Winning is every day moving a step closer to your creative dreams being fulfilled. It is not the award nor the publishing deal, it is the thousands of steps you took no matter what to get there.

All we can do sometimes in life is give yourself a break and give yourself the gift of creating daily. It gives yourself hope and allows you then to find the strength to tackle the other not so fun challenges in life.
I dont want you to collapse in a ball and say this is too hard. Do reach out to friends and professional help if you are getting really stuck.

We only have so much willpower and decision making in us each day so use that wisely. Research shows you are more likely to have an affair if you are on a diet as being ‘good’ in one area makes us feel we can ‘treat’ ourselves in other areas in our life!
Barack Obama would always wear a blue suit and a blue shirt every day in the White House as he did not want to use his decision making skills on such an irrelevant to him issue given the multitude of decisions he did have to make. It seems Trump spends all his decision making crafting his tweets …

16. Take a singular step forward towards your dream. Every day.
That might be practising your guitar, work on the bridge of your song or the middle Act in your play. Maybe see if you can find a singular idea in your feature length film script to make a 5 minute short to then use to get funding for the 100 minute version.
It could be reaching out to a possible new agent.
If you vow to yourself, that you will honour yourself and take a step towards your creative career every day, even if it feels like a tiny shuffle, even if you hate your day job or you are on furlough and facing possible redundancy, just vow to yourself to take
Maybe get up earlier before work and kids as it will make your focus easier. It will make you feel that you are honouring yourself and your muse.
There are many theories about where the creative muse comes from, from the Greek ideas that the muse hids in the walls, to a wind that whistles through you . But in every case you have to do the work of manifesting the idea into a fully formed piece of work in whatever medium you feel is appropriate.
We have a duty to be prepared and showing up. Anyone you look at in the world history of making amazing work has just kept showing up. So however you define yourself as a creative, show up! Do the work. Vow to your life to step forward every day, even if you do not see the results today you are winning. Trust me.

I did a podcast episode called Whars Next? What is the next step? So ask yourself.

17) Read a biography or an autobiography at least once a month or even one a week, for a year and watch how your heart will strengthen and soar.
Soar like arms wide flying, not saw as in a block of wood ;)
Once you have read the story of someone’s life it will educate you on how they tackled their life.
Choose wildly different professions, outside your own as well. From politicians such as reading Nelson Mandela’s ‘ Long Walk To Freedom’ to Eartha Kitt not being able to marry the man she loved, a Hilton heir, because of her skin colour despite her fame, beauty and brilliance. I saw Eartha Kitt perform twice, when she was 80 and a few months before she died at 81 years of age. Knowing her past, having read two of the books she had written about her life made her amazing cabaret artistry even more powerful.

My world view has been changed slightly by every story of a life that I read. Sidney Poitier’s autobiography will never leave me, odd facts from it pop up at least once a month. How he discovered acting was as he searched for a new job as a dishwasher in NYC, the integrity he brought to the roles he would pick as a light to others in the black community. He had to learn to read properly so a fellow dishwasher, an Irish man, helped him between dishwashing sessions, he listened to the radio to learn to speak without only his original hard to understand according to him, Bahamian accent - he needed as an actor to be able to play other roles and this was in 1950s America!

Documentaries are also amazing, but do read as well, a documentary made by an external filmmaker is curated by the director and their access to footage will also dictate their viewpoint. Their view on that person (the recent Queen film was amazing but was told really as the making of Queen and their songs. Freddie Mercury the brilliant charming superhero, his sexuality and own angle was massively underplayed for the commercial good of the film.

So always see if you can get the story for the person themselves if possible, maybe as a follow up. If you particularly fascinated find two opposing versions of the same person.
I encourage you to do at least one a month.
You will be inspired, possibly made angry. I also think going to a charity or normal bookshop and picking a random biography, even of someone you can’t stand can be a real force to get you moving, even in anger ;)

18) Create a story or scene in your mind on what is in front of you. This is a development on a Boleslavsky acting exercise I used to do when I studied in LA.
Go out and sit in a park, on a sidewalk, in a coffee shop, with a note book. Sit somewhere where you can watch. Pick something, a couple walking past, a bird in a tree, the rush of water, a building. And think up, and journal, or draw, a story or a scene.
If it’s a human or a couple, what do you think are they conversing about, their inner thoughts, what are they saying vs what they are thinking, what is their greatest dream, or project them into the next day or next year. Watch their body language. If it is a building what happened in there last night.
Dream about what they might be saying, thinking about, are they flirting with each other or someone else?
Watch how close they stand to each other.
Boleslavsky’s exercise teaches you to study human behaviour as well which can be a creative source.
Now you may be a visual artist so you could think of how to show that in photos or a film, or as a writer what is the story.
Write down some ideas for 15 mins, virtually send them love from your heart, and then leave it.
Do this at least once a week for four weeks or even try 3 times a week, daily is better, for at least a month. It will sharpen your eye and your creative brain, plus you will start to think about using one of the scenes as a new project.
I take this a step further and wherever I travel, especially if it is on a crowded train, I look at people and find one thing that is fantastic about them. They may look exhausted but they could have kind eyes or fabulous nails.

19) Morning journalling or ‘Morning Pages’ as Julia Cameron calls them. There is no wrong way to do them., it is basically get 3 sheets of A4 paper and just write, by hand, no typing, dumping your thoughts first thing from the ‘I hate my’ to ‘I wish’ to ‘I wonder’ or ‘I could’.
Just say you will do them for a month every day.
It takes about 15 minutes maximum and before you get into the day. I personally then throw them away immediately – if I have written some ideas that I need to follow up, I just add those as singular sticky notes, but get rid of the junk. I never re-read mine.
I am the queen of sticky notes, in fact I may yet design a dress of sticky notes with a mini white board as a hat. Very drag race or Project Runway.

20) Become Your Own Cheerleader.
You need to really appreciate how fabulous you are and that you are doing the best you can.
One part L That exercise where you think every night, before you go to sleep, of three things you are grateful for that day. It works.
Or do it first thing in the morning asking ‘What was great about yesterday? What did I achieve yesterday? What three things am I grateful for right now?
And then What am I going to do today that is fabulous for moving my life forward’
Sometimes when I am doing my Singing Psychic show I feel called to say to someone as part of the ‘four-tune’ telling to look at themselves naked in the morning and pick one thing about your body you love, from your biceps to your heart. .. And pick another part the next day. For 30 days.

Just remember the world needs your fierce. It needs your art, your view,
Marianne Williamson’s quote ‘ we all have a light within us’ but it is our responsibility to polish that light, get out there and shine.
Knowing you are fighting through makes you mentally stronger.
I chant as it makes me go after bigger waves to ride in this life.


Seeing the incredible human you are., taking full responsibility for your life and taking a step forward every day are the magic three pillars to make your life and your art shine.

Roundup
Impressing yourself by getting through hard times and thriving. Hope is vital and it will give you strength to keep going through the mud. That is how you end up with an extraordinary life, by keep on fighting forward.

I am creating a toolkit with all 20 exercises in with further questions to really move you forward and giving it as a gift to everyone for the next two months – til November 18th 2020- to help you move your creative projects forward and get you loving your creativity again. If you would like a copy of this then either email me with the subject TOOLKIT to
info@loveyourcreativity.com
Or go to www.loveyourcreativity.com and pop your email into the pop up and you will get the toolkit and checklist questions. I am getting this set up currently so any issues just email me

Aims of this podcast
I sometimes only seem to create when I have to create, under pressure or deadlines and then I moan about the rush. Ridiculous when I think about the fact I have chosen this creative life, or it has chosen me and I must follow my muse – often grumpily it seems! Hence this podcast is about what techniques we can all use to get the work done and out there, no matter what.