Success is never guaranteed. There are so many factors at play for our efforts to start to gain traction and birth momentum. Success, especially in creative matters, is not given, it is earned There is however an equation that can help position us for our best chance to succeed:

Vision + Ideation + Vulnerability +  Hustle + Perseverance = the launching pad.

• Vision – We have to have it. It may not always be ours, but we have to have vision. Without a clear vision of the why and the inspiration that vision brings there is no reason to get out of bed and try to make anything happen. Vision also breeds excitement and passion, two necessary ingredients for creating owners not renters of our initiative.
• Ideation – Develop the ideas that will propel the vision. Ideas are vehicles that make vision move.
• Vulnerability – It takes a healthy dose of vulnerability to share our ideas. Further, when we have vulnerability as part of our equation it creates space for authenticity to exist. Authenticity develops trust and in order to do anything of substance we have to trust the tools, people, and vision around us.
• Hustle – It takes a lot of work to be successful. Don’t buy the lie that overnight successes are just that…overnight. There is a lot of blood, sweat, tears, sacrifice, pain, joy, and emotion in every successful entity. Work, and creative work at that, is not sexy, rarely admired, and often detested. But, if you want success you have to be willing to do the things no one else will do. You have to care more about your project than anyone else. The minute someone else cares more than you do…you are sunk.
• Perseverance – Some days are great don’t get too high. Some days are awful don’t dip to low. Persevere. Stay on task. Don’t get distracted. Follow the plan, work the plan, stay on vision…the methodic march is more effective than sprinting for a day and being forced to rest for two. When we understand that we are running a marathon not a sprint we understand pacing and the need to respond to issues rather than reacting to them.

Then there is luck. Some people believe in it and some don’t but anything successful has to have the right environment around it. Time, market, team, audience, and a host of other “stars” have to align. Hopefully when they do, and they will for your entity, you have worked your equation and are ready to chase the momentum that they can create…the sail towards success.

At the end of the day, we need you to be successful. Its not a want…it’s a need. Are you ready?

There is nothing wrong with a 9-5 job. It is more than admirable. In fact, a lot of people dream of the day we can show up at 9 go home at 5 and not think about our jobs when we are on the beach, in the car, or playing with our kids.

But oh creative culture…you have ruined us. Because of our attachment to our art, and our inability to cut the tether from our creative core, we think, dream, process, and obsess about how our ideas will impact our jobs. For some it is a gift. For others, our creativity is a curse. But why? Why can’t the creative job not be completed during our “shift”?

• We are not in a setting that inspires us to think creative.
• When we are at work we have too much to do and not enough space to be creative, unless we plan and make that time.
• We get interrupted. (twitter, people, emails, ping-pong, meetings, lunch, responsibilities)
• We are afraid we won’t appear to be working when we do what it takes to process creatively.
• There is not a premium on ideas but a premium on execution. (Both are necessary)
• The routine of work bores us and depletes creative energy.
• Our environments are not conducive for creativity.
• Teammates, co-workers, bosses or employees cause us to be afraid of sharing that idea that might just change everything.
• We feel we will be rejected.
• We don’t feel enough ownership to be vulnerable.
• We have been told no before, so we feel we no longer are responsible for dreaming. (This could not be more wrong. As artists we are responsible to the idea and the inspiration, now how it is accepted or rejected)
• No one asks us, so we don’t assert our creative energy. Which causes us to rob ourselves and to rob others of the chance to collaborate on something amazing.
• We are frustrated.
• Our pace is too frantic.
• We are comfortable and stretching would mean getting out of that comfort zone.
• What if our idea is accepted…what would that mean. No thanks!
• We don’t feel valued enough to share our best ideas.
• We have gotten bored, and are so bored we have not realized it yet.
• We have to many priorities and not enough delegation.

Being creative is an honor. It is not always comfortable. It has requirements and responsibilities associated with it that at times can be an inconvenience. We need you to be your creative best and to share that with the rest of us. Are you ready? It may be uncomfortable, it may cost you, but it could also change….everything!

What would you add to this list? But more importantly, what are you going to do today to be a creative monster?

It is not easy to stay creative. We get busy. We have responsibilities. Life gets fast and intense. We want to create our best stuff, all the time, but it is not easy. Sometimes we need a little jump-start. Other times, we need to intentionally create just to stay fresh. Here are a few FREE ways to keep you creative:

• Stay alert – Look for creative inspiration. Look for things that spark an idea or your imagination. They may be anywhere. When we stay alert we identify the hidden nuggets of creative inspiration in the world around us.
• Write something down – Daily. Write down an idea or a thought, maybe a picture. Write it down and save it. If we don’t write ideas down we risk losing them. Are you willing to lose a unicorn if you could capture one?
• Take a picture – Every day. Take a picture of something. Taking pictures forces us to frame our world. It forces us to look at one area not the entire panoramic. Taking pictures gives us a lesson in composition of the world around us.
• Have a conversation – Talk to someone who agrees with you, someone who will disagree. Someone who challenges you and someone you can encourage. Conversations build community and community builds great art.
• Change positions – Find a different place or angle to work. New canvases create new opportunities for ideas.
• Get alone – Sometimes we have to get alone. Block out the noise and the distractions. Turn off email and twitter. Avoid Instagram. Find the screaming ideas that are hiding in the silence.
• Listen to something new/ different – Music we love can inspire us but so can music we don’t know. Change the soundtrack and adapt it to the mood you are in or the mood you need to get into.
• Don’t settle – Look at art you have created and find adjustments. What can you make better?
• Don’t quit – Ever. It is the only thing that will keep you from being your creative best. Quitting is the end goal of the resistance…don’t fall victim. Failure and setbacks can make you better. Tomorrow is only a day away…unless you quit.

What are some things you do to stay creative?

Creativity is not a department.

Creativity is an action.

Creativity solves problems, serves others, innovates, and dreams up new ideas.

The lie we start to believe is that creativity is a department that does creative “things.” In my experience, great creative teams have three functions that co-exist.

• They’re a service department – serving the ministries and departments inside of our organization. Service departments facilitate the needs of others. They make sure that those departments get the tools they need, that the tools exceed their expectations, and that the tools facilitate the goals of the department. Service departments also consult and advise best practices for projects and initiatives.
• Innovate. There is a different lens we use when we think about dreaming and innovating rather than being “creative”. Innovation is the process of making things better. Innovation creates change.
• Dream. This is fun, but the least measurable responsibility of a creative team. This is where we identify the canvas and develop things that have not been done, seen, or felt before. There is a deceptive layer to this function – the layer of replication. Creating in the dream phase is not warming up old ideas. Real dreaming takes places when we come up with the new “new” for our organizations. Beyond this point, it’s our job to dream. No one is going to dream for us. Even if our dreams never see the light of day, get shot down, or can’t find traction, that doesn’t give us permission us to stop dreaming. Our dreams might just be the unique voice that changes everything for our organizations, but we’ll never know if we quit dreaming and sharing those dreams.

Creativity is something that we expect from people on our teams, not a department. Avoid the trap of acting like change is happening and confusing that with ACTUAL change happening. Work hard to serve, innovate, and dream, but also know when each of these functions is necessary.

What other functions does your team execute?

In February, I ran across a great post from my new friend Andrew Zahn entitled “The 10 Commandments of Creativity.” It was so inspirational that I reposted the commandments with a little commentary.

It was fun to learn that Andrew is an actor, blogger, speaker, and candy lover. Well, now he’s also an author! On September 15, his new ebook “The 10 Commandments of Creativity” will be released!  When he asked me to review the book, I was honored.

I loved how Andrew started the book. He set the expectation that it would be “simple, short, and powerful”…and he was so right. Andrew takes each commandment and expounds on them with practical application. He provides great ideas on how to leverage these concepts to make us better at navigating life as a creative being.

If the concept of that idea alone does not excite you, look at these commandments. I know you will connect with them:

• Give Space, time, and energy to your creativity. If you don’t, your space, time, and energy will go to things you don’t value.
• Creating is an act of worship. Not creating is self-centered and selfish.
• Share gifts. Your creativity is a gift given to you.
• Date your artist. Most of your best ideas come unexpectedly.
• Don’t be an expert. The minute you believe you’re an expert, you stop learning from others.
• Celebrate others. Jealousy is the death of creativity.
• Don’t give up.
• Now. Later rarely happens.
• Create from your core. Authenticity breeds beauty.
• Want what you already have. Utilize your current resources.

If you are anything like me, these headlines make you want to be better.

These lessons are so important to the growth of a creative professional.

Check out this link. Andrew’s book is not expensive, but it’s impact is priceless if you start to practice these principles.

What is one commandment you have as a creative that you would add to this list?

“Practice is the hardest part of learning, and training is the essence of transformation.” ― Ann Voskamp

Practice is not easy. Training is hard. Both of these places, however, are where we work out the kinks and quirks of our talent. Practice and training allows us to refine and develop our skills when opportunity knocks. See, creativity is a muscle – and when we don’t exercise our muscles, they can’t grow. Practicing and training our creativity is not important, it’s necessary if we plan on growing and getting better.

• Remember the importance of practice. – If we don’t place a value on practicing creativity, our lives will not allow us the space to practice. Today we might get asked what we’ve done or what we’re doing to make things better; how we’re being productive or what meetings we’re attending. But no one is going to check in on us and ask us what we’ve created today. Plan on practicing and make it part of the schedule.
• What we reward, we reinforce – If we want to have good practice habits in our teams, we have to reward the healthy practice habits and correct what we’re not doing to help us get better. Unwanted actions should not be reinforced. Take the time to coach through these moments so practicing makes us better. When we reward practicing habits, it makes the process of practicing enjoyable. The goal of practicing is to make us better, not angry.
• Start with the accessible – Practicing reinforces the fundamentals. Start with the small things – the things that are fundamental to our creative process – and practice them. When we start with the accessible, it prepares us for the difficult.
• Set goals – Having goals helps us quantify what we are practicing. When we have goals, it helps us measure if we’re getting better or regressing creatively.
• Alter environments – Change something. Place, time, mood, sound, lighting, rooms…changing our environment when we practice creative exercises helps us get better and be more inspired. Don’t underestimate the major impact this tiny step makes.
• Watch the clock – Practice intentionally at a certain time and, initially, for a certain duration. Watching the clock help us to make sure we are practicing often and long enough.
• Stay coachable and coach others – Trainers help people practice the right things and the correct form. When we stay coachable, we leave ourselves open to the opportunity of growth. Along the way, we’ll bump into other artists who can benefit from the experience we’ve had. Be willing to share – and share freely. It makes us better, makes them better, and makes art better.

What do you do to intentionally practice to improve your skills?

Photo Props:

“Something is always born of excess: great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.” - Anais Nin

We all have excess of something in our lives. Be it stress or peace, work or time, joy or misery, frustration or momentum…we all live in some type of excess.

Are we leveraging it to create art or allowing it to zap us from being our creative best?

Contrary to popular opinion we have the choice…choose wisely.

Leading our teams can be difficult.

As creative teams develop, especially when our teams include volunteers, there are a few things that we have to remember. It is as important for us to LEAD as it is to CREATE. The funny thing is, we are artists to and we still have to find ways to connect with our art.

Honestly, at times, life gets so busy that I go days without creating or touching anything really creative and I slip into management mode rather than creative leadership mode. Here are a few things I try to remember in these times:

• Seek Wisdom & Insight- Pray for it, ask questions, quiz people, study…while we feel we may not have the time to do this, if we don’t we wont be able to create.
• Intentionally create pockets to be creative and not to be a manager. Without these we will be more focused on decisions and meetings than we will be with art and moving our organizations forward.
• Don’t make promises for someone else – Only make promises based on what you can control. One of the most powerful ways to thin our attention is to have to cover promises we made for others. Managing expectations is vital because it forces honest conversations.
• Lead with vision – Lead with a vision to where we are going, not just where we are today.
• Explain the how and the why. How we will do this and why we need to do this.
• Delegate – Bottlenecks thin attention quickly. Diversity enhances creativity.
• Pick The Team – Surround yourself with high capacity people who carry the vision. When we see vision link address it immediately.
• Remain Skeptical Put Positive – Being skeptical, without being negative, is a trait that forces us into reality while living in a creative world.
• Encourage others. Encouraging forces us to refocus on positives and find things that are working.
• Remember we set the pace & the tone – Our teams watch us. We are setting the pace and we are also setting the tone. How we manage our emotions matters.
• Fight for what matters. – And let the stuff that does not matter go. It’s not worth it.
• Control What You Can Control – When we worry about stuff that is outside of our control it only breeds frustration.
• Find solutions not just problems.
• Find a system that works then use it – Systems can help us carry the heavy lifting.
• Embrace failure. The feeling of failure sucks, but if we fail by being audacious it is worth failing to get things right.
• Always be looking for a new or better way. Fall in love with the message not the method.
• Protect your team but be honest with them even if it hurts.

I am tired of not creating our best art because of pace and system. We can do better. Personally, I am committing to it…how about you?

There are so many more important aspects of leading creative people, but these are a few we are working on right now…what are some of yours?

Photo Props:

John Wooden, the hall of fame basketball coach, once said: “If I am through learning, I am through.” Some of our most important creative lessons live right in front of us but we’re often too busy to pay attention. These lessons help us continue to grow. If we’re not growing, we’re shrinking – there’s no neutral. So what does this look like?

• 1. Stay in a posture of learning. If we’re not adding information, data, and “new” to our toolboxes, we’ll get stale and our creative energy will evaporate. Without new lessons, exposure, and experiences, we will only be able to stretch to the level at which we’ve already learned and experienced. We will become recyclers, not creators. We have a chance to change the world, but the world can only be changed by the amount of knowledge we mix with our creative muscle. Innovation lives in that tension. When we stop learning, we stunt our creative growth.
• 2. Work for greatness. Greatness and perfection are different. Strive, sacrifice, and battle for the greatest art that can be created. Understand that we don’t live in a perfect world and that excuses get in our way. Greatness – our best – is not only attainable, it’s necessary. Sometimes the factors around our art, the forces at play, and the imperfections impact the ways we create and actually make our art better and more human. We are all broken people full of imperfections. Why would we expect our art to be any less beautiful than our broken best?
• 3. Find community. It is important to be in relationships with people who you are developing and with people who are developing you. Without community, we never will have a chance to collaborate and create outside of ourselves. Community makes creativity better and confronts the insecurities that surround our art and ideas. Creativity in community makes us better artists and positions our art to have more reach, influence, and completion.
• 4. Be humble. Be bold. We should always be humble and teachable. Our best art tends to be bigger than who we are. We should be confident in the gifts we have and the creative muscle we have developed. When presenting and sharing ideas, we should be bold – but only mixed with equal part humility. There is an equation about talent that goes like this: people will put up with a jerk who has talent only as long as their talent is greater than the amount of trouble they cause. Without humility, the scales will tilt and our talent isn’t enough to carry us. People like to work with people who are confident, but more so with people who they like. Be bold in what you can do and humble enough to realize there is always someone better.
• 5. Date Your Artist. Get time alone. Do things that refuel you creatively. Make sure you are managing yourself creatively as much as possible. Creativity is a muscle, not magic. There are times to exercise and times to rest. Do the things necessary to be your creative best. If you don’t take care of your inner artist, who will?
• 6. Pick Your Spots. Pay attention. Know when to take risks and when you shouldn’t leverage equity. Experimentation is a good idea some times, but there are other moments when those same experiments can destroy the greater good you’re working for. When we pick our spots, we take into account all the necessary data to create momentum and energy around our ideas. Take risks…just learn to take them at the right times.
• 7. Stay flexible. Change is our only constant. Being flexible allows us to adapt to changing ideas, climates, markets, and organizations. Flexibility can be hard for us because we fall in love with our ideas. We must remember that our message is always more important than our method. Flexibility helps us deliver our best based on the latest information.
• 8. Don’t settle. We know what good looks like and what great feels like. Work for the great. Don’t be satisfied. Learning to get better with each project makes us better artists. Without challenges, we won’t continue to grow. Seek challenges. Look for them everywhere. Fabricate them, if necessary. Challenges keep us from settling.

Are you growing or shrinking creatively?

in•sane |inˈsān|
Adjective
- In a state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior, or social interaction;

Creativity lives where normal ends. We don’t need normal, we need you and your insane ways. We need the chance to do something that’s never been done. We need the courage to be insane enough to actually try to make a difference.

• Insanity breaks norms.
• Insanity challenges the status quo.
• Insanity puts protocol in checkmate.
• Insanity is remembered and repeated (or at least attempted to be copied).
• Insanity asks questions that scare us and refuses to not do something about them.
• Insanity succeeds and fails but never quits.

Are you willing to be insane today?
What are you going to attempt today that is insane?

I’ll go first. I am going to work with our team to attempt to develop a website that I am not sure has been done before…now it’s your turn.