 2021 – Writing retreat*…I have spent 3 days consolidating and sorting 75 references from 6 years + of compiled material and lived experiences. I’m nowhere near complete - back to Implementation!

Honestly, I don’t feel totally content with where I am leaving things after 3 days on this retreat. But I know this…I showed up and I dove in! I have to be my own cheerleader like I would for others. I must tell myself that I’m proud of me for carving out the space, for diving in, to continue to try to find my writing voice, and share the material that feels so relevant to a world in transition.

As well, I must say, I did really well with historically workaholic boundaries – This retreat was intentionally 2 parts work 1 part rest. And I’m physically more well-rested at the end of the time than I ever have been. I will continue living out the material and the creative process that I feel so passionate about. From here, I rest assured knowing I will put another multi-day writing space on the calendar in 2021. I am one step at a time making space to continue bringing this little baby to life. In the meantime I will embrace the birthing pains. 

*What does a writing retreat look like for me? I don’t know what others do, but for those interested I’ll write the loose structure I followed below. Generally, I work in chunks with breaks and lots of incorporated movement.

*My Writing Retreat Rough Schedule

7-8am Quiet Time & get the day started Breakfast

8-9 Yoga/light stretching

9-12 Writing, consolidating ideas, opening too many new word documents!

12-1pm Stop for lunch & a conversation if I’m not too deep in

1-3 Back to writing

3-4 Take a nap, walk or a hike to a coffee shop

4-6 Write again & conclude for the day

6-7 Walk home from a coffee shop

7-8 Dinner (share learnings if with others in a creative process)

8- Play and relax for the evening 

In hindsight, I wished I would have wrote more with a pen and paper and did more drawing exercises to stimulate my brain more (like those I list in The Art of Transition Workbook). I would have spent less time on the computer editing and organizing, but it felt like that is where my brain needed to be to once again comprehend the material I was gathering.  

While the schedule above may appear as though I’m writing for a total of 7 hours a day, the truth is that the writing process includes the preparation in research, refinement, and illumination periods. The break times and movement are a vital part of the overall illumination process. They are the daily incubation that truly fuels the work.  Like many other artists I am researching have noted, “When I dance or walk or draw, my mind has half a chance at stillness.” It’s from the place of movement in my body and stillness in my mind that my greatest creative ideas come to life. 

“Great creative work doesn’t happen overnight. It took God 7 days and He’s God!”

For Deeper Thought:

Question: What creation lives inside of you that is waiting for courage or time to be birthed? What is one practical step you can take today to begin moving it outside of you and into the world?

How to Start Your New Thing (on a dime): 10 Practical Tips for Creating New

It is really really hard (read NOT IMPOSSIBLE) to be all the people that your NEW non-profit or business needs to get started. When I list out all the roles that I wear as the director of a young non-profit, I quickly feel like I need a long nap! From website designer to fundraiser to content developer, my do-list feels like it is never finished. I can spiral into a woe is me feeling of isolation. And yet when I have accurate perspective, I feel the wind at my sails, the powerful support team behind me and like anything is possible.

Rather than curl up in a ball and hide under the covers, I still have to daily choose to face what can feel like a monstrous to-do list - one small detail at a time. I think of the wise people in my life who remind me, just take the next BEST step. For me the next best step looks different EVERY.SINGLE.DAY!

As I looked over my calendar of varied events, I realized I would have benefited from a blog article like this one that gave me a few pointers to getting started and keeping going! So since I’m a few years into this, but not so far ahead to forget the feelings of what it is like to start something (on a dime), I thought I’d write out some of the many practical tips that have kept the momentum going and kept me from hiding under a pile of sheets!

1. Just get started! Newton’s laws of motion states that “An object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will stay in motion at constant velocity, unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Inertia is the tendency of an object to resist changes in its velocity: whether in motion or motionless.” This concept of inertia never applied better than to getting started with that small hunch to create something new. Once you get the ball moving, it was tremendously easier to keep it in motion. For me this motion included starting by telling a few trusted people about my idea. Next came choosing a name. From there I created a gmail account with the name of the service and from there a public facebook page and later a closed facebook group. All of these cost me nothing and were totally FREE. Whilst getting me moving in the direction of sharing this idea publicly and making it a reality. Each of these steps were big decisions at the time. But they allowed me the chance to experiment and see what landed.

2. Ask for help wherever you can get it. People have resources and some have time! But most people don’t have both. Ask for help and be willing to barter your unique services and skill set. This is a great way to maximize how others can help you while utilizing what you have to give. There is a reason that the concentric relational circles (see relationship saturation) of the public sphere exist. They exist for times like this when you need a good recommendation, a photographer, an app developer, or someone to watch your children. I’m not talking about using people. I’m talking about utilizing what others know and can give that I DO NOT know or have to give. Everyone you meet knows more about something than you do. Be curious and open to who can join you in your vision. And be willing to give something back in return.

3. Offer to be a case study. I was reminded that people love to give advice and there were experts all around me. The year I began this endeavor there happened to be an undergraduate marketing class that wanted a case study coming to our town. They desperately needed small start-ups (aka - a project) like mine to dissect. I welcomed the chance to get out of my head and invite a class full of ambitious and up-to-date marketers to blow holes in my seemingly great ideas and communication strategies. While not everything they shared stuck, the half-day experience kept the ball rolling for me and got me talking about what I do to complete strangers. I really had nothing to lose but my pride!

4. Decide where your limits are between time and money. There is always something that needs doing. And yet I’m a firm believer in sabbath rest as a resource and discipline. From the onset I had some time, but little money; but truly not an abundant amount of either. If there is one thing I learned, don’t stop one paid thing before another thing gets going. Start the side hustle or non-profit prior to giving up on what you have been doing. Most start-ups take years to stabilize. And while it may seem like they happened overnight for everyone else, the book writer or the director you’re comparing yourself to likely had the vision for years before it was realized. Holding onto the stability (or impetus for change), will help motivate you and give you leverage to make the next steps in the right time.

5. Get a coach. The investment of a coach is invaluable to the process of creating something new! They will act as a sounding board, a wise and trusted advisor. They will provide feedback and an opportunity to “try things on” And finally they will help you stay the course and be the accountability that you need to get the job done. This is one of THE top investments to seeing your dreams realized.

6. Find your “Excellent enough”. This was the second most frequented statement I heard from my coach, that was truly gold! Just launching my website or running a 1.0 version of a workshop or a sample of a workbook, continually invited me to make it as best as I could in any given moment. It was never and still is not the level of perfection I would desire, but if I had waited for this level, I would never launch.

7. Set shipping dates for what you are creating. These shipping date “deadlines”, although arbitrary feeling, were the necessary push for me to step out from the million ideas in my head and make them a reality. These shipping dates also helped push me to make the abstract concrete. Challenging though every single one of them have been, I could not have and would not have seen a course, or a book created and launched if it wasn’t for my coach.

“Unless coached, people never reach their maximum capabilities” - Bob Nardelli, CEO, The Home Depot

8.     Create a visual story. I really struggled to come out from my little creation closet. We bartered for the service of a professional storyteller to help get my little contribution-to-the-world story out. This was such an empowering experience not to mention a great way to share it with so many others. Bottom line – get comfortable with videos and sharing why you’re doing what you’re doing. It’s the single best way to share with the masses. 

9.     When you need technical help start by looking it up on youtube or google it. I’m amazed at the millions of little videos that people create for people like me. So many helpful instructional videos exist for FREE!

10.  Utilize free summits. I can’t tell you how motivating and inspirational these free workshops and knowledge-power houses are! I learned a ton and applied a little at a time. From those professionals, I gathered emails and signed up for marketing experts advice that weekly come into my inbox.

11. Read about the areas that you know nothing about. I have tried to continue to learn every chance I get. Be avid about positioning yourself in front of literary mentors and experts where you lack knowledge.  

12. Ask for help…Did I already mention that? Do it over and over again. Think, who do I know that can help me with this? And if you don’t know someone pray for someone. And if the person doesn’t come, consider outsourcing like I did using 99designs or fivver for a professional logo. Some things can be done free and many others are worth paying for.

I’m so far from arriving. And yet, I share all of this to say that if you have a unique niche or passion on your heart, know that it is possible to achieve it! Any entrepreneur or visionary that you talk to will tell you it takes time, patience and an army. Reach out for help and humbly take it to accomplish all that you were created to accomplish!  

Questions for consideration: What is your next best step? Who is helping you along in the journey?

A Time for Unprecedented Innovation

When I first heard of the global pandemic that Covid-19 brought upon our world, I truly could not wrap my brain around the potential impact of the spread. I had no frame of reference to imagine what life might look like. I mean, who could? So few of us have ever lived through anything remotely close to this level of global crisis in our lifetime. Questions about daily life quickly surfaced. Why are people around the globe hoarding food and especially mind-blowing - hoarding toilet paper? How bad will this get? How many will be affected or even die before this is over? When will we know that it is over? What will change on a global scale when it all slows down?

Now 30+ days into isolation, more questions than answers remain. We’ve been left alone in our houses like so many others - left to wonder when this will lift and how it will all evolve. Coinciding with this barrage of uncertainty, my mind races to the unlimited potential we have on a global scale for massive amounts of new innovation. Yes, these are difficult times. I live in a place that has experienced some of the highest rates of reported cases and deaths to date. I’m terribly sad and concerned about that impact on society here. I have no idea how life will look when we’re given our freedom back. But as difficult as a time as this is, there is most certainly hope to be found in the potential for beautiful creation to come alive in new ways out of the chaos and crisis.

Times of crisis have historically necessitated a call to draw from untapped resources. They invite us by way of a silent and unseen period of hiddenness to explore new ways of being, new ways of searching deep within in ways previously unforeseen. We are called in a time of crisis to both individually and collectively explore what our part in the chaos will be. I believe we are at an unprecedented time in history for immense creativity and innovation.

The Creativity Process & Transition Round-About

How the Creation Process informs Crisis

If you’ve been reading along on this blog for any period of time, you will know that I write about the crossroads of transition and creativity. The similarities between the two are almost an exact mirror. As seen in the diagram that can be used interchangeably, both have the same four phases: Nudging (or crisis), Preparation, Incubation, Illumination and Implementation. Every creative process starts with a nudging or a desire for something different. That nudging may also be a crisis that forces a period of incubation. Incubation is often a time of solitude for an unknown length of time - a period of hiddenness existing to contemplate, consider, experiment, bend, twist, and gather information and gain new understanding. This period exists to create solutions to the nudging or crisis; this period invites innovation. After Incubation comes illumination of the how, where, who and the details that answer the questions of implementation the fourth phase.

These stages are ultimately the same for the personal developmental life cycles. A season of nudging or personal crisis is followed by hiddenness, labeled transition. The beautiful and often painful purpose of the incubation period is to cause depth and growth. Here we are strengthened in the solitude. We are like an iron in a fire, being molded and shaped. This pain and isolation causes us if we choose to innovate new ways of approaching old problems. In transition this might look like an in-depth discovery period  around who we are, what we were created for and how we are to live into our true self. We learn through time and those who’ve gone before that our next vocational season is dependent on this period of hiddenness and the depths of richness and creativity that are cultivated in us during this uncomfortable hiddenness.   

As I think about what is going on globally, I can’t help but wonder how this challenging season of incubation IS NOT meant to bring us despair, anxiety, harm, or discouragement, as I can frequently feel in the moment. Rather just like that of the creative process, this season of global incubation, is a growing pain for something richer, deeper, something new! 

Creating from a deficit

And yet how can we create when we find our brains filled with questions about the day-to-day functioning that is required of us? Will we have enough to live on? Will we have enough to eat? Will there be a lack in the areas of health care needs if I’m sick? How can we create in a time when our basic needs are all we can think about? Some of us can not enter this season of innovation. 

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs stands out to me as a reference and point of understanding. When our basic physiological “habit needs” hunger and thirst, sickness, and fatigue are not met we can not move to the higher levels of self-actualization. How can we possibly innovate in a season such as this? Creating takes us from our focus on the here and now and the problems right in front of us and challenges us to consider what exists outside of the box we can see that we are living in. This perspective shift does not negate a world in need. Rather it holds tightly to a firm grasp of reality in the present mixed with a desire for something better and different in the future. We hold reality in the palms of faith and hope.

The idea that we create only after our needs are met seems ideal but unrealistic. So what do we do now, today in this place of confinement? We create! We make adaptations and we innovate! We have to be flexible to think outside of the box of the way that we have been doing things. And in that adapting we will eventually see new ways of being. From that innovation, maybe we learn to write or draw or design or cook. We learn to celebrate birthdays and weddings virtually. We learn to cook or teach our children how to. We learn to be educators in a new way.  Creating is what we as humans, created in the image of the greatest Creator, do as a natural response to chaos.

Creativity Process Parallel to this Crisis:

1. Isolation - lack of busyness

2. Given time to percolate

3. Out of need we are creating

These small and big ways of thinking outside the box are shaping a new reality – on a personal scale and a larger global scale. This shift will most definitely have a long term impact on society. We will one day look back at this point in time, as people have historically done after crisis and ask, what shifted for the better because of Covid-19?

When I allow myself to imagine the possibilities outside my small myopic view of disappointment, discomfort, and discouragement, I can begin to dream and imagine that what we are collectively creating is a NEW future that has not been known or seen. In these unique and unprecedented times, we as a global society are meant to create in unprecedented ways.  What new or creative part will you play in the world’s adaptation needs? 

 “We do not know who might find shelter in the things that we have made. We should see this as a liberating reality. We are serving people we do not know. This is a sacred task.” - Alabaster Co.

For further reflection:

Where are the places you are improvising, bending, challenging old ways? Where are you making a new way forward? In this unprecedented time, what will you innovate?

Holding Calling Captive: Top 4 Creativity Killers that Limit our Potential

The incredible architectural masterpiece of antoni Gaudi, la Sagrada Familia

Top 4 Creativity Assassins

We were created in the image of an incredible Creator - just look around. He gave every individual a distinct fingerprint of creativity. “We are God’s workmanship, his masterpiece work of art, (his Sistene Chapel or La Sagrada Familia), created anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us” (Eph 2:10). And yet somewhere, somehow we have limited the creative work potential existing inside all of us and written it off as something for the professional artists. What if instead, we saw every person, ourselves included, as making up a greater part of a creative whole! And with whatever role we have, we consider the possibilities of tapping into this creativity? What if we considered how a person in finance, in leadership, in construction might think outside the box and utilize his/her imagination for purposeful and life-giving work for the greater good? 

Creativity is so much more than art or artists. I frequently hear people say, I’m not the artist type! The potential to be inspired with awe and wonder is ingrained in every single human person’s unique design - that’s where creativity lives. I believe we are all born creative people. But not only that, our brains and particularly our prefrontal cortex, unlike those of other animals, gives us the capacity to tap into a wellspring of unlimited imagination and use our unique creativity for the good of others. It’s unlimited! Imagine that!!!

It is every individual’s responsibility to discover what exclusive design we were particularly created for. Just like every tool in your kitchen or garage has a unique purpose and designed for a specific task. We were each created to fulfill a distinct job on this earth.  What I create is different than what you create because my life experience and my skillset are uniquely me! And yet we do several things that are unhelpful to cultivate this creativity within us and in others.

Top 4 Creativity Killers 

1. Busyness

We live in a noisy world, even when no one is speaking. The clutter of our lives, whether material or conceptual, keep us from the joy, spontaneity and creativity found in artistic expression space. When we remove the excess in our lives we find free space enlivening and inspiring new ways of being. The clutter on the other hand, consumes both the literal space and mind space where artistic expression once lived.

Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor and early childhood advocate writes in, Taking Back Childhood. She says “kids benefit emotionally and cognitively from having long uninterrupted blocks of time to explore art materials such as paints, crayons, colored pencils, chalk, markers, clay, etc.” She writes how open-ended materials and time can can bring a child’s personal narrative to life! It's been proven that participating in art creation soothes the soul, provides inspiration, promoting mental and emotional well-being. In addition, adults, similar to children, need free, uninterrupted blocks of time to explore their artistic voices. It’s through pushing the boundaries of materials in long uninterrupted time, that our personal narratives can come to life! We limit our creative potential by leading overly-full lives. Boredom is creativity’s greatest fertilizer. It is the process that matters most in art, not the end product.

“Boredom is creativity’s greatest fertilizer”

2. Comparison

If boredom fertilizes the growth of creation, comparison is the weed killer. Comparison rears it’s ugly head in the form of self-limiting beliefs or other-limiting beliefs, limiting possibility and inspiration. “I’m not as good as____” or “You’re not the musician that she is.” These thoughts, regardless of how or if they’re verbalized, may keep you from experimenting with what the expression of how God-given creativity looks within you.

These limiting beliefs, similarly may keep you from encouraging development in others. For years, I compared myself to my husband. I would say, I’m not as creative as Jeff. And the truth is, I’m NOT Jeff! He’s different than I am. He has a completely different skillset than I do. But from the end product I see, through the eyes of jealousy a creative block inside me that can not sponsor his expressions. The way he upcycles and designs a table out of garbage is something I could never do. And although he IS naturally really good at a lot of things, he doesn’t create the same as me. For many years, I allowed the thought that “I’m not as creative as…” from allowing me to experiment with and discover my often ugly, messy, tasteless, sometimes beautiful, but irregardless, unique to me – meal, travel plan, or blog article. Comparison kills creativity. 

“What I create is unique because my life experience and skillset are uniquely me”

When our unique skill set, natural abilities, learned traits, and personality all line up and we use them in the unique way they were formed for, we know it. And so do others. This place of pleasurable work I believe brings delight to God, ourselves and others. Whether baking, dancing, welding, or doing complex computer technology. We can feel a life-giving, purpose-filled element of God’s design at work in and through us. It is also up to us to foster that, not stifle it in others. That is how it’s meant to be! And yet we must welcome that creative potential within us and discover where our unique fingerprint meets the world’s deepest need. We must harness the creative potential the season of transition offers us.   

3. Being the “Art” police

Likewise, we limit ourselves and other’s creativity in the language we use, or the judgment of others work. Take my recent interaction with my daughter, as an example. She’s 6 and unafraid to mix all media all the time! My acquired organizational skills go a bit mad when she gets in her zone! A few days ago I found her painting rocks. But she didn’t restrain herself there. She began using the paint to color sand, then mixed the multiple colors of sand (turned back to brown) with the painted shells, and finally added a bag full of chalk! A couple hours later, hands and clothes covered in paint and sand – wahlah! She had created her masterpiece! Where she saw a beautiful creative expression, I couldn’t help but see a mess to clean up. But did she see a beautiful creation? I didn’t ask her…I think in hindsight she was just really enjoying the process.

Simultaneously amazed and perplexed at the unlimited boundaries of her mind, I managed to contain my inner art police! I don’t intend to limit her or other people’s self expression. My censor lies in part in my own inhibited creative-self. My logical, well-developed left-brain trying to tell my artistic brain there is no logic in that.

Despite my desires to empower people through the arts, I must pay careful attention that my own blocks do not cause unnecessary limitations. Our limitations of both language and self-imposed boundaries of what art should look like keep us from exploring new ways to mixing media and pushing into new levels of untapped creativity – in both ourselves and others. 

4. Take the same comfortable approach.

We limit our own creativity when we fail to step into the new. . Creativity emerges when we get off the path of least resistance and try something new! (Think: Mac-n-cheese quesadillas, thin-mint brownies, batter-fried oreos! Creative food creations!) Our brains naturally default to what we've done in the past. The past is known, familiar and comfortable.

Getting off the familiar path and taking a new direction gives us a whole new set of possibilities. It is often scary, yes. Typically a new path is scary primarily because we are afraid to fail. We’re also afraid of the unknown and the possibility of the future being worse than the present. Ruth Haley Barton summarizes it powerfully in Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership saying, “When the fear of staying the same is greater than the fear of the unknown, we are ripe for change!” We must be motivated to consider that the future holds hope of discovering new possibilities. 

While thinking about things the way they've been thought about and doing things the way they’ve been done is comfortable, these ways can be broken. What brings people, and global workers in particular, to transition is a way of life that is not working. The realization that one or more aspects of life needs to change brings painful awareness – for the children who need a better education, for a sustainable financial structure, for aging parents, for the ability to not always be in a burn-out state! Doing things the way they’ve always been done; when these are no longer working, we have the opportunity to see this as a season of possibilities! For many of us, we must get to the point of desperation for change. To be desperate for something different you have to be willing to step out AND BE WRONG! We know that the most beautiful testimonies are lives risen above pain where beauty has been made from ashes. This is the redemptive and transformative work that we get to be about - being made in the mirror image of our Creator. 

Sky is the limit

Give yourself space to explore possibilities. Allow yourself to acknowledge what you are good at. Spend time intentionally noticing what others are good at. Be aware where Jealousy creeps in. And get the necessary support to take whatever necessary first step is in front of you. The work of creativity is up to all of us. We get the privilege of joining in the pleasure of creating new with our great Creator.

Question: How can we be facilitators of artistic expression in both ourselves and others?  

Practical Application. What if instead we…try to fit into my day and particularly within my work one of the following words: wonder, imagine, invent, design, create, express, I’m curious, what if? Kids are comfortable with this language!

Or

Start a conversation with a child beginning with one of these words - imagine if…you could go anywhere right now, where would you go? What if…you could eat whatever you wanted for dinner – no limits! The potential responses are UNLIMITED and delightfully fun! What if you actually did it?!

Or

as a coach, I might say to someone in major life transition - Imagine you had five other lives to lead, what might they look like? What would you do in each of them? This approach gives permission to dream and takes people out of their logical responses that can often fail in times of transition. Begin to imagine that which has yet to be created.