Essays on Creative Process.
Reflections on art, culture and meaning.
The Creative Process and Goal Setting
As an artist and art career consultant, goal setting is my constant friend, and challenger.
Goal-setting often includes resistance. A normal and expected note in the cyclical rhythm of the creative process, we are challenged to move through varying degrees of resistance in order to take action.
Resistance is not trying to stop us, though at times it might feel that way. On the contrary, it plays a vital role in the creative process. It can lead us to re-evaluation, news tests of resolve, springboards to further study or clarification. It’s not supposed to feel good, exactly. The discomfort that accompanies resistance notifies our conscious mind that a needed change or shift in direction is due. Pushing ourselves against resistance is a doorway into added stress.
How we define “discipline” is a key to understanding the role resistance. Webster defines the word this way: a systematic method to obtain obedience; submission to authority; rules intended to train or correct. For artists and other creative professionals intimately involved with the creative process, that word is worth a closer look. Why does discipline so often fail us? Why does it bring on a tangle of inner conflict and stress and that hinders momentum and flow, or even stops our creativity in its tracks?
I believe the answer involves fighting with, instead of listening to, resistance. In opposition to resistance, we compound tension and perfectionism. We become mired in expectations all too focused on outcomes. The discipline intended to bring mastery and success instead brings discontent and fatigue. When this happens, we miss the joy of creating in the moment.
If we penetrate beneath resistance gently, we will discover the assistance it provides. If we act on those discoveries, it will move us forward. The irony is that moving into resistance carries us beyond it. We re-open the floodgates toward momentum, into the realm of “flow,” often experienced as a natural high. As all professionals know, however, the flow sensation can elude us for long stretches. That’s part of the process, too. As I remind my clients, it’s important to keep going, to exercise the creative muscles inch by inch, with the awareness that feelings are temporary. They are visitors passing through. If we trust that our next discovery is stirring, we can work through resistance more peacefully. Is we listen carefully to messages of resistance, it becomes a guide. Trust the process, it will not let you down. The joy of creating will return.
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“Discipline” is a highly charged word. I prefer to use the word “willingness” to describe a new approach. Willingness can be cultivated, with time and patience. In a state of willingness, our tensions loosen and our creativity expands.
Here’s how it works:
We set a goal, and resistance sets in. When it does, we choose to call on the “awareness mind.” This is the inner eye of the mind, the part that steps back to observe the resistance non-judgmentally, creating a softer “container” for it. The awareness mind allows it to be there, with no struggle. Ironically, the acceptance of the resistance will eventually loosen and melt it. We push nothing away. We gently shift our focus back to the task at hand, avoiding a draining struggle. The tension is allowed to simply float off and dissolve on its own. If we keep going, we enter gradually, a new phase of clarity.
As we practice this shifting process, we notice that discomfort floats off more often, and more easily. It no longer devolves into a pesky demon that gains control over our creative pathway. Conflict, stress and guilty feelings begin to fade. Goal setting and completion take on a more consistent rhythm. Resistance is melted by more calm, and more flow. We begin to recover lost glimmers of creative inspiration when we wake in the morning. We learn to define career “success” on our own terms. If we stay loyal to this practice, one day we will notice that the discipline associated with goal setting in our creative process has become…our willingness.
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*Essay by Barbara Bowen of GatewaysCoaching.com - the definitive source for artists and creative careers in transition. Contact Barbara to empower your creative process and for help with your career goals. She would love to hear from you.*