Creative Alchemy
Find your inspiration in 2007
Claudie,
Welcome to the January Creative Alchemy Newsletter.
Please get in touch if you have any thoughts or
responses to the subjects I write about, or about our
events. I'd love to hear what's been useful or
interesting, or downright annoying...
Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your
network.
New Year's Unresolutions
I don’t make New Year’s resolutions. The reasoning
behind this is pretty simple. Usually (this year being
no exception), I spend the first few days of the New
Year paralysed by fear. I’m talking serious no-sleep,
nails-dug-deep-into-the-palms- of-my-hands terror. I
don’t sleep or eat properly (unless you count chocolate
and toast as one of the major food groups). I stop
writing, painting, communicating with the outside world
on any kind of deep level, and I waste countless hours
glued to trashy geek sci-fi (the more escapist the
better) or chat shows (other people’s problems are so
much easier to solve by shouting at the TV). All of this
usually takes place from the safety of my sofa, in my
pyjamas.
So, how does this relate back to New Year’s resolutions?
Surely some kind of structure might stop me falling into
this abyss? Perhaps I could decide not to do ‘terror in
pyjamas’ this year? Well I suppose anything’s possible.
What I know and understand, which stops me trying to
circumvent this apparently pointless set of behaviours
is how my creative process works. This is what happens.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve developed the habit
of saying yes to things that if I gave any thought to
them would scare me too much to consider. I say yes so
fast, that I don’t have time to think about the
consequences. In this way I have built up my business,
taken on new challenges, been presented with incredible
opportunities, and learnt amazing things about what I’m
capable of achieving. My creativity has taken on a life
of its own because I’ve begun to understand that the
moment I’m presented with a challenge or a new idea my
mind begins the process of turning over concepts and
possibilities and images, which ultimately (and
sometimes in an almighty rush) spill out on the page,
canvas or to whomever I’m speaking to.
I know that the same process works even when I create
the challenge myself, hence sometimes booking the space
for a workshop I haven’t yet written, offering to write
a series of articles when I haven’t a clue what they
might be about, or beginning work with a client when I
don’t know how the process will unfold, simply trusting
that what needs to come up and be resolved will do, and
that I will know in that moment the best way to support
and challenge them to create change.
However, being able to circumnavigate fear does not mean
(for me anyway), that it disappears. Keeping myself so
busy means that it usually comes in a rush, a wave that
trips me up, takes my breath away and lands me in a
sodden heap on the sofa. So I’ve decided to make peace
with it. Stay in my pyjamas until it passes. All of this
because I know through experience that these periods of
paralysis always precede an epiphany of intense
creativity and focus when everything begins to make
sense again. And that is what happened today.
New Year’s resolutions for me follow an artificial
calendar- based perception of reality, which implies
that change only happens once a year. If we follow our
natural processes, begin to understand and respect the
natural rhythms of our creativity we enable true flow to
happen. And if occasionally the flow dries up we
understand this as a natural stage in the process, and
can wait for change without berating ourselves or
feeling in any way inadequate.
Creative Alchemy Tuesday 9th January
Polka. 58-59 Poland Street, London W1F 7NB (upstairs)
Creative Alchemy brings together creative businesses and
freelancers from across the different creative sectors
for networking, discussion and socialising in a chilled
out smiley environment designed to encourage
collaboration and inspiration. Join us for a drink and
see what develops!
Register here to attend this event:
Powerful Goal Setting – Take your business to the
next level in 2007
24th January 2007 @ Westbourne Studios in Notting Hill
You’re a creative business owner, employee or
freelancer. You know where you are business-wise but its
essential to maintain a vision of the future. What’s the
next step? How do you want to grow? Where should you
focus your attention next? It’s easy to get caught up in
the whirlwind of commitments and challenges, dealing
with situations as they come up, and forget to check out
which way you are heading. The result of being so caught
up in the moment can be increased stress levels,
confusion, and chaos.
Why not start the New Year with new motivation,
purpose and direction? Learning how to set compelling,
well-defined goals can be the means to really taking
your business or career to the next level.
In this one-day interactive workshop you will:
Learn how to identify your values, and how they can
help you to create your ideal business or career
Understand what stops you getting what you want, and
how to break through any obstacles to your success
Set compelling, powerful goals
Create a timed, realistic step by step action plan to
achieving them in 2007
This workshop is filling up fast, book now to
guarantee your place (@ the special rate of £99 for
members of this list, usual price £120)
Coaching for Creative Businesses
|
Employee Engagement is essential if you want
to retain top quality staff, whilst
maintaining peak performance, creativity and
motivation. Providing coaching to your staff
as an employee benefit will enable your
business to perform at the highest level,
increasing focus, performance and
creativity, whilst providing support and
stress management for your most valuable
resource - talented people. Get in touch to
find out how coaching could work for your
business, or forward this link to your HR
department.
Learn More |
