Apologies... you got a post that was sent out before it was complete. Let's try again. But first, this quote from John Cleese:
In 1996, I went to see the movie Fargo in which an unflappable sheriff named Marge Gunderson resolves the gnarly crimes that happen in North Dakota despite her challenges of pregnancy, heavy snow, dense deputies, and an uncooperative car salesman. Marge’s no-nonsense Midwestern attitude gets the job started and, without moodiness, complaints, or drama, gets the job done. She instantly became a hero to me because I grew up in a family filled with the kind melodrama that gets in the way of getting things done.
I thought this Marge character was a good inspiration for an upgraded Muse, especially because the modern mortal is constantly caught in crimes of the creative process: procrastination and avoidance. So Marge became the model for the Modern Day Muse of Okay-Now-Let's-Get-Started and she is about making it easier to get started which, let's face it, is sometimes one of the hardest things to do.
*Marge is the Modern Day Muse .
Modern Day Muses are actually creative voices and qualities inside of us that make creativity and the joy of living a creative life easier. They show up when you start paying attention to them and during long walks in the woods. They are from this book which was published by Penguin/Putnam in 2003 and more about who they are is found here.
I have been sending out a creativity newsletter MONTHLY since 1997. It's overwhelming to think about how much time I need for each newsletter so ... I don't. Instead I invent a tiny first step. My first small step is not to work on it for an hour or an afternoon - that will just lead to polishing my silver or surfing Amazon prime for gluten-free crackers.
My first step is to open my newsletter program. That's it. (It used to be: point myself toward the computer). Another step might be to go for a walk and ask the question: "What would be fun to share this month in line with my worldly mission?" That's it. Those steps are so small it takes little time to have a quick success. Feeling successful with a step this small might sound ridiculous to you but it works better than shooting for an hour, working for 45 minutes, feeling like I failed and losing the energy to persevere. It's better than feeling overwhelmed by all that needs to be done and falling into avoidance. Once I start, 10 out of 10 times, I keep going - the resistance is gone, I fall into the flow. Marge taught me this. It's a trick that succeeds on many different levels: self-kindness, resistance-busting, overwhelm-prevention, momentum-building, ego out-smarting, and the reward of being in that delicious process of creating to see where it takes me.
If you've been reading my newsletter for any length of time, you know this trick. Being reminded of it is another trick. We often forget what works. Amnesia is part of the ego's conspiracy to keep us unhappy. Refuse to comply.
Concentrating on the times when you just went ahead and got started will serve you more than letting your harsh inner critic label you a terminal procrastinator. There were times you actually did start things without a struggle. What did that look like? How did “starting” work for you before? Can you implement in the present what worked for you in the past?
Marge specializes in small steps. These are smaller steps than you may be used to and ironically, they get more done than shooting for blocks of time, an hour.. even a half hour. I use small steps for almost everything: clearing the clutter in my studio five minutes or the length of one song at a time, unpacking from a trip two objects at a time, loving the wrinkles on my face 5% more, expecting myself to be 5% less judgmental of others, letting go of guilt from the past 5%, learning to juggle poodles by starting with just the collars - I do all those with small steps.
They create the momentum that makes continuing easier:
- What is the next very small step you can take toward your creativity? Can you break it down smaller? Can you break it down smaller again? Can you believe that simply daydreaming about it counts as a small step in the creative process? And how convenient.
- What would it feel like to start with five minutes?
- What question can you ask about it? (Setting the gears of creative resourcefulness in motion).
- How will you reward yourself? (or like me, is your reward in getting started?)
If you want to learn how to facilitate creativity workshops groups based on The Nine Modern Day Muses... go here.
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