Creativity Keeps Track of the Right Stuff

366 Days of Building Creativity Week 34 in Review: August 19th-25th

"We find ourselves caught in this cycle of keeping track of the wrong things. Keeping track of how many times we've been rejected, keeping track of how many times it didn't work, keeping track of all the times someone has broken our heart, or double crossed us, or let us down. Of course we can keep track of those things but why? Why keep track of them? Are they making us better? Wouldn't it make more sense to keep track of the other stuff. To keep track of all the times that worked. All the times we took a risk. All the times we were able to brighten someone else's day. That when we start doing that we can redefine ourselves as people who are able to make an impact on the world."
Seth Godin, on the Tim Ferriss Show 8/3/16 podacast
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I had a great chance to practice keeping track of the right stuff when a recent group I was offering didn't meet the minimum number to have a beneficial group experience.

I could focus on that and the other times things I've offered didn't work out, or I could focus on the times events and groups I've offered that have worked out and been transformative experiences.

I had a choice. 

And creativity always chooses the right things. The right things move us forward. 

There will always be things that don't work out as we had hoped - if that wasn't happening we wouldn't be Daring Greatly™. 

Creativity needs to have permission to experiment and fail, but to keep going forward it has to focus on the right stuff - that you tried something hard and new. 

I've twice now used Facebook Live and it's a completely new and vulnerable experience for me. The second time I went to use it I found myself anxious and procrastinating. Until I reframed it as an experiment. I am a creative person and I'm trying something out. 

In our world today it is easier than ever to keep track of things and data. It's easier than ever to think we know if something is working or worth our time based off of numbers growing or likes or shares or comments or views.

I don't want to live there. I want to live in the space of that person told me they really enjoyed that email. That person said they discovered something new about themselves from that course. That person said their playing and creativity is positively impacting their family now. Yes! 

Those are the things I want to keep track of in my serendipity magic moments journal. I also want to be the person who is taking the time to send that email, text, or letter or say in person, "thank you,"  to those who have impacted me, so they have something right to hold onto. 

What have you been focusing on? 

I hope it is the right things. The things that truly matter.
And if it isn't, I hope you catch yourself and remember the impact you truly are making. 

And I hope you will trust that you are on the right path even when there are unexpected closures or detours.
Today, from 11am-1pm, I was right where I needed to be. However, I never would have been there if I hadn't firstly, planned to have a group of my own around that same time, and secondly, said yes to a possible direction that seemed to open up for me.

By keeping track of the right things we are able to keep moving forward where we need to be heading instead of staying stuck in negativity and shame and defeat.

Say yes and keep track of the right things and keep creating your own wonder-filled magical life.

"It's all perfect. You can only really laugh at it and really appreciate it after you start walking beyond it. And that's what's fun about the path when you start to detach from it you become this eagle soaring in the sky and you can look down and see and you can see how it all played out and how it makes sense. So then when stuggles, what we percieve as challenges come we can take it as it comes. Because it's moving us in the direction that we need. There's nothing bad. It's all good."
-Yashoda Devi Ma, What is Happiness Interview by Jessica Durivage

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Days 232-238

Day 233
"The creative process is a process of surrender, not control."
​-Julia Cameron

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Day 234
"You don't get creative once everything is okay. In fact, we are creative because everything isn't okay (yet)."
​-Seth Godin

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Day 235
"God designed us to be fully alive, creative, renewed by a sense of adventure, engaged with community, and soul-fed. Without these elements of creativity, adventure, and soul care, we experience a different kind of stress. Soul Stress." -Bonnie Gray

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Day 236
"Lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and... stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to 'walk about' into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?"
​-Wassily Kandinsky

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Day 237
"You are the only person you have to satisfy with what you make."
​-Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

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Day 238
“Once you’ve labored something into life, you know how hard it is to do-the dreams and then the work and then the endless revisions. The adjustments, the bursts of inspiration and the agonizing middle stretch, where everything feels pointless. It takes guts and hard work to make things, and even more guts and hard work to share them, so we want to be people who congratulate the efforts instead of nitpicking the result. I want to spend my time making things, not sitting back and pointing out what someone else should have done.”
​-Shauna Niequist

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Day 239
"Making great art is making bold decisions in the face of uncertainty."
-Todd Henry