creative mark

7/28/2019 Creative Mark

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I

ve been working with creative and performing artists andother creative typesbusinesspeople, scientists, academics,lawyers, physicians, and folks from all

different callingsforthe past thirty years.Ive worked with MacArthur fellows,bestselling authors,and Academy Award winners; with teenagers who are juststarting

out; with unrecognized painters, writers, and musi-cians who bring love andcommitment to each new project,despite their lack of marketplace success;

with creators inevery conceivable set of circumstances.Ive worked with

rooms full of British artists, Germanartists, Flemish artists, and Ive facilitatedworkshops in smalltowns and in cities such as Paris, London, Berlin, and New York.

Thousands of creative and performing artists have comeforward to be coached for

free by the creativity coaches that Itrainand each of these thousands ofartists has told me hisor her story.Many aspects of my coaching and teaching

practice havechanged over the years. Not so long ago I always traveledsomewhere to do

a workshop. Today Im just as likely to visitvirtually or via telechats. For instance,in September of this year Ill present the keynote address at a creativityconferencein Bogot, Colombiavia Skype, while sitting at my desk

athome. The next day Ill lead a workshop for thirty Colombianparticipants again, virtually.These changes are natural and even inevitable as technol-ogy

makes them possible, and as I get older and busier. Whatdoes not change are the

problems. The human beings whocome to me want to create or perform. Most

not only wantto create or perform but also hope to do good work that isdesiredand respected. So much stands in the way of their real-izing their dreams,

goals, and ambitions! So much that I havewritten book after book exploringthe answer to

thisproblem and the answer to

that

problem and the answer to thenext

problem.In short, Ive seen a lot and Ive written a lot, more thantwenty booksworth, about artists and depression, artists andanxiety, artists and addiction

analyzing the issues of thecreative personality and the creative life. In this

book I want todistill those lessons and identify what it takes to achieveyourbest possible life in the arts. In short, I hope to provide youwith a users

manual for your creative journey.Each of the nine issues I describe in this book isof vitalimportance to anyone who creates or wants to create. Mostlikely you know how

often you stall, block, and give up. Mostlikely you understand that the artmarketp place. Most likely you understand how often time gets away

from you, how often you fret about whether what youreattempting matters to anyone,


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Chapter 1

Y

ind your mindand think thoughtsthat serve you. Doesnt it make senseto speak to yourself in ways that help

you create more deeply and more regularly, that allow you to detach more effectivelyfrom the everyday chaos of ordinary life, that decrease youranxiety and

negativity, and that remind you that you are incharge of showing up and

making an effort?Many of us do a poor job of minding our minds, of choos-ingto think in ways that serve us. We present ourselves withself-sabotaging thoughts and

refuse to dispute those thoughtsonce they arise. If we all did a better job of

noticing what weare thinking and making an effort to replace defensiveandunproductive thoughts with more optimistic and more pro-ductive ones, we

would live in less pain and give ourselves amuch better chance of our dream life.It

is this simple: Notice what you are thinking, dispute

M A K i n g y o u R C R E A t i v E M A R K2

those thoughts that bad-mouth you or that send you careen-ing in the wrong

direction, and replace them with thoughtsthat better serve you. This is

tremendously important!You can use many useful strategies, available fromthecognitive-behavioral school of therapy, to get a better gripon your mind and


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help yourself think more productively andpositively. Heres oneIve created.Often

you have a productive thought, but then you imme-diately follow it with anunproductive one that stops you in your tracks. This sounds like Id love to

practice the pianofollowed by but Im much too old to learn complicatedpianomusic. Or I want to get my novel written followed by but Idont really know

what my novel is about. Or I love my pho-tographic collages followed by butlots of people are doingthem.People engage in this self-sabotage all the time,

decidingthat something matters to them and then talking themselvesout of

taking action. It is almost what we do best as a species.I would like you tonotice how this dynamic works in yourlife. Look at your own defensiveness, self-

unfriendliness, andself-sabotage when it comes to those things that matter mostto

the

x

andywith yourown responses: I say that

xmatters to me. But I often follow that thought up with

y

thought, a thought that does not serveme. I no longer want to countenance that

thought. You may have more than one self-unfriendlyy

thoughtyou may have lots of them! By all means include as manyy

thoughtsas you like in your response. The clearer you are on the things you say toyourself that dont serve you, the better will be yourchances of extinguishing

them.Here is how some of my creativity coaching clients com-pleted this

exercise:I say that making art and selling my artwork matter tome. But Ioften follow that thought up with the thought that

t h E M i n D K E y

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my artwork is not good enough to be considered attractive tobuyers, a thoughtthat does not serve me. I no longer want toentertain that thought. I will beopen to opportunities to cre-ate and market my art, and I will make an effort to

gain thesupport of art patrons.I say that being organized matters to me. But Ioften fol-low that thought up with the thought that I will take time toorganize

my work space some time in the future, a thoughtthat does not serve me. I no

longer want to entertain thatthought. I am taking the time to organize every


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day so that my I say

that writing my screenplay and revising my noveland sending out articles areimportant to me. But I often fol-low up that thought with What does any of it

really matter?In the past few years, Ive come up against so many road-blocks.It doesnt feel like I matter to anyone. My husband issick and needs my attention. Maybe

concentrating on morebasic needs is the most important thing to docleaning,gardening, exercising. But I realize that the only sure way I canfail at my

writing is if I stop. The thought of quitting doesntserve me because it

prevents any success from ever happening.I no longer want to entertain thethought of stopping.I say that making and marketing my art matters to

me.But I often follow that up with thoughts that I dont have any-thing

important to say, that I cant decide which ideas to work on, that Im too unoriginal,and that if I were to succeed Iwould have to be too social. These thoughts dont serve

me. Ino longer want to countenance them.

I often follow that thought up with the following ones: that Im too tiredtoknit; that its too troublesome to gather the materials; that Idont know whatIm doing; that Im not making art, Im justfollowing instructions; that I dont have

the right tools; thatIm a poser and a pretender; and that Ill do it wrong. These

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