Creative Solutions and Inspirations from the Modern Day Muses

Self-Sabotage

How to Overcome Creative Neglect

By Jill Badonsky, M.Ed.

Telegram from a Muse:

Hi -stop-
When will you stop your self-sabotage? -stop- When will you stop doing the -stop- stuff that stops you from getting to your -stop- creative call? Not -stop- participating in activities that -stop- bring you joy -stop- is a mistake. -stop- -stop- -stop- Stop doing that. Engage… engage in the things that bring you joy so you’re not-doing-enough-creative-stuff-crankiness will stop -stop- So enough of these stops. Start! -stop- Get going, but don’t forget to -stop- smell the lilies you paint, the roses you write about, the tulips you kiss and the aroma of fresh baked ideas that -stop- emerge from your creative bakery.

Signed —Marge, The Muse of Okay-Now-Let’s-Get-Started, a muse from The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard)*

Quote from a Book:

“I am incessantly summoned by myriad flowering creative ideas. Alas… those fragile seedlings wilt with the cruelty of neglect, self- sabotage and rendezvous with refrigerators. Frustration, I know thee intimately. I am weighed down by the heaviness of furrowed displeasure for I procrastinate frequently and without hesitation.” — From the book, A Voice in My Head: Disturbances in the Creative Force* *

Mortal Exclamation:

“Why do I have so many great ideas and do none of them, gosh darn it?”

Ah yes, the neglect of creative ideas. Believe me, I have wrestled with that affliction myself once or 286 times. But study in Muse Laboratories for the last 25 years, as well as a hyper-self consciousness similar to a hovering camera crew following around my every creative move — has helped me discover what works versus what results in highly impressive creative procrastination.

And procrastination, my mortals, I tell you without shilly-shallying, pause or dithering — results in unadulterated frustration.

What is evident from spending time chatting with enlightened Muses is that when mortals do not follow their creative call they get rude and uselessly melancholy. We were born with certain innate tendencies and talents BECAUSE WE ARE SUPPOSED TO USE THEM. We have a TV, computer, and a plethora of other luring distractions to test our commitment to follow-through with a mission greater than ourselves — creation. So unless you enjoy the feel of a malignant frustration that eats the away at your very core, read on.

Ways to stop creative neglect:

Realize that patterns like procrastination, self-sabotage, and fondling your remote control are not often broken with the initial enthusiasm and infatuation you experience when you embark upon a creative endeavor. They are foiled with the following:

1. Have patience and persistence in showing up and not expecting to be perfect.
   
   
2. Know the difference between not getting to something because of overwhelm and fear and not getting to it because you have a pattern of self sabotage.
   
   
3. If you’re in fear or overwhelm, breaking down your task down to 15 minutes at a time will get you to it. Done over a period of time — small steps lead to a habit that makes getting to your creativity easier. Book recommendation: The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp.
   
   
4. Making it fun, giving yourself permission to practice imperfectly, doing it with a friend or in a class HELPS A LOT.
   
   
5. If you are self-sabotaging yourself it may be due to growing up in a family where nothing was ever good enough and disappointment was role modeled. You still will not get to your creative passion even if you break it down. In this case, you need to change your tapes.
   
   
6. Now that you are grown up, you get to take that part of you that died a long time ago and breathe some life back into it. Know that the patterns of disappointment you learned in childhood are about to be changed.
   
   
7. Practice patiently (see number one) over time the feeling of success 15 seconds at a time the same time every day. Pairing it up with a shower, driving, a walk or something else you do regularly helps. Soon self sabotage will not feel so comfortable.
   
   
8. Enlist a Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach — they specialize in getting you through self-sabotage.

Tune in to the mid-month column by Jill Badonsky next month for more on busting through immobilizing creative blocks. •

* A real book by Jill Badonsky

* * This is not a real book. I made it up because I could not find a real quote I was keen on. But I like the title so I think I’ll write that book — if I don’t sabotage myself.

Copyright © Jill Badonsky, 2006. All rights reserved.

About the Author | More by Jill Badonsky
Jill Badonsky, M.Ed. is a nationally recognized workshop leader, artist, performer, humorist, and author of the book, The Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard): 10 Guides to Creative Inspiration for Artists, Poets, Lovers and Other Mortals Wanting to Live a Dazzling Existence. She teaches creativity lovers to facilitate classes and workshops based on her book and along with UCLA psychologist, Robert Maurer, she trains people to be Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaches. She can be found lurking at www.themuseisin.com.

04/13//06