12 Radical Ideas to Inspire Courage in Creative Projects

A Playbook for Starting Again

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Dear friends,

I am starting a new project.

I want to share it with you from start to finish.

In the modern world, we often present ourselves as “experts”.

However, starting a new project means returning to the very basics of creation.

Yes, you accrue knowledge, skill and experience from what you’ve done before.

But here’s the thing.

To do great work - or at least something fresh - you have to throw it all out.

We hold on to our CVs, expertise, and achievements like shipwreck survivors do driftwood.

Yet this is the creation game, not the replication game.

It’s time to let go of existential footholds.

Who is to say you’ve reached the threshold of your potential?

Who is to say there isn’t a kaleidoscopic reinvention before you?

"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. Vincent Van Gogh

We are bound by limiting beliefs.

But the hardest ones we chain ourselves to.

In the Lord of the Rings, Elrond hands Aragon the sword and says: put down the ranger and become who you were born to be.

Yet, to do so, he must enter the cave.

That incomprehensible darkness where he must face everything within and without.

What if your transformation requires letting go of both your “successes” and your “failures”?

Our successes lock us into a version of ourselves we’ve travelled through.

Our failures bind us to the idea that our future must be forever determined by our past.

"Let go, or be dragged." – Zen Proverb

We get stuck in what we’ve been.

And in what we believe we will never be.

It’s time to let it go.

Before the journey of creation, all roads are open.

Do you have the courage to walk into it with new faith?

These are the questions I ask myself as I return to the start.

I am not holding onto what I’ve done or who I have become.

These are not fixed things.

That is the joy, the freedom and the terror.

And so, before the future…

Strip naked.

Shatter the compass.

Walk into the forest at the darkest point.

Where no one has yet been.

"The only way to deal with fear is to understand that every attachment to the past is a postponement of your inner growth." – Osho.

For me personally, the strangest thing has happened.

At the point I thought my life over, it began.

I thought “The Isolation Diaries” would be my last creative chapter.

Where I exchanged “doing” for “being”.

Instead, it brought me to creativity’s door.

And so, our end becomes our beginning.

This year, I am unsure of where I’m going.

But I find my joy and meaning in the exchange I have with my supporters and the creatives I’m lucky enough to encounter.

This year, I will share my new project from the start.

It puts butterflies in my stomach. Because it means having the courage to share the process, not just the results.

The reason I want to do this is because I want to glean out every lesson I learn and share it.

Because it’s in that exchange, I find meaning.

Below is a breakdown of the ideas, tips, and strategies that are helping me as I start again.

And a playlist of music opening up my spirit.

I hope they inspire you, too.

See you next Saturday,

Jim

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12 Radical Ideas to Inspire Courage in Creative Projects

1.§.

Resistance is an Ally

We resist resistance.

Instead, understand it is part of the process.