How is your early year perspective as a creative leader? Did you start fresh, filled with excitement, like a genuine Idea Magnet? Or are you combating hold-over struggles from last year that hide the creative leader that you know is inside you?
11 Ways to Recharge the Creative Leader Inside You
If you are struggling with:
- Narrowness, work to envision broader possibilities.
- Immediately saying no to creative ideas, stop trying to blurt out all the ways ideas might not work.
- Fear of the unknown, refuse to stand pat and protect things from change that don't need protecting.
- Holding onto the familiar, start challenging everyone who tells you to not try new things.
- Panic over potentially negative unknowns, anticipate the downsides so that you can address them early and on your own terms.
- People praising you, give up on your belief that people who think you're creative just haven’t realized that you are an imposter.
- Reluctance to create something that's not perfect, surrender your perception that everyone will notice every imperfection.
- Celebrating wins, being every project by stating how you'll party when it's done - no matter the results.
- With self-doubt, relax in the knowledge that you don't even know all the handles that you might want to have a handle on.
- Apprehension, realize that nobody understands your limitations.
- Never being enough, revel in incompleteness and extra free time when you quit trying to be everything.
I wrote this several weeks ago. I think I was feeling all of these to varying degrees. Things are better, thankfully, but these feelings are prone to hanging around..
What’s the answer to getting past them and getting back to being a creative leader for yourself and others?
Maybe it’s time. Maybe it’s distance. Maybe it’s a new path. Maybe it’s something unimaginable. Whatever it is, give yourself enough room to breathe, pray, and start something, confident in your ability to figure out whatever you need as you go.
One other thing you can do right away? Grab a copy of Idea Magnets - 7 Strategies for Cultivating & Attracting Creative Business Leaders. Mark it up with the strategies you'll want to return to in the future for inspiration, ideas, and the recharges we all know we'll need. – Mike Brown
