A wonderful guest post by the even more wonderful, Beth Raps.
SLART Note: It was a lovely surprise to be mentioned in a recent post. As an artist, you might share the same dislike for structure, planning, calendars, and rigidity in your life as I do. As time has passed, I realise how precious time is, especially after having a baby. I’ve realised that structure is needed and it doesn’t have to be restrictive in our creative efforts…
It enhances it!
Beth’s post and the way she works hold you to account in the most gentle, yet firm manner. My problem has been getting overwhelmed in sticking to structures put in place. Due to the simple fact that I don’t know where to put something.
As the quote says:
“A Place for Everything, Everything in its Place”
Beth creates a strong container that houses everything you are working on so you can make the best use of your precious time.
The post title ‘Holding A Goal with Creativity and Confidence’ is refreshing as I’ve been exposed to so many people who ‘brute force’ their way to their goals, and that’s never been me.
Enjoy!
Holding a Goal with Creativity and Confidence: These two things are not in conflict with each other–they’re allies of each other! Here is how to hold them in dynamic tension that boosts both your creativity and your confidence within the space of your goal.
This post is dedicated to the artist ,
who inspires me in his explorations of his creative process and his promotional process of his art.
We have a goal. If we hold it with confidence, we may forget to hold it creatively, so it can change as it needs to. As goals are wont to do.
If we hold it creatively, so it changes as it needs to, we may lose confidence in expressing it to others.
Here is how to balance creativity and confidence in holding a goal.
Creativity expresses itself inwardly.
Confidence expresses itself outwardly.
Creativity nourishes us.
Confidence grounds us.
Creativity and confidence may sound like they are opposites but there is a lovely dynamic tension between them that boosts both your creativity and your confidence within the space of your goal.
Whatever your goal is!
You must be able to hold your goal creatively and yet confidently and use your smarts and wisdom to tell when one is out of balance.
We can also look at this as the dance between change and constancy.
Your container for your goal–the space of your goal–must be strong enough to hold both change and constancy.
Constancy in your goal helps you keep things the same (or, enough the same) for long enough to promote and share your goal with confidence to help it come to fruition. Your confidence doesn’t need to be huge to begin with; learning this balancing dance–when to stay constant, when to make changes–increases it.
Change also helps your goal: if your goal doesn’t change over time, something’s wrong! Your goal manifests in collaboration with the Universe, other people (expressions of the Universe just like you), your materials, your money, time, focus, and mindset. It’s your creativity that helps you know what changes to make to your goal.
And finally, there’s this third thing, this balancing dance you’re doing. You know that to manifest your goal, it will have to stay constant enough/stay enough the same over time that it is possible for you to share it with others so they can support it,* which is what I mean by having confidence in it.
Your dynamic balancing dance is helped by having a strong container around your goal.
I can help you. I am used to working with people learning this dance. Can you tell? Thought so.
Here are some ways I can help you, including with your strong container:
This post you are reading.
Your questions in response to this post.
My answers (in an upcoming post + in my newsletter: and in my blog).
My yearlong coaching group, where, for a quite affordable price, I hold your goal in a very strong, clear container all year long in a way that helps you reach your goal with both creativity and confidence AND shows you how to create and hold your own containers forevermore.
Anyone can learn to do this.
You don’t have to have a history of being disciplined.
Or already identify as a person who gets things done.
You needn’t be Type A.
I work with people just like you who are none of these things and they achieve their goals with my help.
I don’t just know they (you) are special, I know how they are special. And I hold this knowledge until they themselves know it.
The consistency I offer is weekly and monthly for an entire year. You make tremendous progress in such a strong container that is RAISING CLARITY itself.
Thank you so much, Beth!
…and thanks to you, dear reader, for reading this,
Best wishes,