Today is brought to you by the letters A and B.
I am a member of the Small-Step Police. I patrol what is regarded as "small" steps and regularly arrest people for "large" infractions in this area. But I'm nice about it. Incarceration includes cupcakes.
If the steps you have set for your creative passions aren't so small you can't NOT easily get to them or feel effortlessly DRAWN to them, they may be too big and can throw you into resistance. This is a hard one for people to embrace because we are in a hurry and don't understand that the trick with small steps is breaking through all the barriers to getting started or staying with it. Ridiculously small steps, ones even smaller than you are thinking of right now, will get you further than intentions to write, paint, business build, interpretive dance for long blocks of time.
Teaching creativity coaching since 1999 and practicing small steps for as long as I have been successful, I am someone who is easily OVERWHELMED, small steps are sometimes the ONLY way I move forward.
Small steps are the fuel to show-up in tiny, low pressure increments to a creative passion until a momentum builds. At that point I become caught up in my favorite place of captivity - the vortex, the flow, living and breathing the passion, everything becomes a palette, fodder, a trigger for what's next. Sometimes I forget to eat. It's a place where peak experiences - where I lose track of time, annoyances, realities, that "thing" that person had the gall to say, taxes, ever-returning chin hairs... I lose track of all of that. I depart from the mundane and into one of the highest experiences of the human existence.
But sometimes I can't get there because of the P's. Perfectionistic paralysis, procrastination, and pffffft!: resistance.
subliminal message: how wonderful you are.
What I have noticed among creative civilians is that when I mention SMALL STEPs and ask, "What is your next SMALL STEP?" they often need to be brought into Small Step Headquarters for questioning. And that questioning involves asking questions. Let me explain.
When I forget about the power of small steps to move me further ahead than gigantic leaps or even, "I'll work on my writing for just an hour," I find myself procrastinating on Facebook, reading email, or playing computer games because I've activated resistance. Fear in it's many disguises has awakened. Fear of not being good enough or fear of success (happens when you have been brainwashed to believe you don't deserve goods things or you're never enough- stay tuned for THAT when we get to the letter E.) We humans avoid fear and opt for things that feel better, like distractions.
Those things DON'T feel better in the long-run. Procrastination ends up being kind of a self-perpetuating punishment. Getting to our creative call feels good and CAN be easier.
subliminal message: how wonderful you are.
If you avoid what you want to get to the most, arrest your action for a moment and consider this:
1. Small steps that work are usually smaller than you think. Instead of pushing yourself to work an hour everyday or even 15 minutes three times a week, consider simply asking a question. See? That's where the questioning and the A comes in. The creative mind LOVES questions, they are small steps, and they elicit inspiration. It doesn't look like you're doing anything, but asking questions is a solidly valid creative gesture.
2. Questions set your subconscious gears in motion and move you out of the habitual thought patterns that don't result in creativity. Beware, however, asking questions like: How come I never finish anything? or How come everyone else's stuff is better than mine? The answers to those questions don't serve you.
3. Ask:
- What could be the next small step I can take?
- How can I make it fun?
- What would make it easier to get to?
- What have I already done that I can build on?
4. Answers may come immediately, but if you just leave the question out there without needing an immediate answer, you may begin simply start showing up because you are operating from the answers your subconscious revealed. I love it when that happens and because I've been practicing this for years, it happens a lot.
5. Asking questions are truly small steps that work for people. They begin the process of BREAKING (the B word) down the task so it's more easily achievable You can ask questions without moving, while you're in the shower, driving, building a rocket ship, swinging on a star.
6. Other ways to Break things down:
- What could you do, right now, in the next five minutes? Just asking the question challenges my resistance. Sometimes I get more done in five minute spaces of time than intentions to work all day long. I make it a challenge: What can I do before the oatmeal is finished cooking? I have 10 minutes before I have to leave - how much can I get done? While waiting on hold, let me make a list of possible next steps, from the absurd to the obvious.
7. I made the calendar above in many five minute episodes. Some sessions were longer, but only because I made a deal that it only had to be 5 minutes which broke through the resistance. It was a pleasant surprise when it just seemed to get done. I worked on it when I was bored with other things and needed a five minute break. If you like the alphabet you can get a free one by signing up for my Taos Retreat or at Zazzle by going here.
8. P.S. How wonderful you are.
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