Book Recommendation: Creative Confidence

word cloud creative confidenceI’ve listened to and read this book since 2015 when I took on a technology learning plan for a school district. Clearly, I didn’t take the advice below as wholeheartedly as I should have.
But this book’s many insights and real-life examples should provide the requisite *kick in the seat of the pants* [the title of another favorite book by Roger von Oech] for those of us in that ‘desire to act vs. moving forward’ fog.

Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All
by David Kelley and Tom Kelley

“Many of us get stuck between wanting to act and taking action. The uncertainty of the uncharted path ahead can be daunting. Sometimes it feels as if circumstances are conspiring against us, and we find ourselves riveted in place. In corporate cultures, that hesitation can translate into what professors Bob Sutton and Jeffrey Pfeffer call the “knowing-doing gap”

Kick in the Seat of the Pants by Roger von Oech

Book Recommendation: Creative Pep Talk

by Andy J. Miller

Subtitled: Inspiration from 50 Artists

Colorful, inspirational, and thought-provoking.

Here is the Goodreads review page.

Some favorites:

You’ll never be ready, so you might as well put yourself out there.
–Daniel Fishel

You cannot live your whole life in comfort zones
–Meg Hunt

Roll with it & gain momentum.
— Mary Kate McDevitt

Showing up…that first 100 words

100 words in calligraphy

Handwritten, not typed.

It’s a variation of Julia Cameron’s morning pages, but I found that setting that simple goal made it easy to squeeze them in before the dog insisted on his morning walk.

Benefits:

I always went well past the prescribed 100 and that last 50 words always seemed to set my mind in the right direction.

It felt good to start shaping my own productive habits. At times, I even forced myself to write that first 100 while my coffee and breakfast sat within easy reach. [Now that’s serious!]

It reminded me I had already created this template that I used successfully…but evidently not so successfully that I forgot about it. [Go figure.]

Next Post: More gold star moments…

Showing up…the key to my reinvention

man at MacBook laptop

Yes, while I, like a ‘few’ others, tend to procrastinate, I have been consistently showing up to my creative projects.

But I wanted to be more mindful about my work.

So I figured, why not issue myself a challenge?

I happened across this three-minute TED Talk on trying something new for 30 days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNP03fDSj1U

I shrank that to five days.

Why so few?

Four reasons:

  1. I just wanted to observe my process of mindful ‘showing up’–30 days would have been a drain.

    1. There are tons of anti-procrastination tips to try out, but I wanted to create my own, style them after my own inclinations.

  3. There’s no reason I couldn’t move beyond the original five-day target

  4. And, of course, I’m a wimp.

And so, here is Lesson 1 from my challenge…

National Novel Writing Month update: I won’t make the 50,000 word goal, but I’ve accomplished what I wanted. I’ve spent ‘quality’ time [i.e. good focused effort] on two writing projects.