Creative Heart Coaching

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 3 of 7

Find a daily action partner.  This will be the person who you check in every day with about the plan you made in Part 2. Call them every morning, state what you will do for the day, what might get in your way, and what you will do about it.  Your action partner should be someone you can discuss your logistical issues with as well as emotional issues that may come up in response to the new level you're working on.  Let your action partner know that what you'd like from them is to listen and be supportive and to call you out when you're off-target.  Know that just taking the action to call another person who really gets what you're working toward will bring you strength. 

Each time we move up to a higher level of productivity, creativity, or integrity, the part of us that has been stuck can get scared.  You can address that part of you by actually talking to it, respecting it's concerns, and giving it a voice.  Once you've done that, "mine" what your inner critic has told you.  (Don't bother arguing with it; it's not reasonable!)  Is there anything your critic said that you can use creatively?  Sometimes our greatest treasure is the same thing that holds us back.  If your critic were giving you a gift, what would it be? 

After you've listened to and mined your critic's message, move on.  You can even set a timer for, say, five minutes, to listen to you critic.  When time's up, set it aside and begin your creative work.

"Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief."

-Marcus Tullius Ceicero

If you're ready to move forward in your creative career or just want to have more "juice" in life, and feel called to work with me, you can book a free consultation here:

Alicia

 

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 2 of 7

Sometimes creativity coaching is not so much about the creative part, but the coaching part. 

The first step to making your vision a reality is to create a timeline.  Maybe you've decided to record an album.  Set a date for the album's release.  Perhaps that's one year from now.  Work backwards, setting each date on a giant calendar that you will post in your workspace.  If you don't know what all the steps are in the process are, this is the time to research it.  Set deadlines for each major component, and then break the major components into minor ones, and set dates for those.  Then, break each minor component into simple, single-action steps that you can do each day. 

Your major deadlines might look like this:

• release date and party: December 1st
• send album to press: November 1st
• send tracks for mastering: October 1st
• complete studio recording: September 1st
• find musicians for studio work: June 1st
• complete songwriting: April 1st
• find artist to design album cover: March 1st
• create a list of songs you will write: February 1st
• decide on concept for album: January 1st

In between the major deadlines under "find musicians for studio work," it might look like this:

• meet with producer, decide which songs need which instruments
• make a list of instruments needed
• make a list of musicians
• ask musician friends
• put an ad on "performer" website for musicians
• put an email out to friends to find musicians
• put an ad on craigslist to find musicians
• decide on budget for musicians
• speak with, meet, and audition possible musicians
• decide on who you will work with

In between these minor deadlines under "put an ad on craigslist to find musicians," it might look like this:

• write draft of ad
• have someone proofread it
• post
• respond

You will soon have a comprehensive plan of how to get from here to there.

"All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man had taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Coming up next in Part Three: creating a support network to help you achieve your goal.

If you're ready to move forward in your creative career or just want to have more "juice" in life, and feel called to work with me, you can book a free consultation here:

Alicia

 

How to Actually Manifest Your Dream, Part 1 of 7

A reader of this blog has expressed some interest in hearing more details on how to create a one-person-show (also sometimes called a "one man show", a monologue, or a solo show.)

So, over the next few weeks, I'll explain a bit more about each step in detail from the perspective of a creativity coach.  I want you to really get that while I may be writing specifically about creating a show, you can apply this process to any creative project, whether you're wanting to exhibit your paintings, write a sitcom, or record and album, or illustrate a children's book. 

Part One: On paper, write your higest vision for your show.  Close your eyes, take some deep breaths, connect with your heart, and find your center.  When you're there, write down what your vision is--just like The Secret--how does it feel?  how does it smell?  where does the light fall?  how does it look?  get specific.  who is there with you?  what has changed now that you've accomplished this?  what is your life like now?  what have you learned about yourself? 

Here's the key that most people miss that will blow this exercise up and bring it to the next level: you need to let your mind know that you mean business.  So take the vision you've written, and find a magical way to show yourself your commitment.  Perhaps you post it on your wall where you look every day.  Perhaps you light a candle and dedicate yourself to your vision each morning.  Perhaps you distill the vision into a word and wear that word around your wrist or neck as an amulet.

Coming up next in Part Two: the first step to making your vision a reality.

"We are limited, not by our abilities, buy by our vision."

If you're ready to move forward in your creative career or just want to have more "juice" in life, and feel called to work with me, you can book a free consultation here:

Alicia

Hold a Higher Vibrational Level

In my creativity coaching practice, I often work with people who feel held back by fear.  The external world is a reflection of our collective fears and our dreams, both manifest simultaneously.  It's easy to live at the average vibrational level of those we come in contact with, what we hear on the radio or see on TV.  And with the world in such seeming disarray these days, it's normal to feel disheartened about making progress in our own lives.

So what's the difference between people who feel fearful and insecure during tough times, and people who feel optimistic and relaxed, even free-spirited?  The latter group of people have cultivated an inner security--have held their bodies and minds at a higher vibrational level.  They know that their external world is a creation of their inner world, and they choose to live in love.  These are the people who hold the vision of what the world will can be in their hearts, and who inspire the collective consciousness to spiral upward to new and beautiful places.  You do this, too, when you hold yourself at a higher vibrational level despite the level of what seems to be around you.

Of course, there will always be things that are out of our control, but the more inner security we cultivate, the more we will deeply know this truth: the part of you which is eternal can never be harmed.

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Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled; to concentrate; to accept conflict and tension; to be born everyday; to feel a sense of self.

-Erich Fromm