Motivation for Mondays: The Artist's Way check-in for Week 10

We've made it to Week 10. After this, there's just two more weeks to go before we finish the book and can see how well we've unblocked our creativity. If there's still more work to be done, we may have to start all over again.

I hope that doesn't scare you.

Whatever the case, I'm sure we will see positive results. Sometimes, the first time around doesn't net us quite what we may have expected, and a do-over is a good thing. Especially if we wait it out and see what happens when we're NOT doing the Morning Pages regularly, or NOT scheduling those Artist Dates, and NOT focusing on healing.

But first, let me ask you: What did you focus on with Chapter 9?

More synchronicity for me, I tell you! The chapter was about compassion. So appropriate for me this week as I waited for the birth of my first grandson. He arrived midweek, during that first hour of December 2. Everything went smoothly. My daughter did so well. Her husband was a great coach. And the baby was born healthy and near perfect. It was a great week to focus on compassion. Compassion for self and for others. Could there be a better way to spend a week? I don't think so.

The event that unfolded last week turned out to be a nice twist to what had been happening in my life the month before. It brought about relief.

And offered time to reflect on what it means to be healthy, live healthy, and think healthy thoughts. All of this matters if we are to succeed in growing our creative selves.

WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
In Chapter 9, Julia Cameron writes about FEAR and how that can affect how blocked we may feel. It may actually give us an excuse for NOT doing something. I can admit that fear played a large part in my early career. It also creeped in early last week. I was fearful that my daughter would have a difficult labor. I wanted the baby to arrive a healthy human being. I didn't want my daughter to experience pain. So a writer friend suggested I focus on seeing the baby born healthy, seeing the delivery go smoothly. I did that. And I prayed. I prayed a lot that day. And all went well.

Cameron talks about calling things as they are, not using cop-outs or lying to ourselves. We are not lazy if we procrastinate doing our work. We are merely afraid of the outcome. So we need to practice looking at the reality of any situation and assessing the truth. What is getting in the way? Write those things down. What are we gaining by letting those things get in the way? Be honest. Let them go. And move on to complete the work.

HOW ENTHUSIASTIC ARE YOU?
Cameron also looks at enthusiasm versus discipline. Basically, she says we won't get far if we try to rely on discipline to do the job. Creatives can't work that way for long. We need to be enthusiastic about what we're doing. If we're not, maybe it's okay to move on and try something else. That's what drives writers to be able to complete book-length projects. Enthusiasm. Discipline will not last long enough. Enthusiasm is what will keep you going. I agree with this 100 percent. Do you?

WHAT ABOUT CREATIVE U-TURNS?
I so related to this! Creative u-turns. The things that take all of your progress and squash it into a pile of doo-doo on the floor you never want to touch. That's a bit dramatic-sounding, but I confess I have done things to sabotage my very own career. I have missed deadlines, not without advance warning, but I have done that. I have failed to turn in invoices. I have ignored signing contracts till the very end. I have done those things and more. I have let fear get in the way. Both of success and of failure.

Sometimes, I still have these moments. When I am in the midst of too much stuff to deal with, I take my time. I purposely slow down. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it's what I've done in order to be able to muddle through. I have learned to access that self-compassion and focus on doing the best I can. Sometimes, the best may not be good enough for others, but it has to be good enough for me. Working alone sometimes means I get overwhelmed. And rather than letting that get the best of me, I work on accepting my weaknesses and doing the best I can. Thank goodness we're allowed failures before we can reach the successes. If we weren't allowed to fail at all, I'm not sure where I'd be. I'm grateful for my vulnerabilities. They allow me to embrace my strengths. And one of my strengths is that I am not afraid to ask for help when I need it. Sometimes, I've delayed asking, but I will always ask. How about you?

BLASTING THROUGH THE BLOCKS EXERCISE
To me, this part of the chapter was even better than the exercises at the end of Chapter 9. To me, it's the single most helpful part of this chapter. Although I didn't do it this week, I have done this before. You list out your resentments or anger that you may feel toward a project. You list out any related fears toward the project. You ask yourself if that's all there is. You ask yourself what might happen if you didn't the do the project at all. And then you make a deal with yourself about completing the project. It makes so much sense to get all of the negative thoughts that might show up out of the way at the beginning, or when you start to feel blocked. Then, you can carry on. It's like any relationship. If there's stuff getting in the way, you need to move it. You need to hash it out, so you can move on. Have you ever tried this when you were feeling resistant to a project? Maybe you discovered the answer was to drop the project. I find this exercise to be a very wise one, and one I hope to utilize more readily in the future.

CHAPTER CHECK-IN
Since work was not on top of mind this past week, I did not write many Morning Pages. Six or seven at most. Pages. Not days. As for an Artist Date, would it count that I shopped for a special gift after the baby was born? I spent 20 minutes in the hospital gift shop and found the new baby's initials: W.O.W. His name is Wyatt Owen Waddington, which makes him a WOW baby. And he is exactly that. I also had my book signing at Costco, and though it felt like a hectic thing to do in the midst of the new baby's arrival, I did manage to pull some creative stuff together and haul it over to the stores with me. I did manage to interact with a lot of people. And I did manage to sell some books, despite it all.

I'm sure there are other things, but I can't think of them at the moment. So now it's your turn. Post your chapter thoughts below. And next week, we read about "Recovering a Sense of Self-Protection."

Motivation for Mondays is a part of a weekly Twitter party called #MotivatedMondays initiated by Lorrie Shaw, a professional pet sitter, a regular pets contributor at annarbor.com, and pet blogger in Dexter Township, MI. Together, we post a combination of inspirational notes, links to motivational blog posts, and tips to help kickstart your week ahead. Look for us online every Monday morning--and throughout the day--if you need to kick start your week or want to share your own motivational thoughts.

Motivation for Mondays: The Artist's Way

It's official. I started another 12 weeks of working with Julia Cameron's masterpiece, The Artist's Way, today. It's a book that's been on my reading list for years, probably since the first time I read it in 1999. I've read it at least four more times since.

I especially encourage it for personal growth--and not just what it was written for--to unblock your creative energy.

The book and all that you do because of it becomes a great outside motivational force that transforms into an internal motivational force during the 12 weeks of reading it. But it's not just a book you read. As I mentioned, you do things because of it. It's 12 weeks of DIY therapy.

First, you learn about the benefits of journaling. Only Cameron calls this the act of writing your Morning Pages. You write three pages every morning for the full 12 weeks--and then hopefully continue the process once you've finished the book.

You are also required to take an Artist Date with yourself. This is the kind of date that you do alone, no one else allowed, to help open your mind to see and acknowledge new insights, inspirations, and guidance. Sometimes, we have to be reminded we need to be open to that. These special dates help unblock a stagnant life. And this is the main reason I was drawn back to Cameron's book--I knew I needed to revisit the Artist Date. I've been starved of this kind of self-nurturing. Without it, creativity is stymied, and you don't know what to do exactly with the creativity you have. My creative self has been in need of nourishment for quite some time, in very specific ways. And I am finally acknowledging my Killer instincts, which apparently were not as honed in as they needed to be. So I'm correcting that by working this book and scheduling the Artist Dates. Cameron calls this "filling the well."

After each chapter, for the next 12 weeks, Cameron has her readers doing exercises. There are several listed, but you don't have to do them all. You may spend approximately 10 hours a week with the book and its processes for the next 12 weeks, but it's worth it.

You see results: You'll gain clarity. You'll find solutions to inner challenges you knew you had but didn't know what to do about. You'll free your mind to think more creatively. And you'll get work done. I've doubled my productivity and my income each time I've committed fully to the process.

If you are in need of this kind of motivation and are willing to set aside the time to work this process, you will see positive results. Julia Cameron will change the way you think. And you don't have to be an artist to benefit from her wisdom. Lawyers, teachers, engineers, and artists of all kinds have experienced positive growth because of The Artist's Way.

If you've already heard of this book and have benefited from it, share with us your success story. If you're interested in going through the process with me, I'll be publishing a weekly check-in and would be happy to include you in on the process. We can work the program together for added motivation. Just let me know by posting a comment below.

Motivation for Mondays is a part of a weekly Twitter party called #MotivatedMondays initiated by Lorrie Shaw, a professional pet sitter, a regular pets contributor at annarbor.com, and pet blogger in Dexter Township, MI. Together, we post a combination of inspirational notes, links to motivational blog posts, and tips to help kickstart your week ahead. Look for us online every Monday morning--and throughout the day--if you need to kick start your week or want to share your own motivational thoughts.