Archive for October, 2018

The one question all creatives should ask themselves

Wednesday, October 17th, 2018

First of all, thanks for your responses to my recent email regarding the storytelling event I co-hosted with my friend Bev Glick at the end of last month. If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry – we are planning another event on January 29th at the same venue. I’ll send you the details soon.

I wanted to share one of the most important things I learnt on the night. If you’ve been following me for a while, I’m guessing you are a creative person who has ambition for your career or business and that you can sometimes lose focus.

I’ve found that there are three key things that get in the way of creative people fulfilling their potential or staying focused.

1. Creatives want to do lots of different things and can often find it hard to choose a clear path. This is OK, but can lead to frustration and procrastination as too many options can lead to a lack of clarity.
2. Creatives get sidetracked by chasing work to pay the bills and this can keep them stuck in ruts. Being stuck can affect their passion and energy for the projects they really want to do.
3. Creatives are not natural planners. We often don’t take time out to plan or strategise about our careers or businesses. We do stuff, respond to requests, but we don’t take time to focus on what we really want.

Does this resonate with you? Please let me know if it does.

The downside to all of this is that creative people can get stuck and become frustrated when they don’t make the progress they want in their careers. They may have bursts of motivation, throw themselves into projects – and then become demotivated or distracted when it becomes difficult.

So the important questions to ask yourself are:

How do you want to be remembered in 10 years’ time?

What do you want to be known for?

You may have a default answer to this – something that you tell yourself is what you want –but I would challenge you to sit and think about this question and allow any deeper feelings to bubble up.

It always surprises me where this question takes people.

One of the women who came our storytelling event teared up when she realised that the project that was the most important to her was to write stories.

Another incredible private client of mine said that she wanted to be remembered as someone who inspired others to be braver.

This realisation gave me goose bumps.

When we take a step back and think about our lives and careers from a future perspective, it can bring into sharp focus what really matters to us.

By declaring it and letting people know, you are taking one small step in the direction of what you truly want for yourself and your career.

So why not take that step today?

I would love it if you came on to my blog and declared in the comments what it is you want to be known for in 10 years’ time.

I would love to celebrate that possibility with you.

Let me share mine.

I want to be known as a coach who inspires and empowers the creative community to up their game and do the work they were born to do.

That feels so good to write down and say out loud.

What about you?

Click here and share your ‘next decade dream’ with me.

Nicky

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