#243: Three Things That Are Killing Your Creativity

0:00Did you know that you might actually be killing your own creativity? I know that sounds like a scary topic and I'll bet you're just dying to hear what those three things are. Well, I'm going to share those with you on this podcast and I can't wait to get started now. Well, hello and welcome to the Unstoppable Creative Podcast where I'm going to show you how to increase your confidence, build momentum and create wildly successful results. I'm your host Leslie Becker and I'm here to help you to have an unstoppable, creative life. So let's get to it. Well, hello my unstoppable creative friend. Here we are again on the Unstoppable Creative Podcast and I am really glad you're here with me today. And I recently had somebody ask me how I put together this podcast and the question was, do I just turn on the mic and talk? Do I write it all out or do I make an outline?

1:00So I thought I'd share a little bit about how I put this together before we jump into our topic today, which is a really big topic. This is the three ways that you are killing your creativity. So hold tight before I get to that and let me tell you a little bit about how I put this podcast together. So it would be really cool if I could just turn on a microphone and start talking and wonderful things would come out. It would also be cool if I sat down and wrote every single word out that I'm going to say, well, I'm going to tell you this. I do a blend of both of those things. Usually it's in the form of an outline and that outline is pretty darn brief. And here's why I have been coaching people for the last 28 years, maybe 30 years of my life. And so I do have a lot of concepts and processes and ideas in my head. But I also am a huge reader myself, a huge listener, a podcast, and a huge just listener in the world.

2:02So I always try to pick a topic that I think is going to be the thing that you need to hear today. I hope that is the case today because as I mentioned, I'm going to be diving into the three ways that you are killing your creativity, which you probably aren't even aware of. So get out your pens and paper and we are going to jump right in. So number one, my friend. Number one way that is the first way you are killing your creativity is you're not doing it or using it every day. Now I know if you've been listening for a while, you've heard me say many times, you need to start your day and do your art first. You need to make sure that every single day you are spending a minimum of 15 minutes doing your art. I don't care what that is. I don't care if you are a writer, an actor, a songwriter, a screenplay writer, a sculptor, a novelist, whatever is your form of art.

3:03You must spend a minimum of 15 minutes every day. And ideally, it's 15 of the same minutes. Now I always believe in doing your art first and the reason that I say that is because it's so easy for us to get involved in our day. And suddenly we get to the end of the day after we've run our errands, maybe you've gone to work full time, you've done all these other things, and then suddenly you look up and you're tired and you're like, oh man, I didn't write my work on my novel today or I didn't paint a painting or I didn't write a song whatever it might be. So I'm going to encourage you that you do your art every single day for a minimum of 15 minutes. Now I can't see you and I can't see you raise your hand but I want you to raise your hand and say, I'm going to do it. I'm going to commit to doing that for 15 minutes a day. I promise you it will make a giant difference in your life and it will keep your creativity alive. Number two, the second way that you are killing your creativity is you are not telling people about it.

4:11What is it about we creatives who don't want to promote what we are actually creating? Now this is something that I've actually always been good at in my life but for some reason with this podcast, I've not been as vocal about it. Now you're listening to it so you hear me say all the time on here to share this with somebody to push that share button and send it to somebody that you think could use this message today. But out in the world, I've kind of kept this podcast a little quiet in the first year and then finally this year I've started really promoting it and telling people about it. And now it's starting to grow much faster which makes totally logical sense but for some reason as creatives we get caught up in telling people about what we're doing. And I want you to get over that this week. I want you to just decide whatever project you're currently working on. I want you to promote it. I want you to tell people about it. I want you to go share your wonderful creative gifts with other people and not be afraid to talk about it.

5:19You should be so proud of what you are creating in the world and I want you to go tell people about it because I want you to have people come and buy your services and get paid for your wonderful work. So my friend this week promote your creativity. Tell people what you do and share your wonderful creations with other people so they can buy it, so they can tell somebody else about it and they can support you in your venture. Number three, the third way that you are killing your creativity is you are not finishing your projects. Oh my gosh, I just said a really scary thing didn't I? Because how many of us have projects that are unfinished that we're just thinking about or we're talking about or maybe we've forgotten about and they're just kind of sitting in the background. All those projects that you've started and not finished are working at killing your creativity.

6:20I want you to make a list of the projects that you've had in your life that you have started and not finished. I know that sounds huge. You can start back from when you were born to now or you can start back just in the last year, whatever you want to do. I don't want you to overwhelm yourself. But I want you to actually take stock in the ideas and the creativity and the things that you've started and haven't finished because by not finishing them, it says to those projects, you're not important to me. And I get that sometimes you have projects that you start and you start going down the path and you realize, man, this really isn't going anywhere. I'm going to set it aside and maybe I'll come back to it. And sometimes there are other projects that you start and you really just realize, wow, this is not anything that I'm really interested in doing and you set it aside. That happens. There are some of those projects. But for the most part, I would venture to guess that a lot of the projects that you've started and not finished might be better than you actually think they are.

7:28Because as I mentioned on this podcast many a time, creatives are all about perfection and you wanted to be perfect before you show it to the world. But I'm here to tell you there might be some projects that you've started and haven't finished that are really worth your time to follow through on. So make that list this week and go about finishing those projects. So that's what I've got for you this week, my friend. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you did and you have a friend who you think could hear this message, please go ahead and hit that share button. And if you really enjoyed this episode, I'd love it if you'd go on over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a five star review. And more importantly, actually write a review. The more of those written reviews that we get the further my podcast can go up the, you know, the Apple Podcast algorithm. Thank you in advance. If you go and do that and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week. And until then, he put in that unstoppable free life. Bye-bye.