Get A Creative Life

Interview with Jan Welborn-Nichols

As a regular feature on Get a Creative Life we will be presenting interviews with very interesting people we have met who are living creative lives. We believe you will be fascinated and inspired by their stories. We have learned a lot from them and we think you will too.

Our first interview is with Jan Welborn-Nichols of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Jayne met her when she attended Jan’s Creativity Forum. Jan is lively, engaging, entertaining. We came away with thought provoking ideas about the nature and process of creativity. She graciously agreed to be our first interview and share her thoughts and her own story. Jan’s career has ranged from opera singer to the field of marketing and creative services. She is in the business of helping people and organizations succeed through the use of creativity.

Here are highlights from our conversation with Jan:

The idea of living a creative life is about using this way of thinking to enhance your professional and personal life. Creativity is not about casting off what you do well. It’s a process of perception that you bring to what you already do well…

So often when we are faced with a certain problem we say, "How can I?" or "I gotta!" or "this has to change now!" We are not clarifying the intention or stating it as an invitation. An invitation to creative thinking says "In what ways can I…" and by using that phrase, the intention follows…

You have to come to terms with the fact that not everyone is going to "get" you. This goes back to the idea that creativity often goes against cultural expectations. Not everyone is going to appreciate that you are daring to be uniquely yourself.

Finding your authentic voice and giving expression to it, is one of the most creative things that any of us can do … Creativity opens the door to endless possibilities and authenticity allows us to claim the potential that is uniquely ours.

Jan’s Tips for a Creative Life:

• Take time to goof off -though time for reflection sounds more respectable.
• Resist being available, accessible yes, but always available, no.
• Naps are the source of all creativity (at least mine).
• Imagine a "what if" scenario once a day.

Commit and Do It

What I am about to discuss may seem counter intuitive to the creative process. We tend to think that being creative is in the moment and one only creates when feeling inspired. What happens when you wait and wait and don't feel inspired? Remember creepy Jack Nicholson in the movie, “The Shining”. He was meant to be writing a novel. Waiting to be inspired can drive you nuts, as we see through Jack's behavior. It gives me the chills thinking about it!

Inspiration does not always magically appear, especially if you are waiting and don't take action. I have found that creating the space and time dedicated to writing, painting or whatever is your artistic endeavor is crucial. Schedule the time and stick to it! This is the Habit of Discipline, which is part of the third strategy for creative Living. Even, if your time slot is only fifteen minutes per day. You will be amazed how much is done by the end of a month with a small investment each day.

Your Money or Your Creativity!

Jayne here...

Your money and your creativity, are they connected? You bet! This was a big “ah-ha for me this week. Chances are if you are blocked around money, you are blocked around your creativity. Free up one, you free up the other. There are many ways to have issues with money, debting, overspending, underearning- they all lead to the same place- the sense that there is not enough or that we are not enough. The underlying sense that we, and therefore our resources, are limited puts a real damper on creativity. We limit what we can do because we believe we don’t have the talent, the time or the money. We think, “Who will want to pay me for being creative?” so we settle for something less than we really want. Our “habits of thinking” create our reality. Strategy Number Three, Develop Daily Creative Habits, will help us to change our reality for the better.

Think about a creativity exercise like brainstorming. Brainstorming is an exercise in abundance-an abundance of ideas. In brainstorming, the rules are that you don’t criticize or evaluate ideas because doing so shuts down the flow. Who wants to risk “out of the box” ideas when someone says, “That’s stupid” or “that won’t work.” It’s no different for creativity or money flowing in our lives. If we judge or criticize our creative efforts- our inner artist goes on strike. If we criticize and judge our financial sources we limit ourselves there too. We will not see the ways in which we can increase our flow of ideas and money if we judge.

One Habit at a Time

Jayne here....
Up until recently I believed that the one thing that held me back from having the life I wanted to live was my job. It has occurred to me that the nature and form of my life, no matter what I am doing for work and for money is determined by what I habitually think and do. "As a (wo)man thinketh..." is so true. To have the creative life I want all I need to do is to change what I do and think most of the time- i.e. my habits! Changing habits is hard! I am working to get some new ones going. Developing daily creative habits is one of the 10 Strategies to Get A Creative Life.

Alyse and I are engaging in the creative recovery process being part of an artist way group. The first of the new daily creative habits is writing Morning Pages - ie writing 3 pages each day. My intention is to write within minutes of opening my eyes in the morning. That way the "stuff" comes out of my brain unfiltered before my internal censor gets a hold. I don't always feel like writing. I do it anyway. I know it's becoming a habit when I feel weird  when I miss a day. Writing gets my creative juices flowing. I notice I am a lot more clear in my thinking and I seem to have more access to my feelings and attitudes about everything.

Play and Fun!

Alyse here. . .

I was fortunate enough to have a vacation scheduled during week 2 of the Artist's Way journey. It was perfect since, week 2 focuses on Recovering a Sense of Identity. The bottom line for “creatives” is trusting our own creativity and allowing ourselves to be authentic. Even if we think outside forces, circumstances or people stop us from being creative - it is really us who blocks ourselves.

Julie Cameron in the Artist's Way says, “the quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”

Being in Munich and Vienna was a wonderful place to delight in paying attention. I left any guilt about my work at home and I really allowed myself to be fully present with people, to sketch at every possible moment instead of taking photos, to intermingle breathing in the exquisite scenery and writing, whilst traveling by train.

The highlight was to visit the Kunsthistoriche Art Museum in Vienna, and revel room by room in so many masterpieces. I even sketched a Canova sculpture on the main staircase.

Play and fun is one of the essential 10 Strategies to Get A Creative Life. Take time off to play. You don't need 7 days in Europe. You can take 7 minutes and put on some enlivening music, skip around the yard, sketch a flower. The bottom line is include some play/fun time in each week. Schedule it into your planner, like many of your other to do activities.

Action Step
Select a specific time to play and have fun this week. Do something new, or something you really enjoy and have not done for a while.

Question
How much fun do you allow yourself to have in one week?