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.

I’ve paid close attention to my inner language this week and have been shocked at how often I catch myself saying “I can’t” or “I won’t.” Very limiting statements! I shoot down my ideas and desires as not feasible before they can come to life. I compare my ideas to the template of “What is” instead of “what if.” The “What if” template asks the question “In what ways can I do this.” By asking the question it opens the door to infinite possibilities for resolution of a problem. Isn’t that what artists do- solve problems? Especially, the problem of, “how can I make this work, how can I get my message across?” “What if” can be a scary place to live. “what is” is known – we have control, or so it seems. What would I be able to do facing the blank unknown of “What if?” Today I choose to live in the “What if.” (Many thanks to Jan Welborn-Nichols who sparked this idea in our interview.)

Action Step: Notice your inner and outer talk. Are you telling yourself “I can’t because…” or are you asking “I what ways can I…?” Create a daily habit of thinking in terms of “What if.”

Question: How is money and creative expression connected for you?
We’d love to hear from you. Please share your comments below.

Comments

[Jayne]

Hi Michael,

Thank you for your kind wishes and for your insights.

It is an interesting connection to make- money and creativity. When I started to look at my life, my art and music and my prosperity as all part of the same process I made quite a break through. What I began to see is that I have been in a pattern and structure of behavior that resulted in improvement for awhile and then, eventually, the return of the conditions I wanted to eliminate I realized I needed a new approach. I am now applying ideas that I first came across in a book by Robert Fritz, The Path of Least Resistance. He uses the creative process, the same process that artists use, as a model for creating anything you want in life-including money. It’s a challenge to stay in the creative mode and not revert back to the old system of problem solving with its temporary results.

I liked your observation about curiosity being a part of the artist mentality. It’s amazing how we can be so self-critical as well. Jan Welborn-Nichols describes this in my interview with her in June. She called it the “What if” process.

One last thought about curiosity… Dr. Steven Reiss identifies curiosity as one of the 16 basis human motivators (See the book, Who Am I? by Steven Reiss.) It makes me wonder, if curiosity is identified as highly motivating for an individual, does it might mean they are more creative as well?

Best Regards,

Jayne

[Michael]

Jayne,

This is a creative way to look at money and I think you are onto something here!

One of the interesting developments with perhaps Picasso is that we see that the artist and the financially successful artist come together in the same person. Perhaps that was a particularly important breakthrough in the artist-mentality.

I wanted to add one additional thought to your discussion of looking at innter language as a place to discover hidden blocks. A friend of mind, noticing that I was being a bit harsh with myself over some anxiety I had been experiencing, called to up short to switch the mode from analysis and castigation to one of curiosity. Curiosity is perhaps one of the defining elements in the artist personality and I think this attitude of curiosity dampens the critical super-ego aspects of our mental life and brings the child and the wounded child together as collaborators in the creation process--be it art, love or money.

Wishing you all great success in your new venture,

Michael Rudy
Certified Financial Planner
Clinical Social Worker