Do you feel like you could use some help expanding your creativity in the New Year?
Do you think 2016 was too challenging and do you fear that 2017 will be more of the same?
I believe that 2017 will be another difficult year for creatives. I also believe that folks who can’t detach from the daily drama of living in our modern world will struggle with focus, productivity, and satisfaction in 2017.
Does this sound like how you felt during the second half of 2016? Did you find it difficult, if not impossible to extricate yourself from the chaos of the daily breaking news?
Truly, this happens to the best of us. I definitely lost a few days in 2016, and I may lose a couple in 2017, but I have no intention of making a habit of abandoning my daily creative process.
Set Goals
Part of my secret is goals. I just reviewed the 50 goals I set for myself for 2017 and I was nodding along with each one the whole way through rereading my list. As I read the list, I could feel the inspiration welling up in my entire body. By the time I was done, I could not wait to write this blog post.
I don’t know how many goals you should set for the upcoming year, but for me, setting 50 goals for my 50th year simply felt like the right thing for me to do.
Give Yourself Permission
Another part of my secret is permission. I don’t feel like I have to be available for other people’s goals unless I have consciously committed to playing that role for them. This frees up a lot of my energy and helps me maintain good, clear boundaries with people. I also have simple, straightforward methods for folks to approach me and engage my services. I don’t carry around a lot of expectations about what others should do for me because I’m so enthusiastic about what I’m doing every day.
Don’t get me wrong, I have people and products I am genuinely enthusiastic about. But I no longer lose energy on projects that do not move me deeply.
There is no more unspoken you-rub-my-back-and-I’ll-rub-yours going on in my career. This frees up my energy so I can live in the moment more honestly and authentically. And when I say yes, I mean it. And when I say no, same.
At any given time, we have two choices about how to move forward. One way is the way others expect us to move forward according to how we’ve been conditioned and how we’ve always moved forward in the past. The second way is based on how we genuinely wish to move forward. I’m 100% committed to the second way because the first way is a painful prison I no longer wish to live inside.
Find Fresh Encouragement
A final part of my secret is encouragement. I look to the type of encouragement that feeds my soul. I spent the last couple of years ditching outdated resources that no longer do anything for me. And as I let go of what wasn’t working, something that works beautifully emerged.
I spent a lot of time this past year building an online school that would be a place of continuous encouragement. I wanted it to be open with the lights on 24/7, so writers and creatives could come in and find shelter from the daily chaos of everyday life and feel refreshed after flexing their creative muscles.
I wanted my school to be a place where creative souls could remember their uniqueness, tap back into their individual power, and find the inspiration to go back out into the world and express themselves to their heart’s content.
I wanted my school to be a place where creatives could go for a quick lesson or two or a place where they could immerse themselves in an entire course for an hour or more, as often as desired.
I wanted my school to be a place where individuals could go and rekindle their relationship with their own uniqueness. Because this is what is being lost in all of the doom and gloom shouted constantly from a plethora of media outlets.
Most of all, I wanted my students to be able to learn without having to wait for me. I wanted my school to be a place that could help individuals recharge their creativity without having to leave home, quit the carpool, or skip taking the shower that hadn’t had time for in days.
In short, I wanted to create a place of learning, growth, and expansion, and I have. This week I have added Certificates Of Completion to each course. So now, you can keep track of where you are in each class as you go along and print out a Certificate Of Completion each time you finish a course.
I thought you might want to hear which of the courses in my school are particularly helpful for rebooting your hopes, dreams, and goals right around this time of year. So here’s the short list. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Create Your Dream Writing Career With Writing Coach Christina Katz LINK
* Power Up Your Platform Like A Pro & Become Better Known Now LINK
* Writer Platform Success: Assess Your Strengths & Skills Now LINK
More Joy Now: Stop Struggling & Start Thriving LINK
* Prices on all $33 platform courses is going up to $49 on 1/1/17 as announced in my ezine. Please subscribe to my ezine to keep up with all of my latest updates.
The pressure to abandon yourself and your dreams seems to have never been stronger. It was already selfish to express yourself in the old world, especially if you were a woman. In the new world, expressing yourself means letting down all the people who are counting on you to rescue the world from a certain demise.
But don’t give into false external pressure, folks. Don’t trade your dreams for a daily panic attack. Set goals. Take classes. Let the slings and arrows of 2016 help you dig deep, tap into your strengths, and share the gifts you discover within with the world.
We need your gifts far more than we need your fear.
So much inspiration, so much time! Please subscribe to the Create, Share, Prosper blog and sign up for The Prosperous Creative ezine for exclusive discounts you won’t find elsewhere. Click on the Enter School tab above to put your creativity to prosperous use right now. Like words? Check out my Etsy shop. And you haven’t seen anything, if you haven’t seen all the helpful offerings in my online shop. Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing this post with fellow creatives!