I was listening to an audio recording of an interview with a successful author and blogger in my car yesterday and soon started feeling guilty. You see, this individual was talking about how he blogs every single day and I was realizing that I have been very spotty at blogging lately. I have frankly found it hard to come up with ideas that inspire me to write them down. I also haven’t been using my video camera for blogging much either. A cloud of “should” started to descend over me.
“Am I going through a creative dry spell, or is this a deliberate pause?” I asked myself. Considering that I just finished writing and editing a book, certainly that could be my excuse. Another excuse could be that I have been videotaping quite a few client sessions lately as part of my professional certification requirements, so I hardly feel like video blogging after all of that. A final reason could be that it is natural and normal to pause in the creative process. That’s the reason I will claim as my truth today.
The question now is what I might do during this pause to acknowledge it, accept it and possibly change it. I have a choice. If I was coaching a client to rekindle that creative spark, I would recommend the following:
1. Recognize the slump and forgive yourself for it. Consider it a time of renewal, rest and for appreciation of past creative successes. In my own case, receiving the first copy of my printed book last week was such a delicious experience. How nice it was to stop everything that day and savor a proud moment.
2. Commit to action. Nothing will change unless that next step is taken. Decide what you will choose to do. Even if you don’t yet feel creative, setting the intention will help it happen. I am setting the intention to create at least one post a week, beginning now.
3. Show up at a productive time of day. Identify the time of day you’ll most likely get something creative done and show up for work then. It’s much harder to force a creative plunge when the environment isn’t supportive. For me, the best time for writing means first thing in the morning, when it is unlikely that I’ll be interrupted. I’ll schedule this time in my calendar, beginning with today.
4. Ask for inspiration. This can simply happen by opening yourself to reflect on life around you. Inspiration may come from meditation, prayer, a TV show, a scene from the day before or an intense feeling you have about something you see, hear, dream about or read.
5. Create and release. Not everything you write or create will be prophetic, wise or brilliant. If you are a blogger, you know it makes sense to publish something on a regular basis so as not to disappoint your readers. Decide to stop being such a judge and let someone else see your work, even if you don’t think it’s the most awesome thing you have ever created.
Today I’ve made a new commitment to get back to my blog more often with a renewed sense of faith that the ideas will flow. There will be a new video coming to the blog soon as well because I have committed to leading a workshop at the COSE Small Business Conference on Oct. 20 about using videos. It makes a load of sense to have some fresh material. I am open to receiving inspiration on content, so please feel free to drop me a comment or an email with your ideas.
