There are any number of reasons why we feel we can’t unleash our creativity and start to realise some of the huge potential we have to be more creative.

Many of them, once we dig a little deeper, stem back to some form of guilt or other.

Guilt is one of the most powerful human emotions.

Feelings of guilt held over time this can be incredibly destructive.

And even if it doesn’t stop us in our tracks completely, and we do manage to continue creating whilst carrying this guilt, it makes us feel absolutely terrible.

As a result we never get to enjoy the creative process anywhere near as fully as we could do.

So here are 5 of the most common “guilt trips” of the creative soul, and a way to overcome each of them:

Guilt Trip No. 1: “It’s selfish creating just for me. Focusing time and energy just on me is so self-indulgent.”

How to overcome it: The fact is, if you’re more creative you’re more happy, more alive, more fulfilled. This good feeling and positive energy inevitably spills over into the rest of your life.

So you’re more relaxed, more easy going, more fun to be around. Surely this can only be a great benefit for everyone?

Guilt Trip No. 2: “I have all this wonderful creative equipment and materials, I should make use of it, I feel guilty it’s just sitting there.”

How to overcome it: By having the equipment and materials there it’s a constant reminder and pressure on you. Make the decision to either sell or give it away, or put it away out of sight and commit to regularly taking out and using just a small amount at a time.

This way the visible pressure is greatly reduced and you won’t get overwhelmed by trying to create with every piece of equipment and material in one single “ultimate creative project to end all projects.”

Guilt Trip No. 3: “When I’m creating I feel there are other priorities, other chores I should be getting on with.”

How to overcome it: Accept that there will always be other chores, something else that needs doing. It’s just not possible to finish them all. It IS possible though to have a creative life and still do the other everyday tasks we all need to live.

Set aside a small amount of time each day that’s just for you to create. If it helps, use it as a reward for getting other stuff done. But don’t wait until after you’ve done everything else and you’re completely exhausted!

Guilt Trip No. 4: “When I do create I often make mistakes and mess up. I feel guilty that I’m ruining materials and equipment someone else could put to better use.”

How to overcome it: Making mistakes is one of the best parts of creating. It’s often in these “mistakes” that we unlock new and stimulating paths to creating that we never would have found if we’d stuck to a rigid, safe formula.

If you really can’t get beyond making a start on an expensive canvas for example, for fear of ruining it, then start on something smaller and less expensive. Build your creative confidence - and your willingness to make “mistakes” - in small steady steps.

Guilt Trip No. 5: “I find it easy to create, and that makes me feel guilty. There are other people more deserving than me that have to work so much harder than I do to get similar results.”

How to overcome it: We all have our gifts and talents, the secret is discovering what they are. If you’ve found you can create beautiful things, that’s wonderful. Focus on how you can nurture your talents. The better you become, the more others will appreciate your work.

Another way of giving back to others directly is by starting a creative class, or helping out at an existing class. Those beginners new to creating can benefit from your experience and support.

These are just 5 of the most common guilt trips of the creative soul.

Which do you most relate to and why?

Which are you going to steps to overcome, starting today, so you can begin to truly unleash your creativity?

Want to learn more about how to unleash YOUR creativity? It’s easy: just sign up to “Create Create!” - Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin’s free twice monthly ezine - today, and get your FREE copy of the “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook. Head on over now to http://www.CoachCreative.com

“We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” T.S. Elliot wrote that in his poem “Little Gidding.” That seems to be the case. I travel through my physical life, with a veil of forgetfulness covering my focused consciousness, but I can still find my way back home and reunite with my greater awareness, and think it’s the first time.

Now that’s an interesting thought. I know a part of me, but feel like there is more to me than I know, so I start searching all over the place to find it, just to discover it’s hidden within me, so I can become a grander version of myself. That grander growth expands the web I am connected to, and the whole web expands, including the Source of the web. Of course the next question is expand to where? Every step in this process of re-discovery reveals yet another road of forgetfulness. I have an eternity to remember, so no need to rush things, right?
On this amazing journey, I pick a special way to go. The path chosen has the freedom, awareness, connection and contrast I need to complete the journey, but I forget I have them. I look outside myself to fulfill this lack of understanding. I find others who claim to have the truth and mystery solved. All I need to do is follow them, to get where I want to go.
No need to use my skills, it’s much easier to follow, and not think about it. That’s OK. It’s my journey, and I can travel on it as long as I want. At some point, something will awaken my belief in myself and the world changes. It becomes my world, and I can create it by my thoughts. I can be what I came here to be, a creator, who just like my creator, paints a canvas of beauty and love to experience. I feel my way on my path with my emotions, and express myself in gratitude. I remember I am aware connected energy, which is the greatest gift I can give myself. I can share it with all life, and reunite with another aspect of my consciousness.

There is no need to follow anyone or anything, but my feelings. I have all I need within me to live in peace, joy and love for that is what I create. That is what I give. That is what I am.
T.S. mentioned coming to the end of exploring, but I think he meant just one road in the process, death. I do know the place after death, for I have created it, by my beliefs, using the consciousness I remember. It certainly is not the end, but it is the beginning to becoming what I seek.

Hal Manogue is a poet and author of Short Sleeves A Book For Friends. Insightful thoughts for the 21st century. Hal’s 2006 collection and 2007 collection are available in bookstores and online. Visit Hal’s website: http://www.shortsleeves.net or blog: http://halmanogue.blogspot.com/ for more information about his work and life. Download a copy of the new E-Book,”Unite To Write” a collection of articles written by writers around the globe, that will inspire and fill you with useful information. It’s value is priceless. It’s Hal’s gift to you.

We each have deep within us the knowledge and the resources to build a life of happiness and creativity.

We’ve tasted enough of being both creative and happy to know what we love and what we want more of, and what we don’t like and need less of.

The difficulty comes in filtering out the surface noise so we can truly listen to this deeper source of knowledge.

Every one of us is unique in our creativity, so every one of us has a unique recipe for a creative and happy life.

But there are some basic ingredients that are needed for everyone’s recipe.

Today we’re going to focus on one of the most important.

Letting your creativity naturally evolve is essential for a life of creativity and happiness.

What do we mean then by “letting your creativity naturally evolve”?

Many of us are capable of being prolific in our creativity and churning out project after project more efficiently than a factory conveyor belt.

But we’re creative artists aren’t we, not production line automated robots?

If we’re producing the same end product each time, how creative is that, really?

We’ve all heard and witnessed many times over the story of the “One Hit Wonder” in the pop music charts.

They write and release a catchy infectious tune, everyone loves it and it sells in the hundreds of thousands. Fantastic, everyone’s happy.

Then they release their follow up.

Hang on though, this sounds almost EXACTLY like their first song…

By the third single they’ve virtually disappeared off the pop radar, never to be seen or heard again.

So how do we avoid being a One Hit Wonder? Or even worse, a NO Hit Wonder!?

We let our creativity naturally evolve.

Letting our creativity evolve is about experimenting, taking risks, being brave, colouring outside the edges.

It’s also about listening to ourselves and finding what helps us be more confident and bold in our creative experimentation.

Of course we don’t try to reinvent the wheel completely each time in the way we create. Much in the same way we don’t relearn our alphabet from scratch each time we go to write or speak.

Finding consistent methods and techniques that work well for our creativity is brilliant, and to be highly encouraged.

But following the same techniques down to the very last detail, without shaking things up at all, can only lead to producing the same product over and over and again.

And that’s not one of the ingredients of a happy and creative life.

So what are you going to do, from TODAY onwards, to help your creativity naturally evolve?

Start right now by going and creating something different, something brave, something edgy.

Vow to do this every few weeks or so, just to give your creative work some freshness and the chance to develop and evolve in new directions.

By doing this regularly, and letting your creativity naturally evolve, you’ll be giving yourself one of the essential ingredients for a creative and happy life.

Learn more about how to be happy and be more creative. Sign up to “Create Create!” - Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin’s free twice monthly ezine - today, and get your FREE copy of the “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook. Head on over now to http://www.CoachCreative.com

It may not feel like it sometimes, but deep within us we all know how to build a life of creativity and happiness.

We’ve seen and tasted enough in the past to know what works for us and what helps us be creative and happy, and what doesn’t work and we need to reduce or eliminate.

The difficulty sometimes is getting through the surface chaos and listening to our inner, knowledgeable selves.

Every one of us is unique in our creativity, so we each have a slightly different recipe for a creative happy life.

However there are some basic ingredients that we all need for our recipe.

Today we’re going to look in more depth at one of the most important.

Finding routines that work is essential for a life of creative and happiness.

So what do we mean by “routines that work”?

Many of us who are creative recoil in horror at the idea of set routines or patterns of working in our creative life.

There are many traditional romantic images of the artist being struck suddenly by inspiration and being compelled to create feverishly until their new work is complete, their idea fully realised.

But what happens then during the times we’re not creating?

Do we just hang around hopefully and wait for inspiration to magically appear?

Boredom is one of the lethal enemies of the creative mind. Just waiting around for something to happen is at best a bit of a drag, and at worst excruciatingly painful and frustrating.

It’s not a formula for a very happy or a very creative life.

So what’s the alternative?

The solution - the best way to lead a life that’s consistently creative and fulfilling - is to find routines and systems that work for us.

Creating a little each day is one of the crucial cornerstones.

Setting aside a time when we just go to our creative work space, or somewhere we’ll be undisturbed, and just creating, even if it’s just for 15 minutes each day is essential.

It’s the basis we can build everything else in our life of creativity and happiness upon.

Other parts of our routines we can alter and adjust are:

When we work - experimenting and finding the times of day we’re most creative.

Our creative environment - the surroundings most conducive to us creating easily and freely.

Reviewing and editing - the systems we use to review what we’ve created and make any necessary changes.

There are many other parts of our creative lives where having a system in place - a system unique to us that we’ve tried and tested - can help us be as creative as possible.

How can we find routines that work?

Be willing to test and experiment. Read and absorb as much as you can from other creative people and creativity experts, try their methods and systems and take the parts that work for you.

Over time, tweak, fine tune and evolve your creative routines so they continue to allow your creativity to flourish as freely as possible.

What are you going to do TODAY to start to find routines that work?

Start right now, look at the routines you currently have that work and the ones that aren’t working that you can drop.

Research and gather new routines and systems and start to find your unique and most effective ways of working.

By finding the creative routines that work for you, you’ll be giving yourself one of the essential ingredients for a creative and happy life.

Want to learn more about how to be more happy and be more creative? Then sign up to “Create Create!” - Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin’s free twice monthly ezine - today, and get your FREE copy of the “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook. Head on over now to http://www.CoachCreative.com

We all have inside us all the resources and knowledge we’ll ever need to lead a creative and happy life.

We’ve seen and experienced creativity and happiness often enough to know what they are. We know what’s good for us and what we’d like more of. And we know what isn’t good for us and what we need to reduce.

The difficulty lies in getting through all the surface static and tapping into this knowledge.

As we’re each unique creative people, we each have a unique recipe for a creative and happy life.

But there are some basic ingredients that are needed for everyone’s recipe.

Today we’re going to focus on one of the most important.

Getting the support you need is essential for a life of creativity and happiness.

So what does “getting the support you need” actually mean?

All of us who lead creative lives naturally have peaks and lulls.

When we’re on a creative high, we can easily create to our heart’s content and need little or no outside encouragement or input.

During the more difficult times though, very few of us can create in complete isolation and rely totally on our own reservoirs of motivation to get us through.

This is where support - and a support network - become so valuable and important.

A collection of people - our own personal team of enthusiastic cheerleaders.

Those we know we can trust and rely upon to encourage us, tell us we’re doing ok, and keep us moving and creating, especially in the more challenging times.

Having a support network works on two basic levels.

Firstly, it helps continually drip feed our creative confidence and our creative self-esteem.

Regular meetings and check ins with your colleagues, friends, or creativity coach help you maintain a high level of creativity, and stick to healthy, productive habits.

It keeps our creative batteries topped up, our fuel gauge in the black.

Secondly, our support network is there to catch us when we fall.

When we have those inevitable lulls, when we feel everything we create is worthless and pathetic, there’s someone there to talk to.

Someone to reassure us, tell us it’s ok, we’re not going insane.

Someone to listen, ask the right questions and give practical advice.

What happens when we don’t have this support?

Quite simply, our levels of creativity drop significantly.

It doesn’t pay to be TOTALLY dependent on others, and we should do all we can to build our creative confidence in a number of different ways.

But if we lack support completely, pretty soon we’ll simply grind to a halt, unable to sustain the levels of creative energy and motivation and encouragement that we get when we have a support network in place.

So how can you get the support your creativity needs?

Take a good look at the support network you have in place around you.

How strong is it? How many people are genuinely committed to supporting you and have your best interests at heart?

Are there any people you need to see less of or not see at all, as they’re a constant negative drain on your creativity?

How else can you find support from like minded creative people?

What are you going to do TODAY to get the support you need for your creativity?

Start right now, assess your current support structure and look at the many ways you can make it even stronger.

By doing this, you’ll be giving yourself one of the essential ingredients for a creative and happy life.

Learn more about how to be happy and be more creative. Simply sign up to “Create Create!” - Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin’s free twice monthly ezine today, and get your FREE copy of the “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook. Head on over now to http://www.CoachCreative.com

Inside us all, we have the knowledge and the resources for a life of creativity and happiness.

We’ve had enough of a taste and glimpse of being both creative and happy to know what we love and want more of, and what we don’t like and need less of.

The problem is getting through all the surface clutter and down to the pure source of that knowledge.

We’re each unique in our creativity, and so we each have a different recipe for a creative and happy life.

But there are some basic ingredients that are needed for everyone’s recipe.

Today we’re going to focus on one of the most important.

Being recognised and appreciated are essential for a life of creativity and happiness.

What do we mean then by “recognised and appreciated”?

As creative people, as artists, we need to feel at a deep level that our work has some purpose.

We need to know that what we create - and therefore our creative life itself - has some point and some meaning.

Part of this comes from within ourselves.

Someone with very high self esteem, huge levels of motivation and endless courage can quite happily produce creative work in complete isolation.

They can comfortably rely on themselves and their “inner rudder” to guide them to through the right decisions, the right projects, the right areas of focus for their creative energy.

But that’s not what most of us are like.

The majority of us need constant recognition, acknowledgement and affirmation from others around us, those we trust, admire and respect.

We need to hear:

“Wow, that’s amazing. For me it’s the most powerful and emotive abstract work you’ve produced yet.”

“Eighteen months after their debut, this new record is even more ambitious, more rewarding and truly stirs the human soul.”

“You’ve written a quality article every week for the last 3 months, that’s great going, well done.”

And sometimes just:

“I really admire how you’ve chosen to live a creative life and follow your talents and your calling.”

What happens when we don’t get recognised and acknowledged?

We feel we’re beating our heads against a wall. We wonder why we bother to create anything when no-one ever sees it or takes pleasure in it.

We wonder if our work is any good, or if we’re making any progress at all.

We may even create our own version of the famous riddle: “If a tree falls in a forest and there’s no-one around to hear it, does it still make it sound?”

“If I create and there’s no-one to around to appreciate it, did I actually create anything at all, or was it just a dream??”

So how can we get the acknowledgment and recognition we need?

In fact this doesn’t begin with other people. It begins right here, right now, with ourselves.

When was the last time you actually acknowledged and appreciated something you’d just created?

When did you last take a moment to actually say: “I’m proud of that creative project. I really feel I’ve progressed, it’s the best I’ve created in a long while.”?

Once we start acknowledging our own creative work - and appreciating our own creative EXISTENCE - we can start to become more open to receiving it from any number of other sources.

We can then take it out to those people who’s opinion we respect and admire, knowing we’ve done the best we can and are now open to constructive feedback from others.

What are you going to do TODAY to acknowledge your creativity?

Start right now and get into a regular habit of acknowledging and recognising how much you achieve, and you’ll be giving yourself one of the essential ingredients for a creative and happy life.

Want to learn more about how to be more happy and be more creative? It’s easy: just sign up to “Create Create!” - Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin’s free twice monthly ezine - today, and get your FREE copy of the “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook. Head on over now to http://www.CoachCreative.com

Creativity has a thousand different guises and expressions. Indeed, each of us who create may have any number of different ways of creating and communicating with the world through our creative abilities and works.

But how many of these are truly the things we WANT to create?

How much of our creative energy is invested in those projects we burn with passion for and yearn to produce, the projects that when we’re in the midst of creating feel rewarding, exciting and fulfilling like nothing else?

Often we may appear to be very productive on the surface and be churning out new work apparently effortlessly and without breaking a sweat.

So this makes us highly creative. Doesn’t it?

Well, yes in one sense.

If we measure how creative someone is by the volume of their output then someone who writes 6 novels a year or records an album every 3 months, is very creative.

But consider also the quality of this output.

And not even the quality as measured by the outside world, but the quality of the experience to the artist who created it, the value and benefit that creating these works gave them.

At one end of the spectrum there may be, for example, an artist who creates one new piece of work every 4 years, yet each day of those 4 years, each moment invested in their project, was rewarding, enjoyable and entirely necessary for the creator.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, there may be an artist who creates something new every day, generating new work like a perpetual motion conveyer belt.

Regardless of the opinions of the wider world, their work may be equally as rewarding for them as the artist who produces something every 4 years. Or it may not.

Only the artists themselves know what drives them to create and who they’re really creating for.

Consider this example:

Imagine you wrote a novel that you found personally incredibly satisfying to write.

It then got picked up by a major publishing house, sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and received great acclaim.

Fantastic.

Naturally, your publishers, and the fans of your work demand more, a sequel or follow up to the first novel.

You oblige and write the second book, though it was more difficult than the first and the pressure was completely different.

5 years and 5 novels down the road, the enjoyment you’re getting from writing is virtually non-existent. You feel highly stressed and under constant pressure to deliver.

The motivating and highly personal reasons that helped you write your first book have all but evaporated.

When you began you had dozens of ideas for books, each very different to one other, and each exciting and challenging for you to write. Now, instead, you find each novel you produce is a virtually photocopy of the previous one. The challenge, the thrill, the purpose and the point of writing, have all but disappeared.

Put simply, you’re not creating for yourself anymore.

It’s easy for us to lose sight of why we create, especially in the face of any commercial or critical success. We’re torn between wanting to pursue our successes - mining the potentially rich seam we’ve found - and trying to remain original, authentic and innovative enough to satisfy our natural need to evolve and grow as artists.

How does this relate to your creative life right now?

Ask yourself, what is most important to you - creating to satisfy your deepest artistic urges, fulfilling the need that nothing else can replace, or reproducing the type of work that you know has been successful in the past?

Be truthful in your answer, there’s no definitive right or wrong that works for everyone. We’re all individual and that’s just the point.

So what is the truth about your creativity. Who DO you create for?

Want to learn more about your own unique creativity and how you can href="http://www.CoachCreative.com/createcreate3">be more creative? It’s easy: just sign up to “Create Create!” - Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin’s free twice monthly ezine - today, and get your FREE copy of the “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook. Head on over now to href="http://www.CoachCreative.com/createcreate3">http://www.CoachCreative.com

I woke up this morning with the words, don’t bite off more than you can chew, going through my head. But my dreams do, over and over, bite off way more than that. And I get pulled along. Lots of work, obstacles, learning. I’m not a quitter, but I’ve let go, time and again, only to come back and try again.

My question to you: how do you get along (or not) with your dreams? I’d love to hear.

In this case, I think the words came this morning because it’s almost time for me to get back to creative things. Like for many creative people, that’s my area of biggest dreams and biggest difficulties.

I’ve spent my whole life, when it comes to creative things, biting off more than I can chew. I was twelve when I wrote my first play, and still twelve when I wrote my first film script. The play was finally put on - in a family friend’s basement - two years later. The film script, loving reworked for several years, never made it onto the screen.

Right there, from those early works, I’ve come to the heart of what been hardest for me: to find a way to get the works out into the world.

I had a choice this morning. Regular words, everyday words - or a song/spoken word piece. I went for both choices - but first for the words strongest in my head, those with rhythm and drive.

There was yet another choice - to pay attention to the words in my head, or to ignore them and get on with my day.

I chose to let those words be part of my day, especially as I knew where they were coming from: the huge and daunting task I’ve set myself, to get more of My Chosen Home on the web, starting with the most ambitious single piece done so far, Summer’s Passing.

A bit of background. The goal is to bring alive the experience of being at home. What does it mean, to be at home, for different people?

I wrote a piece, on my own experience. Months later, listening to an electro acoustic piece by a friend, Mark Corwin, I started hearing more words in my head:

summer’s passing
and I’m having a blast
waiting for anything
waiting for nothing
not waiting

The words went on, trying to capture Mark’s experience of being at home in his back yard in late summer. I rummaged through my bag for paper and pencil, started writing.

That was, as usual, the easy part.

The journey has been a long one. An English and a French version. Photographs. Recordings - Mark’s voice for the English, mine for the French. Doing a mix. Creating an interactive piece where people can choose what to listen to (the mix, Mark’s original soundscape, just the voices). Working with Flash (a web design program with movement, animation, video).

The goal, the plan, the decision: next week, on my site, the current version of Summer’s Passing.

In the meantime, all the best to you in making your own dreams come true.

Comments are very welcome. How do you get along with your dreams? Do they drive you, lead you?

****

For more on this struggle, go to ELSA’S CREATIVITY BLOG. More on attempting to turn dreams, especially creative dreams, into reality. Note we don’t always how much we can chew, when we chomp off a big bite. Note also that Columbus certainly bit off more than most people could chew.

For a creative piece on this struggle, go to MY DREAMS AND I, a spoken word piece that came so easily - unlike getting creativity out into the world.

****

ELSA’S CREATIVITY EMPORIUM. Words. Music. Image. Story. Plus UPDATES WEEKLY.

All at http://www.elsas-word-story-image-idea-music-emporium.com/index.html

Click now. Subscribe to the free updates. Story. Music. Spoken word. Ideas. Images. Flash. Flashes of inspiration. Floods of possibilities. Creativity plus.

Click and find ELSA’S CREATIVITY BLOG - entries on Being Gripped by the Creative Drive, The Dream of the Big Audience, Bored by Everyday Pleasures but Loving Creativity.

Click and find WORDS AND MUSIC - White Chocolate and Hot Fudge, Escape Velocity, Tank Almost Empty, Heavy Rain, The Echo of the Echo, Come Waste My Time, Don’t Bite Off More, Gap, Walking with John Lennon, Who Is This Person I Call Me, Match, Summer’s Passing.

Click and find MY CHOSEN HOME. Explorations of what it means to be at home.

Click and find THE FLUFFERS BOOK. Ghost dog, preteen girl, hit and run, questions about reality.

In the works: ZEE’S CAFE CAFE, a virtual word image and music emporium. Launch date: July 27, 2007, 7 pm EST.

ELSA’S CREATIVITY EMPORIUM. Click now. Visit. Subscribe.

Deep down, we all know how to be happy.

We have enough self awareness to know what feels good, what feels right. We know what type of creating makes us feel excited, stimulated, powerful, alive.

The difficulty comes NOT in knowing just how delicious the recipe for our happy creative life can be.

We’ve had enough of a taste at various times in our creative life, however fleetingly, and however few and far between these occasions may have been, to know how wonderful it CAN be.

The hardest part is knowing which ingredients to use and what quantity of each we need.

So to give you a little more clarity about YOUR own unique recipe for a happy and fruitful creative life, here are 5 of the essential ingredients we ALL need:

1. Recognition and Appreciation. We all need to be recognised and appreciated as creative artists, to feel our work - and our very creative existence - has a purpose.

This begins with ourselves. How completely have you accepted that you’re a creative person, and that creativity plays a crucial part in your life? Isn’t it time you “came out of the closet” to yourself and the rest of the world?

2. Support. Though sometimes it’s of benefit to create away from outside distractions, none of us can create for a sustained period in complete isolation.

The support of others, someone to tell us we’re doing great and we’re on the right track, is invaluable to us as creative people. What kind of support network do you have in your creative life?

3. Stability and Routine. Though many of us visibly flinch at the idea that as creative people we should have routines and systems in place to be able to be creative, the fact is they work.

The only way to produce consistent, rewarding and fulfilling creative work is to create regularly. And we can only do this with routines in place, systems that work for us. What creative routines and system do you have that work for you? How can you make them even more effective?

4. Connection To Others. For many the fundamental purpose of creating ANYTHING is to connect with others, to communicate with the world. Our art, our creative work, is our unique and precious way of doing this.

If we’re creating in a vacuum though, we’re missing out on a huge and rewarding part of the creative life. In what ways is your creative work out there in the world connecting with, touching and inspiring people? And how can you directly communicate and share more with other creative people?

5. Development and Evolution. We simply can’t have a happy creative life if we produce the same piece of work over and over again. Creative development is essential to having a rewarding creative life.

The root of all personal creative development is being brave and bold enough to experiment, and willing to evolve and change. In what ways do you experiment, take risks and scribble outside the lines in your creative life? How can you do this more?

Finding a delicious recipe for a happy creative life is an ongoing process.

By having these 5 elements in place, we’re off to a excellent start.

Finding the right type and amount of each that works best for you can only be found through experimenting, being brave and being open.

Open yourself to the possibility that a life of happiness and creativity is something that’s not only achievable, but it’s something you already know how to do, if only you’d give yourself the chance and the permission.

Want to learn more about how to be more creative in your life? Just sign up to “Create Create!” - Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin’s free twice monthly ezine - today, and get your FREE copy of the “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook. Head on over now to http://www.CoachCreative.com

All of us who are creative know what it’s like to experience creative blocks.

That feeling when however much you long to unleash your creativity, it seems about as easy as juggling hot custard.

Whatever we seem to do, we can’t get past a certain point, we’re literally blocked, can’t see a way through and quickly get discouraged and frustrated.

There are many different types of creative block, and each of them has its devious ways of trying to sabotage our creativity.

The first step in overcoming any creative block though is to recognise when we’re up against it, and see exactly what it is we’re dealing with.

Here’s one of the most common forms of creative block and some tips to overcome it:

Creative Block: “I never finish creative projects, so why start?”.

How you know when you’re experiencing it:

The main symptom of experiencing this type of creative block is having a trail of part finished creative projects in your past history.

In a dark cupboard that hasn’t been explored for months, even years, there lies a collection of unfinished projects. What were once sparkling with intention and pregnant with wonderful possibilities, now lie discarded and disowned, like forgotten and unloved orphans.

Although the projects are out of sight, they’re not necessarily out of mind. The impact each of them had at the point when you “gave up” has left its own tiny scar.

Over time, this collection of successive scars has left you feeling unable to start another new project. “Why bother starting anything new? It’ll just end up in the cupboard like all the others and I’ll feel like a failure all over again.”

Tips to overcome this type of creative block:

The most significant part of this creative block for many of us is simply the association of not finishing a project with being “a failure”, “a lightweight”, and “incompetent”.

To begin to better deal with this creative block, what’s needed is a way to reduce the impact this “failure” feeling has on our ability to begin subsequent projects.

Here’s some tips to help with this:

There’s no failure only feedback: The only way we can truly fail is to give up completely and never create again. And I know deep down that’s not what you want at all.

Any project that doesn’t go the way we thought it would gives us an opportunity to learn a little bit more about ourselves, how we create, and what’s important to us.

An increase in self-awareness: If we come to a point in a project where we really can’t see how it can benefit us to continue with it, then don’t. This shows good self-awareness.

It shows we care enough about our creativity that we’re prepared to stop “flogging a dead horse” and redirect our creative energy into something we’re more into. It’s a positive step.

Practice finishing: Maybe it’s been a long time since you finished any project and you feel you don’t even know how to. This is something you can practice.

Begin with a very small project, like making a birthday card, organising 10 of your photos, or writing and sending a letter to a friend. Once you’ve completed a few small projects and got more comfortable with seeing a project through from start to finish, it becomes easier to build up to larger projects and do the same.

Feeling “I never finish creative projects, so why start?” is just one of the most common creative blocks we experience.

Experiment with the tips above to see how you can begin to overcome this type of creative block and go on to unleash your creativity.

Learn more about how to unleash YOUR creativity today: just sign up to “Create Create!” - Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin’s free twice monthly ezine - and get your FREE copy of the “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook. Head on over now to http://www.CoachCreative.com