Getting Re-routed!

Sometimes things get too busy in life and your creativity schedule or goal list gets a bit muddled or shot all to hell! That is when resiliency and being malleable is a tool to pull from your tool kit. My schedule is in pencil for the fact that life doesn't listen to my plans!

I have been chosen to paint one of the fiberglass cow sculptures that will be gracing our city in June. That wasn't on my creativity plan (I thought I'd done my part by helping to fill out the application to get one). What was on my creativity schedule was a commissioned painting, some illustrations for a story, to continue writing on my non-fiction book and create some textile pieces. What happened in real life was being asked to paint the cow in the midst of redecorating our guest room in anticipation of family friends arriving along with a number of meetings for three of the boards of organizations I serve on and all this topped off with not feeling well for a while.

What happened to my creative goals? They pretty much went out the window. But when I look at the quiet time I spend each morning (however bleary eyed that time may be) as a creative point, the work on the cow as extremely creative (a serendipty of creativity, just not what I had planned) and even the redecorating as creativity, I then go back to the drawing board, and reconfigure times for the other goals (luckily there is no early deadline on the commissioned pieces).

At first I felt a bit overwhelmed and a little frustrated that my goals weren't on track. But with a few deep breaths, I let go of the idea that the first schedule had to be rigidly adhered to. Reminding myself that nothing bad will happen if I reorganize my schedule, I am able to let go of the idea of the first schedule, which will reduce stress while getting started on the amended schedule. Being ok with change takes practice for some of us. Approaching amended plans with the positive self-talk of capability and ability helps give us the encouragement to set about in a new direction.

And sometimes, new directions are just where we need to go!